Blogs Jan 25, 2011 at 9:58 am

Comments

1
Who can we campaign to make sure that pilot DOES get on the air? C'mon, Dan, give us an email address to flood!
2
They'll use it as a sign of the rapture.
3
Survival of the fittest. Evolution works in mysterious ways... (well, not actually that mysterious)
4
HAHAHAHA

Funny, if something "good" happens, I must be God's intervention. But, when something bad happens, the Devil is afoot and somehow managed to get the upper hand.

CRAAAAAAZZZZYYYYY
5
I love how the article mentions "Historically, churches wanting to build turned to their governing bodies or to specialized lenders that originated fixed-rate 25-year to 30-year mortgages." but during the real estate boom, churches used all sorts of crazy compound interest bounds and short term mortgages, and got screwed.

It sounds like American churches shared the faith of Wall Street. Faith that somehow the property bubble would never burst.
6
Good bloody riddance. I stopped tithing before I stopped going to church because I needed the money more than the pastors with their huge houses on the outskirts of town, Hummers, big-screens in the main church, etc.

People are figuring out they have more important things to spend their money on than giving 10% to slackers who just tell them what Gawd means once a week.

Preachers should have a legitimate job and volunteer to preach the WERD instead of mooching off the community.
8
Not to veer, but re: pilot, I hope the Skins brouhaha you reference might make it more likely MTV does pick up your pilot, since it can give the network a very cool way to reposition themselves as wanting to inform their rugrat audience how to have sex less perilous than the Skins kids apparently will.

So fingers crossed. (Plus there's an entire generation of kids who could benefit from a smut-talking basic-cable icon daddy figure, and who better than you?)
9
The wonderful thing is that churches closing helps the future of humanity! Once we stop wasting money on invisible friends and theologies of hate we can mature as a species.
10
It's lazy, I know, but I'll say it anyway. Good riddance to bad garbage!
11
The one sentence in that WSJ story that OUGHT to infuriate the teabagger types:
Bankers and lenders typically are reluctant to "foreclose on God" and seek to work out deals with churches.
12
Now if only the feds had the balls to file charges when these wackaloons endorse candidates from the pulpit.
13
But dontcha see, @12, they're not endorsing when they say "I like Mitt Romney." Oh, no! Heaven forfend!
14
Even parishioners are being foreclosed on. It's okay, though, your church will take you in <3

(no they won't <3)
15
This is terrific news, as many of those former houses of worship would make great theatres, and for so little work! Take down the plaster Jeebuz, knock out the pulpit and you could be doing a Sarah Kane play there in a few week's time!
16
The article notably does not mention the catholic parishes that have gone into bankruptcy because of court verdicts against them. You know, that whole organized child rape thing.
Some churches may just be victims of a bad economy, others were predators who are just starting to get what's been coming to them.
18
You know what would really push a lot of them over the edge? Collecting property tax rather than subsidizing them. Did you know that not only do churches not pay tax on some of the most valuable land in our country but many hospitals claim to be "non-profits" even though many employees make 6 or even 7 figure salaries and therefore also dodge paying taxes. We could fix so many of these budget problems as well as reclaiming some valuable real estate from these places by simply removing their property tax exemption.
19
Where the churches really planning on flipping their houses of worship like a McMansion? Or did they just have no math skills are all?
20
#5, many of these churches that are going belly up are what a friend of mine calls "seeds on shallow ground" churches. They don't HAVE a denomination. The preacher is forging out on his own to found a church to meet the special needs of his congregation. So it is a ghetto church. Everyone in it is just like everyone else. So when the economic downturn happens, they all have the same fate. And the church goes down the tubes. DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH.
21
Sometimes I think I am a very bad person because my heart leaps with joy every time I read about another church having to close down. Especially Catholic churches. Bad experiences growing up...
22
@21 I don't think you're a bad person, VerdeENL. Churches cause much more harm than good.
23
VerdeENL,

It is very human to wish for a bad experience to disappear. You have a right to your feelings. And, we all should know that feelings don't make a person either good or bad.

Take care.
24
I'm not religious, but I think this is a shame, because churches often give a lot of their money to charities. (Though I fear that some of the money they take from their parishioners goes towards lawyers and anti-gay political campaigns.) And with our economy the way it is, charities need that funding more than ever. So everyone remember to donate to your favorite charity after your 2011 tax returns! (If you don't have one, Planned Parenthood is of course always a good choice.)
25
My heart bleeds, except -- no, it doesn't.

The only thing that gives me pause is Jesse Jackson "negotiating" on behalf of the churches. Yeah, just like he "negotiated" with Anheuser-Busch to get his son a beer distributorship.

Please wait...

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