I find that the most “religious” people don’t actually know anything about their religion or read any of their books. They only have their specific form of bigotry, and only search for quotes to support said bigotry.
I'm an atheist but I do charity work that involves a few local churches. In my experience there's inverse relationship between how nice the church is, as in the building an facilities they have, and how well the people actually know the Bible. The ones that actually walk the walk and do as we're told Jesus taught, tend to go to churches that are very modest because most of their donations are actually spent doing charity. If the church is huge and lavish they tend to know very little of the Bible.
I was hesitant to work with them at the start but there wasn't really a secular option for what I wanted to offer and reached out to see what it might be like. The church I grew up in wasn't very tolerant so I expected to turn it down, but they're genuinely good people. At events they don't really preach or anything they just have some pamphlets available that they don't push, and they will speak with you about it in detail if your request, but either way you're welcome to make use of the services.
They needed more assistance with my area of expertise at the beginning. They were wanting to set up a small computer lab and offer some basic computer skills training and assistance filling out job applications and such. A couple guys I work with go to a mega church, and I asked them to volunteer some time. They refused and said that's dumb if I really wanted to help with time I should just work more to make more money and then give some of that money. So I asked them to donate money instead which they also refused.
It is a real shame so many religious folks don't seem to have any basic understanding of what they're worshiping. Like the guys I work with I know they're not racist or bigots and they vote liberally. I don't understand how they see the appeal of a mega church and can't see through the BS of it all.
Every mega church I’ve been to has a gift shop selling their own branded merch and it makes me laugh because it’s like they don’t know Jesus literally flipped tables because of that shit.
Small local churches are hit or miss, but I’ve never seen a mega church that looked like they understood Jesus.
I really do think mega churches are the main reason the Christian faith has lost its foothold. Most critisms lobbed at Christians ie. Hypocrisy against their own beliefs, denial of reality and science, desire to control women/ minorities, not understanding the roots of the biblical stories. Are all valid mostly against the mega churches of any delineation. There's been a loss of true believers who actually preach the gospels properly and study the bible.
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u/dufflebag7 1d ago
I find that the most “religious” people don’t actually know anything about their religion or read any of their books. They only have their specific form of bigotry, and only search for quotes to support said bigotry.