Sign Of The Times: Churches Drying Up

We have at least one thing to thank the economy for: The churches and their schools are starting to dry up.

A number of churches and the religious schools they support are closing down all over the country, from what I have read in the news they are primarily Catholic organizations. The number of people attending services are dropping and thus the amount of money the local tax-exempt businesses.. er.. churches are making has gone down. With less money to operate they are having to consolidate or close down chapels making less money.. er.. having lower attendance; because it’s all about the faith folks, not the money..right.

In case you can’t tell, I am very enthused about this. The less money the Catholic church makes the less they can devote to spreading AIDS in Africa, moving around pedophile priests, and the various other crimes and intolerances that they commit and promote, respectively. I’m also happy about the possible reduction in the amount of proselytizing the church is able to do. Hopefully this trend extends to the rest of the planet and the non-Catholic churches as well.

However I can see a potential downside in the reduction of church funds. There are a number of outreach programs that the church runs, homeless shelters for example, and I don’t know if these have been or will be impacted by this downturn. I hope that at least other -more secular- organizations are able to come and fill up the gaps that may be left by the church because I know that if I were homeless I would prefer a free meal or place to sleep without a sermon.

Overall, a smaller and less profitable church is a good thing in my opinion.