anecdote: the church i went to as a minor billed itself as progressive, because the dress was casual and it courted younger people. i stopped attending by 20, as the community felt cliquish. they had a small bookstore inside the building open on sundays, and there were murmurs even then about how that didn’t seem right.
it kept getting bigger and bigger though. the church itself became a complex of buildings, each more elaborate. the bookstore started carrying merch, music from the “worship” team which itself grew more theatrical and elaborate, putting on shows.
i haven’t been there myself in 20+ years, but i know someone who did some non-profit work that attended some meetings there and their stories were nuts. the “bookstore” is now a huge retail space with its own starbucks. they have their own broadcast programming and are networked into other churches around the region. they employ hundreds of people, selected for dubious-political reasons in these do nothing jobs they call a ministry for funneling tax free tithes. people dress in the finest clothes and accoutrements while hemming and hawing over giving out $100 to some destitute mother with children, forcing her to attend services.
i couldn’t even watch The Righteous Gemstones because the context was too on the nose, though the show was pretty funny.
and, like i knew people from when i was in high school who stuck with the church when i left, burrowing further in to become insiders with paid leadership roles there.
within the last 5 years, two of the guys i knew from high school, both married fathers, went missing only to be later found dead by suicide about a year apart. the instition and media are very hush, hush about it and its hard to even find info that it happened outside of public records.
and those are just the ones i heard about because we went to the same high school at the same time and word got around.
it is not good.
anecdote: the church i went to as a minor billed itself as progressive, because the dress was casual and it courted younger people. i stopped attending by 20, as the community felt cliquish. they had a small bookstore inside the building open on sundays, and there were murmurs even then about how that didn’t seem right.
it kept getting bigger and bigger though. the church itself became a complex of buildings, each more elaborate. the bookstore started carrying merch, music from the “worship” team which itself grew more theatrical and elaborate, putting on shows.
i haven’t been there myself in 20+ years, but i know someone who did some non-profit work that attended some meetings there and their stories were nuts. the “bookstore” is now a huge retail space with its own starbucks. they have their own broadcast programming and are networked into other churches around the region. they employ hundreds of people, selected for dubious-political reasons in these do nothing jobs they call a ministry for funneling tax free tithes. people dress in the finest clothes and accoutrements while hemming and hawing over giving out $100 to some destitute mother with children, forcing her to attend services.
i couldn’t even watch The Righteous Gemstones because the context was too on the nose, though the show was pretty funny.
and, like i knew people from when i was in high school who stuck with the church when i left, burrowing further in to become insiders with paid leadership roles there.
within the last 5 years, two of the guys i knew from high school, both married fathers, went missing only to be later found dead by suicide about a year apart. the instition and media are very hush, hush about it and its hard to even find info that it happened outside of public records.
and those are just the ones i heard about because we went to the same high school at the same time and word got around.