this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2024
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Summary

Churches across the U.S. are grappling with dwindling attendance and financial instability, forcing many to close or sell properties.

The Diocese of Buffalo has shut down 100 parishes since the 2000s and plans to close 70 more. Nationwide, church membership has dropped from 80% in the 1940s to 45% today.

Some churches repurpose their land to survive, like Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, which is building affordable housing.

Others, like Calcium Church in New York, make cutbacks to stay open. Leaders warn of the long-term risks of declining community and support for churches.

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[–] hydrashok@sh.itjust.works 267 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] BroBot9000@lemmy.world 168 points 7 months ago (12 children)

Great news! Maybe we can finally tax these cults as well.

[–] ryan213@lemmy.ca 67 points 7 months ago

Taxing them would force more closures. Do it.

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[–] esc27@lemmy.world 115 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

Boardroom meme:

Boss: Church attendance is down. What can we do to turn this around?

Person 1: discreetly move pedophile pastors around to hide their proclivities?

Person 2: assure the congregation that we still hate gay people

Person 3: follow the teachings of Christ and show love and charity to our neighbors regardless of who they are

Person 3 is thrown out the stained glass window.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 15 points 7 months ago

shocked Pikachu face

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Person 2: Why don't we literally do what Saudi Arabia / Iran does but Christian

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[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 87 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Pit of vipers closes due to insufficient snakebite volunteers.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 64 points 7 months ago (4 children)

churches are closing

Good

Leaders warn of the risks

The risks of what? The risk of not returning to the dark ages where we damn near all believed the imaginary writings of goat herders and killed for that?

Thanks, no thanks, I love that risk.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 27 points 7 months ago (7 children)

I think the risk more is the bad theology and idol worship that American Christianity is becoming. It’s sorta like how almost all mega churches are “non denominational.” There’s not a commitment to an actual ideology or set of religious beliefs, it’s become a strange cult fixated on Trump. It’s more dangerous in some ways because it’s less predictable. Being a “Christian” has nothing to do with believing that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, it’s more a conservative White identity status.

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[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 16 points 7 months ago (3 children)

The risk is that all the mindless drones and zealots that they have actively created over hundreds of years are now off somewhere else doing the same shitty things they were doing before but for someone else, potentially someone even worse than the church.

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[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 62 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

Some churches repurpose their land to survive, like Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, which is building affordable housing.

That's something more churches should do. They always preach about "helping the poor" but most don't give a fuck.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 21 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If every church took in two homeless people, there would be no homeless in America...

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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 60 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Government grifters and charlatan faith leaders have completely debased the idea of 'Christianity' over the past few decades to the point where most people associate Christianity as some joke religion that no one really takes seriously.

Personally, I see anyone who proclaims themselves as Christian as a liar, bigot, narcissist and someone lacking in empathy for others. Sure you can tell me about Jesus Christ but I associate anyone who claims him are just paying lip service to the religion and that they are just psychotic sociopaths who are only interested in power and money.

I don't mind Churches dying out because they've basically destroyed their own religion themselves.

Unfortunately, humans are a dumb species that rely heavily on wanting to believe in something so once this religion dies out another one will take its place and repeat the process. It's been happening for thousands of years so I don't think we'll stop that tradition any time soon.

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[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 50 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The small churches that are more likely to actually be charitable and are more likely to be inclusive will shut down. The bigot-run megachurches will be just fine.

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[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 45 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Crazy that it takes the church shitting down for them to actually follow gods message of giving to the poor.

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[–] Kalysta@lemm.ee 44 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And yet, somehow, they still make all the policy in this country.

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[–] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 42 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Interesting that they can't stay afloat financially, because they don't pay taxes.

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[–] GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 40 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I pray to God everyday that i can live long enough to witness the day humanity completely abandons religion. Inshallah🙏

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[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 38 points 7 months ago (5 children)

The internet is killing God but giving birth to a new age of conspiracy theorists.

So, not much has changed.

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[–] Antiproton@programming.dev 37 points 7 months ago

Oh no! So, anyway...

[–] Chessmasterrex@lemmy.world 36 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

From what it seems to me, the megachurches are doing okay. It's the more traditional denominations that are suffering. Overall religion might be on a decline, but certain sects are flourishing. One silver lining about some of the megachurches is that they're led by a strong personality and once they're gone, the whole organization putters out. They're more organized around an individual than a theology.

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 27 points 7 months ago

And some are forced to sell off the massive amount of prime real estate they were totally going to build churches on and not pay any taxes on the profits....

[–] nifty@lemmy.world 27 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

Mega churches are still going strong though. There definitely needs to be a way (other than taxes because separation of church and state is impt) to get churches to spend that money back in the community, but instead it just ends up enriching the owners and investors. If there was anything which needed an anti-corruption intervention.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Churches should be tax exempt only so far as they are demonstrably charitable. All other income should be taxed. The taxes should go to fund abortion and gender affirmation surgeries.

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[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

45% is considerably higher than I expected. I thought it would be closer to 10-15%.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 32 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Membership is not the same as attendance, and it's WAY less than the number of people giving financially.

I was a preacher at a 1200-member church that had weekly attendance around 150-200.

And based on the demographics of the area, we received less than 1% of the annual income for those who did attend regularly.

The thing about churches is that they don't require payment of any kind, and kind people will dedicate time and effort in a very loving way that is inefficient, when what we really need is cash.

My go-to example is the quilting ladies who spend 40 hours each on handmade quilts using expensive materials to give to the poor. It's extremely kind and their work is exquisite, but with the money spent making those quilts for 20 people, we could buy blankets, a couple weeks of food, and new clothing for 50 full families.

The thing about giving money, though, is that it feels impersonal to the person giving the gift. This is also why the poor should be taken care of through taxation. Taking care of people's basic needs shouldn't need to feel intimate and spiritual - it should be routine and boring.

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Goes hand in hand with a similar story I heard about a month ago regarding a shortage of pastors. Apparently it's so bad, quite a few have to lead sermons at multiple churches and many simply skip some weeks. Also less trained people taking up the role, whatever that means anyway.

Honestly, get ratio'd, cultists.

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[–] putainsdetoiles@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago

Good! Fuck 'em!

[–] alzjim@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago

Hallelujah!

[–] CatZoomies@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

“Nobody wants to church anymore!”

[–] robocall@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago (3 children)
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[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

No, don't close your damn doors, open them up to the homeless. Make these useless buildings good for something!

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[–] satans_methpipe@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago

I have a better idea. Seize the land and assets of the churches. They haven't contributed their fair share of taxes, so the land belongs to us.

Next seize the homes and bank accounts of the pastors and clergy and the holy rapists (or whatever they call themselves). Indict them in international courts for crimes against humanity. Offer them plea deals for them to work in their seized homes that are now converted to public housing.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

quite region dependent, in the rural south they're still pretty strong, in the rest of the country and in large cities, not so much

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[–] TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 16 points 7 months ago
[–] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 16 points 7 months ago (8 children)

while former houses of worship are being converted into bars, clubs

i want to see the pastors faces when their church gets turned into a full nude titty bar

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[–] OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

Psh. Until trump’s project’25 handlers make church attendance mandatory for citizenship.

[–] 800XL@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Now the religious companies that remain are all merging together or being bought out by larger religious companies. They change their names to some douchey name that sounds like a shitty christian rock band and franchise. Somehow they're still allowed to be non-profits despite being so much for-profit.

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[–] pigup@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago
[–] Etterra@discuss.online 15 points 7 months ago

Good riddance.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

At least there's some good news!!!

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