It's not at all guaranteed that joining a religious community will diversify your social circle. It may very well have the opposite effect depending on the particular community you join.
While I totally understand why you'd find community there, I am surprised that you'd consider Church to be a place to find people of diverse backgrounds. That hasn't at all been my experience
But there isn't social cohesion for folks like me.
I'm female. I do not believe in god. I'm bisexual.
I am exactly the sort of person left out of worship unless I pretend I'm someone I am not and don't reveal my true self. I'm a fraud if I want to fit in - these groups rarely simply accept me going there for the social aspect.
Depends on the church in question. I know gay people who are accepted by their congregation, and churches that don't have issues with gay people at all. The biggest LGBT youth group in my city is organized by and hosted in a Christian church.
It's so difficult to find a church that (a) values community, and (b) hasn't made some kind of big, public decision against LGBTQ people. And that doesn't preach guilt and condemnation in a thousand overt or subtle ways…
I think we are less hardwired for religion than we are for the community of like-mindedness that inherently comes along with the religion.
I also miss that community I used to have at my subtly racist, across the street from the Grand Master of the KKK Baptist church. Hated the hate, loved the love.
Without going into religious talk, one of the things I'm interested in with the growing acceptance of religious unaffiliation is the gap left by churches/synagogues/etc.
As a decidedly non-religious person raised in a Christian household, I grew to love the sense of community and charity fostered by the organization. With the current trend of urban migration, I'm not sure what's going to replace that.
> any non-profits ... working to increase people's sense of community at a mass scale
You're describing most religions that I'm aware of. Say what you will about their beliefs, but most of them (definitely not all) work hard to have an inclusive and supportive community.
reply