In 1968, I was expecting a third baby.
When the church started hounding me for weekly donations of a minimum of $20.00 per week, I got angry and quit going to church.
It appeared the church cared more for my donations than my soul.
Looking over the churh expenses on the weekly bulletin, I got more angry they were HIRING a gardener for the church AND the ministers (free) house.
Now, the minister was a fairly young able body guy with 3 teenage sons, that played in many sports. I had to ask myself, 'Why can't they do the yardwork for the church and their (free from rent) home?'
I did my own yard with a push type mower and I was expecting a baby.
That is so upsetting. Was it the Catholic church? We all belonged to a Catholic church growing up in our hometown, my parents were members for 30 years. Well, when they retired and headed south, they never found another church. My mom died two years after the move south, and my Dad wanted to have her buried in the church cemetary in our hometown. They said "NO" and it's for current church members only. Now mind you, us kids were still members but the church was very firm in their decision. My Dad was so distraught over everything going on that he didn't bother to argue. We were all furious and stopped attending.
A few years later after I moved to NY and hubby and I had our baby, we knew we had to have him baptised. I figured I'd give the Catholic church another chance since it was all I knew. We knew we wouldn't be weekly attendees anyway since hubby is less religious than me. Well, we're still members but get stern letters because we don't really attend (CONTRIBUTE) except for Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday and others. And that is enough for us. God has blessed us with much, and we are thankful to him in many ways.