Allow me to start by saying I'm a fairly recent transplant from the North Coast of Ohio to the Deep South. If you know anything about the Deep South you'll no doubt know that it's the Bible belt. I'm not a man of faith, but I don't fault anyone else for their religious beliefs, I just don't have any myself. One of the first thing someone down here will ask you when you meet them is "what church do you go to"? I always tell them I haven't found one yet, truth is I'm not looking. I made the unthinkable mistake of saying to someone recently who was talking about Satan, "I don't believe in Satan", wow you'd thought that I'd taken their Gods name in vain. Anyway there I go off on a tangent again.

Gots to be more careful

-- Modified on 2/24/2014 8:08:58 AM

Why would anyone discuss their personal business with someone else. No wonder some loose mouth shit heads gets into all kinds of trouble.  

I mean honestly, what are they going to do me? I don't need or want their approval, quite frankly religious pukes annoy the fuck out of me and if simply blurting out that I fuck hookers would get rid of them I would be more than happy to do so.

I have some friends that attend church 3 and 4 times on Sundays. Others attend almost every day while some go several times per week. Having said that I would venture that most of those you've witnessed were not the same people attending multiple times on a Sunday. Rather than investing in capital improvements to church size as congregations increase most simply offer additional services in the morning and sometimes in the evening.

we can start talking about respect.  

I was simply pointing out his hypocrisy, claiming to respect someone before you start landing blows. Make fun of someone all you want (although his example here was deeply flawed), just don't start out the sentence with "I respect you."

which presumably none of them will ever see, and inviting yourself into their home to tell them how wrong they are. I think he is giving them a LOT more respect than they give nonbelievers by saying what he has to say here, and not to their faces.

Is that close enough?

It's not uncommon for some, especially, small denominational churches, or non-denominational churches to have Sunday school, morning services and evening services. Not everyone goes to all events, however many of them do, particularly the older members. Probably many of the members have known each other, and attended the same services for 30, 40, 50 years. Old habits die hard, and the financial stability of these churches typically rest on the members who own their homes, who are, typically, the middle-aged, and older.

I've heard it mentioned  it's  not uncommon for some , especially people in sales , or the occasional con man , go to Church for networking .  
  Now I'm I wondering if the real Bernie Madoff went to Church looking for innocent prey  ?  

are completely fucked up. They just take advantage of people who are weak and feeble minded looking for a solution to all the problems they created for themselves.

and talk bad about others, right?

Even though English is my first and only language, I'm not always as articulate ad I'd like to be. I do respect them and their right to congregate and worship, and in my case I'll benefit from them doing so when my tour here is done because my home will have an appeal that other homes don't (walking distance to church). My amusement is that they resemble ants scurrying to the ant hill. If that seems to you to be disrespectful of them then I can't do anything about your perception, it wasn't my intention but seems to be how you took it. I wonder why religious folks feel so compelled to ram their beliefs down everyone's throat and yet are so defensive about an amusing observation? Perhaps that sentiment is what leads to their hypocritical nature. Just because I find something amusing doesn't mean I'm making fun of it, but again I recognize that I'm not always as clear in my written word as I could be. I guess that's why I'm a Scientist and not an English professor.

I appreciate your clarification but I wasn't focused on your “ant like” observation. It was your value judgment that they were “wasting gas, energy and time” in pursuit of their desires that drew my attention.