I’ve been doing web searches to find out
what people who don’t do church on Sunday do -
and that includes post that explicitly state why they don’t do church.

Having mostly bagged church for 2-3 years before
starting again this Easter, I can identify with this guy.

Anyway, here’s the story…

From the Des Moines Register:
Carlson: Church rules drive away longtime parishioner

The man was told he would be kicked out of Trinity Lutheran in Conroy
because he hadn’t been in for communion.

He says it’s because he hadn’t given money.

from the article:

Lienen said he attended services at Trinity a few times
after Ardath (his wife) died,but it wasn’t the same without her.

So he drifted away from the only church he had known in his life,
thinking he might one day go back.

“They started coming after me to get going again,” he said.
“I got a letter every month saying I should go to church.
They sent me Bible verses in the mail.
They called and came to visit.

They told me right out that they wanted me to donate money.
I didn’t have the money, and I told them so.
But they kept after me. I got tired of it.”

Lienen said a member of the congregation became even more direct,
telling him he would lose his burial rights next to Ardath
if he did not return and donate to the church.

“I said, ‘Who are you to say something like that to me?’
That really made me mad.
They ended up driving me away from that place.”

Then came the letters and the official action revoking his membership,
which the church described as “self exclusion.”

Stuff like that leads to people thinking this

reddit.com: comment by user vin_diesel:

“I’m not a Christian (though I was raised one),
but I see a lot of value in what the religion is supposed to teach–
not everything it tries to teach, but a majority of it.

I just see very little of that value in most Christians,
especially the ones who are prominent
(but also many of the ones who are lower-profile
yet loudly proclaim their religion).

I don’t understand why the people who actually take
the new testament seriously are willing to be complacent
while the others hijack what their religion stands for.
But that hijacking is a big part of why I try to keep
members of that religion at a distance.

Just like Gandhi said,
‘I like your Christ,
I do not like your Christians.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.’“

(Des Moines Register Via Reddit.)