Mail order religion

Why is it that churches think that if they put a door hanger on my door or a flyer in my mailbox or better yet send me a postcard in the mail that I will instantly want to become a member of their congregation. As if the afore mentioned tactics are not enough, there is even a slide at the movie theater as a type of "commercial" for the church attempting to relay how much fun it is and the idea that it is a place to relax and kick back with God. Don't get me wrong, I am glad that there is some attempt at making your display of faith a part of your lifestyle but the part that irritates me is that I am constantly baraged by brochures and mailings that it turns me off to the whole prospect. Better yet, how can you carry on as a person of faith when there are people that tout themselves as foundations of the church who are found to be selling donated hurricane supplies to people? I mean come on. This was a topic that I happened to mention to a rather faith filled woman at work and her best explanation was that even this pastor was prey to basic human frailties and we should work harder to put God in our lives. Ok human frailties but how do you sleep at night after doing something this terrible. Sorry I don't have any linkage for this story but you can probably plug in Polk County Pastor sells Hurricane supplies in your search engine and come up with a few articles. I was astonished to see people of a church doing this to others. Perhaps not as much astonished as turned off by the whole thing since this area is very faith oriented. It has taken many years of maturity and a healthy cynical outlook to be able to see the affects of living in the Bible belt. No matter how much you resist, there is a subtle change in how you see things and react to things when you live here.

To think this entire rant was brought on by the church near my house soliciting the neighborhood with door hangers today.

Quick update on Ivan: yep 12 hours from the last map, NHC has Ivan coming to visit sometime next week. Businesses have begun boarding up their buildings in prep for all of this excitement. I guess now since the "big game" has been played, people in this neck of the woods will discover that there is a hurricane coming this way and start preparing.