My old church was merged into the United Church of Christ. What a mistake, putting a rather conservative church into this liberal hellhole. Many members left and I quickly found and joined a Bible Church. Meanwhile my old church has struggled to maintain financial solvency. They even tried becoming the most “gay friendly” church in town, but still failed to offset the exodus of older members. In addition to gays, they stressed service to the less fortunate, even going so far as to allow homeless to sleep in the church. Unfortunately, that led to theft and building damage. Today they barely exist financially, having bled out the endowment fund to cover budget shortfalls. Come to think of it, this is a pretty good analogy of what our government is doing and where we are headed if our politicians don’t change course.
Sounds to me like God cleansed His church. The righteous were led in the right direction. The lost stayed and withered away.