Religion

Other denominations (maybe most of them) built a lot of churches years ago, and for many of the same reasons cited in the article. But now the buildings, built in the late 19th or early 20th century, are deteriorating and have become expensive to maintain, while their members have either stopped attending church altogether or are going to the big, fancy non-denominational mega-churches that have popped up everywhere. These churches are more like movie theatres or sports arenas, seat a thousand or more people, and have all the latest audio-visual bells and whistles. They are attractive to people with short attention spans and who revel in bad pop music, lots of noisy audience participation opportunities, plus the pastors' promises that they'll become rich as a symbol that God loves them (as long as they contribute generously to the needs of the church and its pastor). What the RCC and other traditional denominations lose in membership is being gained by the Prosperity Gospel crowd.