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How did you draw that conclusion? I'm involved in leadership for a church that closed in-person services two Sundays ago. We were probably one week later than

How did you draw that conclusion? I'm involved in leadership for a church that closed in-person services two Sundays ago. We were probably one week later than most, but I can tell you that money did not enter the conversation at any point.

eropple 7y ago
Is your church a Joel Osteen-style megachurch? Because while I can ascribe a great deal of good-faith behavior to more normal churches, we know what kind of bad actors lurk in those palaces.
- Brendinooo 7y ago
  >Is your church a Joel Osteen-style megachurch? Nope. We're a small one. But just the fact that we're talking about megachurches already limits the scope of Christian churches in the US: five minute search session suggests that there are less than 2000 megachurches in the US and somewhere around 380000 churches overall.
  - eropple 7y ago
    Well, sure. Most churches in the country are, y'know, run by people who are trying to get by. But much like how profiteer companies should be called on the carpet, so should very-much-for-profit religious institutions that can't be assed to care about the well-being of their flock.
  - martinpw 7y ago
    That is not a very useful statistic. Since megachurches by definition have much larger congregations than regular ones, you should be comparing total attendance not number of churches.
    - Brendinooo 7y ago
      If you'd like to, go ahead! You'll find that most Christians in the United States do not attend megachurches. (If I had more time I'd try to get you numbers, but any time I go down this rabbit hole it takes awhile to come out)
      - martinpw 7y ago
        I believe you. I just think comparing church counts sounded like a way to downplay their significance as a potential source of spread. The other factor is that larger congregations means more opportunity for wider spread from a single infected individual, so again greater potential impact than the apparent count would imply.
  - ecpottinger 7y ago
    Wiki says a megachurch has a usual attendance of 2,000 people or more, so you are taking exposing up to 4 million people just to collect money. It will take only one infected person in a church to spread it to a lot of people. To me one of the scariest scene in the movie "Outbreak" was when the person sneezed in the theater.

eropple 7y ago

Is your church a Joel Osteen-style megachurch? Because while I can ascribe a great deal of good-faith behavior to more normal churches, we know what kind of bad actors lurk in those palaces.

Brendinooo 7y ago
>Is your church a Joel Osteen-style megachurch? Nope. We're a small one. But just the fact that we're talking about megachurches already limits the scope of Christian churches in the US: five minute search session suggests that there are less than 2000 megachurches in the US and somewhere around 380000 churches overall.
- eropple 7y ago
  Well, sure. Most churches in the country are, y'know, run by people who are trying to get by. But much like how profiteer companies should be called on the carpet, so should very-much-for-profit religious institutions that can't be assed to care about the well-being of their flock.
- martinpw 7y ago
  That is not a very useful statistic. Since megachurches by definition have much larger congregations than regular ones, you should be comparing total attendance not number of churches.
  - Brendinooo 7y ago
    If you'd like to, go ahead! You'll find that most Christians in the United States do not attend megachurches. (If I had more time I'd try to get you numbers, but any time I go down this rabbit hole it takes awhile to come out)
    - martinpw 7y ago
      I believe you. I just think comparing church counts sounded like a way to downplay their significance as a potential source of spread. The other factor is that larger congregations means more opportunity for wider spread from a single infected individual, so again greater potential impact than the apparent count would imply.
- ecpottinger 7y ago
  Wiki says a megachurch has a usual attendance of 2,000 people or more, so you are taking exposing up to 4 million people just to collect money. It will take only one infected person in a church to spread it to a lot of people. To me one of the scariest scene in the movie "Outbreak" was when the person sneezed in the theater.