Last Easter Sunday

[n2mark]

my daughter and I went toward the mountains for a drive. I was amazed with the many new churches erected. The churches were not the Catholic, Lutheran, Baptists or the other churches we are grew up to recognize and accept, they were churches (I'm sure Evangenical because of their name), the Church of God, the Church of Love, the Church of the Living, on and on. These churches (and I went down to the same road for miles) were erected like Circle K's. This really bothered me! When I arrived home Sunday night I really had the belief the RW wants only one church/religion accepted and it scarred me. I may often disagree with my church, but I don't want to give it up. I may not attend church every Sunday, but do not take my church away from me, I'll decide if I would rather attend another church. This made me ill. Let me add, these new churches were all built quite similiar.

On an off note, I 've been noticing more religious stuff on TV and Radio.

Is it me, or are others finding the samething?

[Merope215]

1. Yep, I'm from Georgia

and we've got pleasantly bland-sounding generic churchs with names like that popping up on every empty plot they can find. I definitely think the general "mood" is becoming more identified with religiosity, and public religiosity at that. Sometimes it seems like we'll have to wait another generation for the pendulum to swing back in the other direction. I hope it won't take that long.

[Deja Q]

2. Saw news blurbs on the net today. More rubbish about 'faith' and such.

The re-indoctrination begins.

[n2mark]

3. We drove into new areas and areas that need help.

This is still bothering me. What was scarry, I could visualize the christian stations everytime I looked at the church. Seems to me they are reaching into unpopulated areas, but areas where people probably are living on government subsidies. I didn't see the change of churches in the so called middle american neighborhoods, but the more needy areas. Guess, God will take care of your needs. Actually, they are brainwashing the needy.


I keep reading and hearing about the RW's want one united church, they want to get rid of all the churches and have one church. I can see it happening, thank you God, I am over 60. Honestly, I cannot sleep nights as I worry for my children and their future.

[Merope215]

4. Well, I don't know about that

It seems to me like everyone would be fighting too much over whether it was their own church or not. I feel like the infighting would doom that kind of plan. Then again, I don't know that much about it. Do you have any links I could check out? (Not trying to be snarky, just curious, as I haven't heard of that kind of thing. Then again, it wouldn't really surprise me much.)

It seems unlikely that they would try to have one church, but they do quite enough damage with all the little ones they've already got, IMO.

[Cleita]

5. I have three of them within a few miles of my house

and this is a rural area on the Left Coast. They are mega auditoriums with vast parking lots. Last Easter Sunday I drove by one of them and they were shuttling people around on golf carts. The traffic was so bad I thought I was back in LA.

[n2mark]

6. I could not believe when driving

100 miles out of my city and these fundie so called churches appearing like Circle K's. This bothers me,don't know about you.

[Cleita]

7. It bothers me a lot and I'm wondering why

they are so popular? I live in an affluent area (lots of poor too, who work for them) so I wonder if they are taking the place of the country club, the chamber of commerce and the other traditional entities that businesses network by. When my husband died I was invited by the bank guy to attend his church. It turns out it was the biggest monolith in the area.

[AWorkerBee]

8. I live in the East

Plenty of churches empty.

Why don't they "refurbish" them

They are, perhaps, looking for sheep, in areas where they can prey on the poor and hopeless.

Kindalike the banks...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. I have long suspected that these churches are being financed

under the table by right-wing interests. One DUer (whose name I forget) is the son of an Assembly of God minister, and according to him, Republican operatives have infiltrated that denomination and are taking over.

As the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, I have some idea of the normal process for starting a new church in a newly developed area. You start by renting space in a community center or a storefront and gradually recruit new members. After a few years, you have enough members to finance building a small church. If you're lucky, the congregation grows, and you need more space, but not for several years and maybe never.

I've never seen a mainstream church spring up fully formed with massive buildings and parking lots overnight like that.

By the way, most (not all) of those suburban "non-denominational" churches are either Assembly of God or Southern Baptist, but since both denominations have a low-class reputation among the types who move to affluent suburbs, they tend to go for names like The Church of the Open Bible or Sunny Acres Community Church.

[saltpoint]

10. I think Lydia Leftcoast's idea is worth a good look & should --

-- be investigated.

I share her suspicions on the financing and I think the money trail would lead us to certain people's offices -- like maybe Ralph Reed's when he worked for ENRON and maybe even to Karl Rove's business buddies.

[Yupster]

11. Who's taking your church

away from you?