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.
Good.
Great news! Maybe we can finally tax these cults as well.
As churches decline we’re losing what is, essentially, a free communal space. Church was a place where people built community.
We need to replace it with something, not just cheer because a shitty religion is dying.
We’ll replace it with more commercial real estate squatting.
See you in the Library.
The library isn’t community, you can’t even talk to people there. It’s a quiet place by its very nature.
And squatting? That’s better, but it’s ephemeral. You can’t get attached to your squat, the cops can come at any moment and then everyone has to bail and find a new squat. That’s not good enough.
So you’re saying we should have more boardgaming conventions?
I’m all in on that proposal.
Not conventions. A convention requires paying for a convention space, and that requires making attendees pay for admittance or getting sponsors to pay in their stead so they can sell products. That’s not community.
The power of churches is they are entirely free and not commodified. That’s what makes them communal. We’d need something like a communal boardgame hall, supported by donations that anyone can come to without needing to pay anything.
Where I live, the library serves this purpose. They even have advertised game nights for various age groups on weekly to monthly basis. Maybe reach out to your public library and see if they would host.
Missed you at the latest city council meeting. See you at the next one!
Unfortunately the internet is now the new 3rd space.
Religion advocated for bad policies in government which dug their own grave.
I don’t feel bad they’re closing down.
The internet isn’t a third place! Not only do you have to pay to access it, but more importantly, it isn’t a physical place. None of us are people here. We’re strings of characters on a screen behind pseudo-anonymous handles. You can’t help me, I can’t help you.
This is not community. It can’t be.
I think you’re a person. You should be more kind to yourself. That kind of talk never gets us anywhere.
Not on the internet. I’m a string of characters. I don’t have a face, I don’t have a voice, I don’t have a body, I am a handle and a comment tree. I cease to exist as soon as you aren’t paying attention to this comment chain. I could be a bot, you have no idea.
The internet can never be community. We are only human when we do human things. This digital space isn’t human at all.
I mean, why are you even here then? Exchanging information IS a human thing, and we’re (probably) all people behind the screens. I agree that physicality is a necessity for a 3rd space, but I disagree that it’s necessary for community.
To say that we can’t help people with our words strikes me as rather pessimistic.
Tell that to the numerous thriving online communities.
Sorry, Im pretty sure thats all were likely to get. The way things are going well be lucky to have public schools in 20 years, let alone a bunch of new publicly funded community spaces.
We need to replace it with something, not just cheer because a shitty religion is dying.
Why not both?
We aren’t doing both. That was my point?
That was my point?
If you’re not sure whether that’s your point, we’re not gonna be much help.
We need communal spaces that aren’t churches. That’s my point. I think I was pretty clear about that too.
They basically just repeated what I said, and so I was confused about what they think my point actually was.
We need a new religion that worships reality with clerics who are trained in humanities, epistemology, and combatting disinformation.
As much as I’m happy to see churches go, I agree with this. I used to go to church even as a non believer for this reason. Outreach into the community is much easier when backed by an organization that is trusted, and has resources at their disposal.
It’s not just religions drying up, it’s all of the old hierarchical social clubs. Their membership are aging and dying off, and they’re not doing anything to recruit Millennials or GenZ. The internet opened up vast opportunities for non-work social contact and relaxed the demand that people gather in one physical place at a fixed time with rules to minimize chaos.
I wish I could buy into the idea of church as a community; my mom very much saw it that way. However, church is inherently exclusive. It turns away people who refuse to conform to very specific beliefs. It’s hard for me to root for or even accept that as a communal space.
I want to see more YMCA and less church.
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.
most people associate Christianity as some joke religion
But, it started as an essenic cult. It’s not accidental that scient\ologists consider someone leaving the cult as a death, the same metaphoric resurrection if they return; you get how that’s similar, right? Your brother is executed instead of you, you have survivor guilt, you nope out of the cult, they call you dead, you reconsider over a few days, you’re back in - yay, it’s a resurrection!
Anyway, considering Christianity a bit of a scam or a sham isn’t strictly a new thing.
Hip Hip
Hooray
Safer for the kids
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.
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
Hi. Indiana here. Plenty of full church parking lots on Sundays in this shithole. Lots of Jesus billboards too.
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
depending on the church that could be a very interesting idea.
literally just walk into a full on church with the pews and altar and stained glass and strippers and communion shots
Amusingly enough, one of the ministers at my childhood church brewed his own beer - and this quality featured heavily in my church’s decision to invite him to preach at our congregation.
In the middle ages, it was the monasteries that kept the arts of beer brewing and wine making alive.
It’s not that far, but a couple of years ago, a Spirit Halloween took over an abandoned church at a town near here. I’m still mad I never took a picture.
A kink club
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…
Next up: Republicans trying to make church attendance mandatory.
They’re already turning schools into churches, so they’re probably not too upset over this.
Best news I’ve heard all day
If a church can’t be supported through its active membership, it should close. Better no church at all than one sold out to the world, making money from investments and forgetting their true purpose.
Ohhh. Now this tracks.
What are you talking about? What tracks?
thank god
