Quote (thesnipa @ Jun 24 2021 10:59am)
non profits, heh.
sure, your typical 100 foot square country Methodist church with a small congregation pays a modest living wage to their pastor, upkeeps the grounds, and dumps any excess collections into food drives and other wonderful programs.
then there's your southern Baptist mega churches with stadium sized congregations that each have dozens of workers making solid 6 figure salaries and a pastor with a mansion, 10 luxury vehicles, and a private jet.
there's churches and there's churches.
My old lady's parents go to a Mega Church in Kentucky. I'm talking ***MEGA*** church. 9 different locations each considered it's own "campus" with separate associate pastors. Top 10 largest churches in the country.
I went to an Easter service and expected the worst..... boy was I not prepared.
The main campus its bigger than most private liberal colleges. The foyer has a permanent Starbucks inside with an attached café serving full breakfast/lunch menu. Weekly attendance is something absurd like 25000+ people in person and it's streamed across the world to countless viewers.
The actual auditorium is a spectacle....... Stadium seating holding up to 30000 i believe. A full sized jumbotron with all the additions that would make Jerry Jones proud. A full sized baptismal pool that's elevated and see through so they can do live baptisms (which i witnessed). Full Christ-rock band playing multiple songs. Full production team with cameras, boom mic's etc etc etc.
It was fucking incredible. Not once did I think about religion or god. I was at a show.
Oh, head pastor had on a ridiculous tailored suit. Was a complete Narcissist and commanded his crowd like a Shepard herds his flock.
That's not church. That's a scam.