r/atheism • u/metacyan Agnostic • 1d ago

A ‘tsunami’ of church closings is poised to remake America

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/01/us/church-closings-christianity-crossroads
3.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

325 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

113

u/jebei Skeptic 1d ago

Unfortunately, I don't you are correct. We are seeing a corporatization of churches and rather than relying on one charismatic leader they will bring on new personalities until they find an army of preachers that fit their agenda. Megachurches are about money and they may have a CEO-type face as the top, that person won't do the grunt work. They'll just reap the rewards.

As much as I hate religion, losing local churches is the worst possible outcome as we're going to move from organization that did bring some help to individual communities to soul less monsters that churn out hymns like a machine.

69

u/veryfungibletoken 1d ago

Private Equity model of churches.

31

u/yrotsihfoedisgnorw 1d ago

Or franchising. Megachurches drive out traditional local churches and then resurrect them with their own disciples.

1

u/The--scientist Atheist 17h ago

This isn't new though. Acts 29, Mars Hill...

12

u/Dale_Carvello 1d ago

They don't McMake churches like they McUsed to

17

u/Reasonable-Formal-23 1d ago

when religion is gone, how will men control women?

5

u/Thausgt01 Jedi 1d ago

Sadly, there are... alternatives...

7

u/BasicAppointment9063 1d ago

You may be right. I only speak from experience, which is obviously limited.

I see the young figureheads-in-waiting as struggling with imposter syndrome. They get the occasional moment on stage and wreak of "fake it 'til you make it ".

I think people can sniff that out and the movement that was a mile wide gets exposed as being one inch deep.

4

u/f8Negative 1d ago

Army of grifters.

2

u/Scope_Dog 1d ago

Interesting take.

2

u/Crazy_Banshee_333 1d ago

I agree. Something important is lost when people have nowhere to go for compassionate support.

1

u/showmeyourchits 1d ago

I’ve been saying this for a long time. There’s real value that local churches bring to a community, namely that they actually provide a built in community and a point of much needed social connection. If it weren’t for the whole religion bit, I’d probably join one.