Why So Many Churches in Small Town, USA?

Why are there so many churches in small town USA?  I mean, seriously....  It doesn’t make too much sense.  I suppose it does when you get down to normal human social interaction, but...I thought religion was supposed to bring humanity above such nonsense....

Its when you talk to people that you realize what exactly is going on.  People not liking a particular preacher because of something he said about somebody.  Or people not knowing why certain people go there because they are too poor or too rich to be in the same company as others.



Its truly silly when you sit down and listen to people.  Especially when they pull in the religious stuff.  “Oh I’m in this church because God has willed me to be.”  “Oh I left that church because God willed me to leave.”  Yeah, its pretty obvious there’s more to those stories.

When you dig deeper, you can tell people are more interested in gossip than anything else.  So and so did something that alienated them somehow, or the preacher kinda called them out on something.

Churches, a very long time ago, were beacons of the community.  A place for an entire community to come together, and worship as one.  They’ve definitely gotten away from that.  Fact is, churches are money making machines, and some people use them as such.  Others give back to the community, but those are getting fewer and further between.

Its repugnant and sad to see how some people get into a position in a church, then bleed the church dry.  Its horrible when members throw their weight around to get rid of other members instead of embracing the community at large, and helping people get past their little ‘problems’ that make others detest them so.

That is the true need of 6 to 8 churches in a town that contains less than 600 people.  Its truly sad when a town has more churches than businesses within the city limits.  Especially when so many are of the same denomination.  It shows how fractured we’ve become as a people, especially when there are Mosques in this land that allow Jewish worship on days that the Mosque is not used for Muslim ceremonies.  Think about that a moment and tell me that Christianity is the most tolerant of religions....

Every time I go walking around town, I’m saddened by how fractured the community is.  Churches everywhere, and so much gossip.  Why are communities everywhere in the US, especially small ones, becoming this way?  Why do people hate their neighbors so?  Hate breeds more hate.  The human race is becoming more and more anti-social, locking their doors and never going outside, never saying hi to their neighbors.  Most people I know are disgusted with their neighbors.  I know when I talk to anyone in town, all they want to talk about is how other people, their neighbors are doing so wrong.

Why do small towns need so many churches?  Because no one likes each other enough to be in the same building, no one believes their God could love their ‘filthy, disgusting’ neighbors.  I wonder if Jesus ever thought this would happen in his vision of the world?