As a Nicaraguan-born girl growing up in Miami, Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez remembers going to church five times a week. Her father was a pastor, and their fundamentalist evangelical faith taught that a woman’s role was to serve her husband.
At the same time, Mojica Rodríguez saw how essential women were in keeping the pews filled and the church running. Ultimately, dismayed by the subservient role of women and the church's harsh restrictions on girls, she would leave her faith – and her husband – in her late 20s.
"Women are less inclined to be involved with churches that don’t want us speaking up, that don’t want us to be smart," said Mojica Rodríguez, who went on to earn a master’s degree in divinity. "We’re like the mules of the church – that’s what it feels like."
Though the Nashville-based author and activist is now 39, her experience reflects a growing and, for churches, a potentially worrisome trend of young women eschewing religion. Their pace of departure has overtaken men, recent studies show, reversing patterns of previous generations.
Having religion in politics has ruined both. It makes politicians uncompromising since they believe they have God on their side and thus people they disagree with as the devil. This forces those within a church to decide on their values and their church. This drives people out of the church until only the craziest remain. This was inevitable and they both deserve it
Family traditions, even ones that are actively harmful, are hard to break. This religion often seems more than an emotionally abusive relationship
1 Corinthians 14:33-35 (NIV). Comments are in superscript:
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. ^(Gaslighting.^ ^Also,^ ^Jesus^ ^says^ ^that^ ^he's^ ^here^ ^to^ ^fuck^ ^shit^ ^up^ ^(Luke^ ^12:49-53.),^ ^so^ ^either^ ^Paul^ ^or^ ^Jesus^ ^is^ ^wrong/lying.^ ^This^ ^assumes^ ^that^ ^God^ ^is^ ^real,^ ^and^ ^that^ ^the^ ^Bible^ ^is^ ^an^ ^accurate^ ^representation^ ^of^ ^what^ ^Jesus^ ^said).^
Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. ^(Shut-up^ ^and^ ^obey^ ^me^ ^woman)^
If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. ^(nothing^ ^that^ ^you^ ^say^ ^has^ ^value^ ^to^ ^anyone^ ^who^ ^isn't^ ^fucking^ ^you,^ ^and^ ^even^ ^then...)^
I have mixed feelings on this. I grew up in a secular setting as my father had long ago given up on religion and my mother seemed ambivalent about it.
As an adult, I moved to a new city with my wife who is religious, though non-evangelical. She never tried to push me into it but would disappear every Sunday morning. But after a decade or so of feeling like a stranger in my adopted city, I attended a service where I discovered they were in desperate need for musicians. So I wound up volunteering some time and in the process, met a lot of people, and one thing led to another. Today, I do have friends in the city, play in various bands around town, etc.
Yet I still haven't really bought into religion. I guess the value to me is that it gets my introverted ass out of the house and meeting people irl. As a community institution, it brings together people of varying ages and demographics. But it comes with a huge amount of baggage which I could frankly do without?
I just hope that if religion fades away, there will still be something at the community level that gathers together people regularly from all walks of life. There are all sorts of special interest groups, but many of these do not necessarily attract a wide cross-section of society.
Whatever the case, when a church closes as a religious institution, I hope that it can be repurposed to some other activity that is still community-building?
So, are they.eschewing religion becase of the mysogny but still believe the god bullshit ? Or because of the patently obvious bullshit about the god thing, ?
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