Summary
Churches across the U.S. are grappling with dwindling attendance and financial instability, forcing many to close or sell properties.
The Diocese of Buffalo has shut down 100 parishes since the 2000s and plans to close 70 more. Nationwide, church membership has dropped from 80% in the 1940s to 45% today.
Some churches repurpose their land to survive, like Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, which is building affordable housing.
Others, like Calcium Church in New York, make cutbacks to stay open. Leaders warn of the long-term risks of declining community and support for churches.
You are making an ass of yourself and being surprised when folks start getting snippy?
Id ask what ya expected to happen but expecting something implies you’ve thought about it, clearly you haven’t.
All I said was that the internet isn’t a communal space and that I could be a bot. We need real, in-person communal spaces.
The way you are treating me proves it. You wouldn’t talk like this to someone to their face.
Do you think the way you are talking to me right now is how you build community?
You are claiming that you cant build a community online, something most folks disagree with. Then you double, triple, and quadruple down and get surprised when folks get a bit pissy with you. You have had every opportunity to accept that people disagree with you on a baseline and could agree to disagree and bow out, rather than do that you claim folks are being mean to ya and play the fucken victim. Itd be funny if it wasnt pathetic.
Also yes I would talk to folks like this IRL, hell I may actually be worse since I wouldnt be trying to articulate over text. Ive outright told folks to kill themselves with a smile a mile wide. Believe it or not but I am being polite, I just aint a backbiting Southerner about it and will give my honest words on a matter.
Another brilliant take from someone on .ml
You’re obviously human. Not someone i would talk to in person, but still human.
You are making an ass of yourself and being surprised when folks start getting snippy?
Id ask what ya expected to happen but expecting something implies you’ve thought about it, clearly you haven’t.
You read these and tell me they’re the kinds of comments that build community.
You want to know why I don’t think internet communities work? Because people talk to each other like this, completely unprovoked. This is mean as shit. What the fuck??
And you think this is okay, because this is just how people are on the internet.
This doesn’t feel like community to me. This feels like bullying.
I don’t know why I comment on the internet. I just get my feelings hurt.
What part of “you’re obviously human” required you to lash out and swear?
You’re the only one here that’s arguing you cannot build a community, and also showing everyone exactly how not to act in a community.
The part where you said “Not someone i would talk to in person.” Is this how you think you build community? Telling people that they’re stupid, you don’t want to talk to them, and they’re an ass?
Why did you do that to me?
