More point-missing on declining churches
Evolution News picks up the Pew survey on declining churches. (Is that the Pew-Dying-Pew Survey?)

Americans’ membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.

No one can say what this will mean in a country whose foundations have leaned so heavily on Christian faith. It can’t mean anything good. So Stephen Meyer’s new book, Return of the God Hypothesis, could not be more timely.

Oops, it's Gallup, not Pew. There goes my pun.

This particular point-missing is forgivable, since they're using it for good commercial purposes. Still, there's a crucial difference between churches and belief. The problem isn't belief. The problem is churches.

And the solution is simple. Churches are ALSO a commercial endeavor. A church is offering products and services, and asking customers to pay in money and time and effort for the products and services.

A business declines when the product doesn't meet the desires or needs of the customers. The need is still there. Everyone has some kind of faith, and everyone needs a community with a deeper core than Facebook.

Most other businesses have intentionally repelled their own customers and removed their own employees, preferring to operate solely in the abstract ethereal realm of Share Value. The rich 'mainline' churches have done this in EXACTLY the same way. They make it MURDEROUSLY CLEAR that real Christians and poor people are LITERALLY ANATHEMA, not just unwelcome.

These point-missers are also hitting the ethereal and missing the concrete, whether intentionally or not. They're focusing on the abstractions of theology and belief, not the bad products and services.

(Other point-missers on the same survey.)

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Later: Meyer himself is breaking out of the usual boxes in an interesting way. He's appearing tonight on the Art Bell late-night show, ready to take on all comers. The usual discussions are pointless, just repeating all the standard official talking points on the "two" official "sides". Meyer might hear some non-standard questions from the Art Bell crowd, and might give some non-standard responses. I've turned my radio off for the duration of the holocaust, after trying just once and receiving a BLAST OF SATAN. I might turn it on again for this show, at least briefly.

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Briefly for fucking sure. I turned on the radio, and the good old seven second rule worked perfectly.

CLICK! Radio on.

One, two, three, "... Mask up!"

SNAP! Radio off, and stays off.

Polistra's seven-second rule: When you tune into a radio program, you know what it's about in seven seconds. You don't need to go beyond seven. Repooflican radio: Seven seconds to ZERO_TAX. Dem radio: Seven seconds to RUSSIAN_MEDDLING. BBC: Seven seconds to CLIMATE_CHANGE. NPR: Seven seconds to LGBTQQ2A.

Now all media are the same UNISON SATANIC BLAST.

Seven seconds to MASK_UP!
  ¶ 11:05 PM