Absolutely, but the difference is that no one church is dominant in the United States. Even if we were to claim that Catholicism (the largest faction, although not a majority by any means) were the dominant one, within that church there is also a lot of diversity of thought. As an adult, you can realistically pick and choose with whom to associate at these churches, unlike say Twitter or Facebook where are beholden to whatever religion they follow.
Many US states do not currently have restrictions on churches. I was replying to the point that people in rural areas are spread out. My point was that some activities, like church, bring people together into an enclosed space.
There are certainly exceptions but the vast majority of the largest churches in the US are very homogeneous, more so than the communities they are a part of. There are some groups, for example the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's witnesses that seem to buck this trend but your average Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Jewish, Mormon, etc congregations tend to be very homogeneous.
The degree to which that is true varies not just regionally but by individual church (not just denomination/tradition/sect, but individual parish/congregation.)
I don't know what church culture is like outside the U.S. South, but here in the South its... weird. It's not like Donald Trump is a holy figure or anti-vax is scripture, but at the same time political memes and secular conservative culture have become remarkably entwined with the religious side. Obviously church has a long (sometimes problematic) history in U.S. Southern culture, but not quite like this. Not at such scale, diverging from the central moral/religious teachings and the culture of southern hospitality so much.
This Atlantic piece is based in Michigan, but it similar to what I've seen in the states between Texas and Florida:
As someone who's lived in the southeast US my entire life, this is spot on. The Bible Belt gets a lot of flack, most of it deserved, but it is hard to overstate the importance of the church community here. I suspect this, not the religious part, is why churches have continued to thrive here.
The problem for me (as well as many others I know), is that the tradeoff isn't worth it. There is an entire generation of people who are receptive to religion and the church community, but who are completely at odds with the traditional interpretations of religion that preach intolerance and other backward moral positions. The so-called 'contemporary' churches that have been sprouting like weeds have addressed this somewhat, but scant few are actually progressive thinkers, rather than just traditional churches that play religious rock music. I would love to be a part of a church community, but not if it means I'm constantly inundated with a message that runs counter to everything I believe in.
What I meant is that depending on the church and regional culture church communities don't necessarily come with the "austere fundamental parents", "no puffs or artists in our family", "sex is sin" etc cliches.
If it's anything like the rest of the country most of those churches are dead and/or irrelevant. Showing up on Sunday, singing, and giving money to poor people isn't religion.
In the South and midwest, magical thinking (ie church, religion and faith) is given more weight than rationality.
In those sort of areas, the pastors and most prominent families have the most influence over communities beliefs, generally.
In the Bay Area, social groups tend to form around work colleagues or hobbies. There are some churches, but they're not typically the center of Valley social universes.
Almost all? Catholicism, Evangelical in general, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Baptist, etc. It's most assuredly not remotely mainstream. Note that the megachurches you're referring to are in most cases not part of a branch of Christianity but stand alone.
The article mentions churches in LA, OH, and FL, but there was one in PA that isn't even a megachurch but was big enough to get an article that was basically the same as this one on the local news site. So they're definitely out there, but I haven't seen any evidence that they're anything but exceptions.
> Even super conservative less diverse congregations I know preach unity of the international church, go on mission trips, etc.
This kind of thing is actually more common in more conservative churches in my experience. More progressive groups don't focus on evangelism/conversion as much.
In part of the USA, the tradition of churches tending to the flock is still going strong. Also, the local gathering place where folks swap news and talk (the bakery in the small town I'm in) is still a fixture.
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