Honestly, I'm not sure how much or in what way local churches contribute to the central organization. I know most local churches run on very tight budgets and can't afford to pay their pastors very well at all. Southern Baptists are one of the largest denominations in the US and half of their ministers are bi-vocational.
Honestly now, you are about my age so Im sure you took some form of economics in high school. The biggest reason for what you are saying are due to poor salesmanship or location.
My parents go to a Missionary Baptist church up North (yes Southern Baptists send missionaries to the North)
Less than a hundred people on Easter and they manage to cover expenses on the church and parsonage. Pay the Pastor support 3 missionary families in the field. The Church stays in a constant state of upgrade. My Step Dad is the building manager and has hired me a few times to do finish carpentry for them. I just made $800 last spring for building a cedar arbor that will have hanging flowers in the summer and a Nativity for the holidays.
I loose track of how many pageants they do. I know they give money to a few National church organizations. And fund local women's and children's rescue. They have a fund to help local families. All great, they do considerable good for the local community. But its an astronomical budget for such a small congregation. They aren't rich people, middle class Northern Michigan.
But the Pastor has that shtick down tight the building is nice looking and they keep their name in peoples mouths.
Even broke churches get by or they die out just like businesses, no conspiracy against god. You can"t deny there is money in it, won't convince me any way I live in the buckle of the Bible belt and here there is no such thing as a broke church.
I think my story is the perfect example of where when you have enough info presented to you in a fair way Christianity and religion in general fall flat in a head to head comparison with science.
I never rebelled against my parents, I went to regular school and I was good at science and learned from an early age just not to talk about it. My dislike of Christianity comes from growing up studying the Bible and science side by side. I started to see things in the Bible, which I was told was the literal word of god, that didn't sit well with me. The god from the Bible is a monster toying with playthings. Quite a few of his actions in the old testament made it seem to me that I had higher morals than God. Then years of sitting through every which way to explain and confuse away science because it disproves Genesis left me pretty well decided that I was smarter than most of the adults in those conversations, most of what they were saying was using a belief to validate itself and that all of it was ignorant and not healthy for me.
Never argued with it, your house your rules and just stopped going when I moved out on my own.
Radicalism bothers me, no matter where it comes from and if its your people doing it, fringe minority or not, if your name is getting hung on it, the buck stops with you. Not our job to safe guard the world from your wingnuts and wingnuts are like opinions which are like ....
I don't care if your group is about football put your own wingnuts on a leash.
Its called having a spine.
