I was interested in go to church tomorrow for the first time in over a decade - mostly due to a recent breakup, and fuck it, why not? Unfortunately all the churches near me are either mega church subchains, or would likely be spewing hatred due to the other lovely holiday happening tomorrow.
While I expected the latter, I’m disappointed by the former. I’m curious to hear anybody’s experiences finding or having faith while having a distaste for capitalism.
why not
It's a cult and a creepy experience if you're not wrapped up in the indoctrination of it all. If you don't join their club they'll act like they're so concerned for your non-existent "sOuL" until it's clear you aren't interested, and then the fake ass concern turns to scorn and disdain. They take delight in the idea of the people they don't like being tortured forever, and will brag about it while still pretending to care.
The Bible contains passages condoning murder, rape and slavery, yet can't seem to say "owning people is wrong", nevermind the countless examples of YHWH being a total fucking bastard to his own creations. For every "good" passage (that honestly, you don't need religion to understand) there's another passage either being used to spread bigotry, or it simply is just bigoted in of itself.
I could go on but I went through the whole song and dance for almost 20 years before I got out and it took me a long while to get out. I know all their tricks and how they think. You don't want any part of that.
Best bet is probably a Methodist church, they tend to be very queer friendly and generally left libs. They're easy to find. Community of Christ has a similar vibe but is much less widespread. If there's a Unitarian Universalist congregation they are usually extremely cool but only vaguely Christian connected and not that common. On the extremely off chance you have a left splinter Catholic church with a female priest nearby, probably nothing will be cooler than that. But I think there's like three of those.
Best bet is probably a Methodist church, they tend to be very queer friendly and generally left libs.
united methodists, yes, but not so much free methodists
Any United Church of Christ church is going to be rather good; they're far and away the most progressive out of all the "mainline" Trinitarian churches. Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches should be okay too, though it might depend on where you are.
It's pretty fortunate that my local church was built in and has been continually maintained since the 12th century. I have once driven past a mega-church when I was on occupied Turtle Island, and it just left a bad taste in my and mine's mouths — so I don't think this is necessarily just a capitalism thing, because mega-churches tend to be built in a very specific type of country, and Europe by and large ain't that type of location.
spewing hatred due to the other lovely holiday happening tomorrow.
April Fools' Day?
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/03/29/a-proclamation-on-transgender-day-of-visibility-2024/
Biden made (now today) a day of trans visibility.
I've been told to try Friends church (or Quaker, as they used to be known)
still haven't made the time for it and Easter is a little on the nose to show up for service out of the blue
Are they not still known as quakers? They've been the society of friends since the mid-1800s
I was under the impression "Quaker" is an outside pejorative that they've half-adopted.
It was apparently coined by a magistrate in the 1650s and has been used to refer to them ever since.
how did you get access to that picture of me and my wife
Death to America
in the first sentence you ask a question and then you answer your question in the next sentences
I was raised Presbyterian and it was alright, very stereotypical Protestant church deal. I remember always doing this charity called Heifer International. You picked animals from a catalog and the org donated them to improvised people. We did a bake sale and bought people a water buffalo and a couple oxen. Really heavy handed white savior charities.
Hated that shit tbh (the general church service, stuffy clothes and an hour of hymns/sermon). My partner put me on to quakers and tbh they’re pretty tight. I went for the first time today, it’s mostly a long moment of silence and then people share sorrows and joys. People are united in being anti war there and they have good politics and do activism for Palestine.
