I found this at Costco today

[Heddi]

It was sitting innocently by the laptop computer display.

There were a couple of others in the clothing section and dried food section.

This is at the King of Prussia Costco in PA, a few miles north of Philadelphia. I've never seen so many churches in my life as I have in Philadelphia and it's surrounds. I thought they were everywhere in Charleston. Ha.

This gives me hope

(it's crumpled from it being in my back pocket before I remembered it was there....)

[Curmudgeoness]

1. Hundreds of churches, but it only takes one person

to leave stickers all over the place to make a difference.

What are you doing to do with it? Is it going on the car?

[Heddi]

2. it won't last on the car because it's a paper sticker

so the first rain or car wash and it will come off. I don't know where I'll put it...

[LostOne4Ever]

3. I wish I would find something like that out here

But if anyone where caught with them they might get lynched

[RebelOne]

4. I would never find one like that

here in the bible belt of Georgia. And if I displayed it, I know I would get lynched.

[Brainstormy]

5. maybe not lynched, but

your car would get keyed. Believe me, I know.

[Vashta Nerada]

6. Christians are keying your car because they don't like what's displayed on it?

That's very...Christ-like.

[LostOne4Ever]

8. Yep

"If Christ were here there is one thing he would not be--a Christian."

-Mark Twain

[progressoid]

7. I too am optimistic for the future.

Especially when I see our younger people.

I can't imagine finding something like that a couple decades ago. It does give one hope.

[ShadowLiberal]

9. The # of churches in the area doesn't mean it's more religious

Keep in mind, PA has been settled in for hundreds of years by the colonists and later US citizens, who all built churches. Many of those churches could be decades or even centuries old, from back when the state was much more religious. The church I used to go to growing up (being raised by Christians even though I became an Atheist) was over 250 years old, though I'm pretty certain they tore it down and rebuilt it at least once.

I live in PA near Philadelphia myself, and I agree that there are a lot of churches in some parts of the state when you drive through.

There's also a lot of abandoned churches and dead churches in the area, not all abandoned churches will be torn down, some will reuse the building for something else, I've heard of one PA town that turned a dead church into a bar. The place I work at needs a bigger building, and is considering buying/renting a dead church near their old office for the new office.

These days for every 1 new church that opens in the US, 3 churches die out and shut their doors.

[Heddi]

10. well the Churches that I see in Philly suburburbs

are quite active and I have to specifically plan to go NOWHERE on Sundays between 12pm-2pm because every 2-3 blocks is a church with a billion cars pulling out of parking lots and clogging up the roadways.

I know the difference between a building that is no longer being used and one that is used multiple times a week, specifically on Sundays.

2 Sundays ago it took me an hour to travel a route that normally takes me 20-35 minutes, all because of church traffic.

I'm specifically speaking of churches in Manayunk, West Philly/Ardmore, Roxborough, South Philly and the northern and western parts of the city.

These are not dead churches. They are quite active and most of the people I know frequent these churches.

This isn't "some part of the state I drive through," it's the part of the city I live in and work in and travel through on a daily basis.

I should also add that since being in Philadelphia after moving from rather Secular/non-religious Seattle, I have been asked more frequently "what church do you go to" than I did when I lived in Florida *OR* South Carolina. I am given more grief about my Atheism (when I am open about it) than I was in Fl or SC. I have seen as many protesters here outside of women's clincs as I did in SC & FL

This is hardly an areligous city and in many ways I find it much more religious than I did in the Deep South (where I was born and raised)