Interesting thread on the crisis within the clergy (why so many giving up and quitting)

[Pluvious]

He’s speaking out on what has been mostly kept from public discourse during this time of toxicity and disunity…

Excerpts from the thread :

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: we get our congregants for one day a week, maybe two. Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, etc. get them the other 5-6 days. And for claiming to be pro-church and pro-Christianity, those outlets are actively harming the fabric of the church. /14

All of that means that instead of inviting people to grow in faith, we are increasingly expected to keep people in a state of stasis in which their prejudices are never challenged, they are never asked to self-reflect, and they are fed a steady diet of echo chamber sermons. /15

Even among my colleagues who haven't yet burned out, many are disillusioned with the church or have lost faith in the church to support them. While better pay and less disrespect will help, I’m not sure yet what comes after that. But I will say that this is a five-alarm fire. /16

At least in the mainline, almost every denomination that I know of has swung hard from a clergy surplus a decade ago to a clergy shortage now. And it's terrible stewardship to invest so much in training a minister (again, i.e. me) just to burn them out in just over a decade. /17

Link to tweet

[onecaliberal]

2. The people aren't interested in "serving god"

[keithbvadu2]

3. The ministers need incentive.

The ministers need incentive.

Get into the big money world of televangelism, mega churches, and politics.

Jesus can be used as a tool rather than an example.

???

The "prosperity gospel" pastors/collectors seem to do much better in the prosperity than the investors/donors.

Judas got 30 pieces of silver, but just once, for selling Christ.

Franklin Graham, Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson, and their ilk get millions of dollars repeatedly for selling Christ.

Judas was a fool for doing a one-time sale.

[Lars39]

4. That pic's text is a keeper!

Definitely tucking that one away.

[gulliver]

5. Maybe the major religions should get their own TV channels

The Republican religion has one.

[keep_left]

6. Unfortunately when they do, the worst people are usually involved...

...because the most reactionary forces in the culture tend to have the most money and resources. EWTN and (Ir)-Relevant Radio are two examples of what you get in the Catholic Church. Their "news" programs are arguably even worse than Fox, and probably as bad as anything on WorldNetDaily, NewsMax, or OANN.

That's not to say that there aren't exceptions, but this does appear to be the rule.

[speak easy]

7. EWTN is worse than Fox? In what way?

[keep_left]

8. Their "news" division. Raymond Arroyo, in particular, who is the news director and the anchor...

...for The World Over. His guests are always from right-wing "think" tanks or the most reactionary Church officials. I have never seen as much as a single exception. Their other news programs are almost as bad as TWO; these include a nightly news program (which recently had an unexplained departure of many staff members), a copycat version of The View, and a weekly show obsessed with abortion and the "contraceptive mentality", whatever that is.

Pretty much every program on EWTN is reactionary in one way or another; whether they're pushing Latin Mass nonsense or school vouchers, there's always something bad. There is very little that is not objectionable on EWTN. There's always a subtext.

[speak easy]

15. ty. informative.

[SharonAnn]

9. Yes, they're both ultra-conservative and their theology is appalling.

Our pastor said “they are not Catholic”.

[keep_left]

11. Yes, EWTN as well as their low-rent versions like Ave Maria Radio...

...are some of the worst garbage I've ever heard, especially when it comes to their "news" programming. Their listeners would be better served by living in a cave without access to any news at all. They would truly be better informed if they did so.

These POS networks are funded by reactionary "businessmen" like Tom Monaghan (Domino's Pizza founder). There was an ill-fated network in the late '90s called "CatholicFamilyRadio" that got a few of those billionaires together to bankroll a national rollout of their brand. They claimed they would topple people like Rush Limbaugh and get everyone listening to far-right Catholic radio. They cheaped out on the "talent", hiring a bunch of third-stringers like Dan Lungren and Al Kresta (a Catholic Limbaugh clone). The programming was so awful that they were out of business in a year and a half, burning through something like $150 million.

[Girard442]

10. The key is to follow Jesus' lead and commit to telling the higher truth. They'll love you for it.

Oh. Wait.

[Ferrets are Cool]

12. IF a genie offered me ONE wish, it would be very tempting to wish for NO religion.

[CrackityJones75]

13. Good. End the skydaddy fantasy.

Not that I want people turning to fox, aon, etc. But religion and especially christianity has done some awful thing in the name of their religion.

[Wounded Bear]

14. Tax the churches! nt

[marie999]

16. Churches around here are doing fine. They are a big help to the community.

The one we go to gives out food twice a week to anyone, you don't have to belong to the church. Other churches do it too. Also if a house needs repairs and the owners can't afford to fix it, the churches have teams of people that will do the work and the supplies are donated by the community. When our house was hit by a tornado spawned by Florence, right after the insurance company looked at the house Mennonites came in. They were not there to make repairs, but they ripped out the ceilings, walls, and floors in the rooms that needed repair and put it all into bags for the county to pick up. They refused donations. Our churches are not only religious places but are community places as well. We are Jewish but not religious so we belong to the local Baptist Church.