• FALGSConaut [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      10 months ago

      Off topic but the concept of mega churches is so foreign to me. Growing up all the churches my family went to were small enough to be on first name basis with most if not all of the congregation, pastor included. We even left one because my dad had beef with the pastor over the existence of hell and whether a benevolent god would allow the existence of hell (the pastor was pro-hell). Comparing that to literal stadiums full of people? I never got much out of church/religion but I can’t imagine having any kind of spiritual connection when you’re “worshiping” alongside 10s of thousands of people, the grand majority of which are complete strangers to you. What kind of community is even fostered there? I can’t imagine they’re able to have everyone hangout in the church basement after the sermon drinking coffee and shooting the shit

      • JamesConeZone [they/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        10 months ago

        Christianity as consumerism in its purest form the megachurch. Community? No one will ever know I was here. Conversations? I cannot hear you over this sick ass guitar solo during Days of Elijah. Social currency? Hell yeah, take these bumper stickers that act like those police union stickers.

        This is what I was imagining btw

        • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          10 months ago

          I too want to go to a giant communist gathering that fills a stadium or similar venue! But yea, American “Christianity” is so divorced from what I think of as Christianity it’s not even funny. Even what I thought was a twisted imitation in the church my sister’s family goes to is nothing compared to a proper megachurch (my sister’s church had a paid cafe in the lobby, my dad and I got to have some good jokes about WWJD and running them out of the Lords house)

      • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        10 months ago

        I grew up northeast catholic so those were basically the only churches I knew. When i was maybe 9 or 10 some family member had a christening for their kid or something. So we drove our asses out to bumfuck PA and we get to their church and its like a walmart with a vaulted ceiling. we get in and i’m looking around and I see these huge screens, like 4 or 5 set up across the front where there was a massive stage that looked like it was for performances.

        Little me had absolutely zero theory, basically all my politics up to that point was captain planet, lil bush, and mind of mencia. I somehow still remember feeling really grossed out, thinking “this place doesn’t really feel all that Jesus-y to me, jesus doesn’t use televisions and stage lighting” I don’t even know if it could be considered a mega church but it felt like it really wanted to be one.

        • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          Yea, that kind of thing is the closest I’ve been to a mega church. My sister’s church (not sure on the exact flavour of protestant but not the anabaptism I was raised in) has the screens, Christian Rock Band™, and the knockoff Starbucks in the lobby that me and my dad clowned on (Jesus would have run them out with a whip…). If I even go somewhere in America with a megachurch I think I have to attend just to see first hand how the American Religion