Time for Church

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...a deceased local eccentric resident suspected of having been a radio-active alien who could be stimulated back to consciousness by such a device being activated?

[healey36]

In hindsight, looking at that photo, I almost wonder if it’s been “shopped”. The graphics look too sharp, and the town name is misspelled.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

In hindsight, looking at that photo, I almost wonder if it’s been “shopped”. The graphics look too sharp, and the town name is misspelled.

I'll see about a drive by....................

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[healey36]

Seeing these pictures, I'm reminded of all of our small rural churches that have fallen silent or been repurposed as the demographics of the church-going population changes. Churches and their associated properties (church halls, rectories, cemeteries, etc.) falling into disrepair and/or disappearing, much like our wooden barns and our truss bridges.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

What has been happening in that part of PA is that folks keep building bigger and bigger churches while letting these more historical sites to fade away or be demolished. Then I see that some of these bigger churches are no longer used as churches, but being turned into businesses (not that they weren't already, ). I guess that they built large and then people did not come.....

Not been over to Amberson in a long time.

[healey36]

A fair amount of consolidation here; numerous Methodist churches are combining to form a group in a single church. The dwindling membership just has to drive further. This area was a hotbed for Methodism thanks to Robert Strawbridge and his proselytizing back in the 1700s. Seems like Methodist congregations were, at one time, everywhere in this county. Still quite a few, but the numbers are declining.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[MurphOnMillerAve]

If I may inquire, here, Rufus and Healey, given your postings, above, of March 6, would you make the observation and/or conjecture that diminished participation (belief?) in religion(s) seems to have been manifesting more and more through the last several decades in the USA ?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

If I may inquire, here, Rufus and Healey, given your postings, above, of March 6, would you make the observation and/or conjecture that diminished participation (belief?) in religion(s) seems to have been manifesting more and more through the last several decades in the USA ?

Religion has for the past several decades acquired a distasteful connotation as being a (1) a money making scam (see: televangelists, etc.) and (2) associated with being used to justify and support almost anything other than what Christianity does stand for in any way e.g, racism, bigotry of all kinds, abuses of all kinds, and general hatefulness combined with grubbing for money. None of that is new. It's only recently become more evident and as a result people are no longer tolerant of being a part of organized religions. That does not mean that they are not religious. Organized religions has failed.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[healey36]

If I may inquire, here, Rufus and Healey, given your postings, above, of March 6, would you make the observation and/or conjecture that diminished participation (belief?) in religion(s) seems to have been manifesting more and more through the last several decades in the USA ?

I absolutely think that participation is in decline here in the US and other industrialized countries, and I lay that predominantly at the feet of (1) the sporadic moral failure and corruption seen in organized religion, and (2) the tug of modern society and the growing view that one doesn't need to subscribe monetarily to gain access to God.

I was born and raised Catholic, but it wasn't something I was ever able to "engage" in. I participated because my stepmother required it, and I viewed it as just one of many chores that I had. I and my siblings attended church every Sunday, then CCD afterwards, but I don't think any of us ever got anything out of it. I even attended a Catholic grade school for six years, an experience I would credit with having given me a good primary school education. Despite all of that, when I went away to college, church attendance ended.

The Old Man was a Christian Scientist, as were his parents. I have vague memories of him going to the local reading room on Sunday mornings, but I think he stopped when I was pretty young. Unlike the Catholic Church, which seemed to place more emphasis on the social/communal aspect of participation, the Christian Scientist faith seemed less social and more dependent on individual study. The central tenet, from what he told me, centers on the concept that all mental and physical health comes from careful study of the bible. I recall looking through some of the materials that he got from the reading room, thinking how terrifically complex they were. I often wondered how my grandparents, neither of whom had more than a fifth-grade education, could make sense of it.

I think my parents, all of whom grew up in the throes of the Great Depression, then the Second World War, came away with a notion of engagement and participation. They were church-goers, members of various fraternal orders, veterans organizations, social clubs, and voters. I think the scourge of social media has gone a long way toward disrupting all of that (even as I sit here typing this on social media, lol).

My 87 year-old stepmother, who still goes to Mass every Sunday, tells me that the church is filled with young people every Sunday, but I'm not buying it. There used to be seven or eight Catholic churches in this county three or four decades ago; today there are four. A drive through small towns around here reveals Protestant churches abandoned or repurposed, their memberships having fallen below sustainable levels. Then I look at my children (who received a solid religious education through the hard work of my wife), my nieces, nephews, and many of their peers, and I don't see a regular church- or synagogue-attending one of them in the lot. Given everything else in their complex lives, they too have not made it a priority.

I would never, however, say that there's no value in it.

[healey36]

That church still stands in Arendtsville, and it dominates the local skyline like a Gothic cathedral might in a medieval town. It's a great symbol of what church membership meant to folks a hundred years ago (and to some extent, what it means to them today).