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I have lived here 12 years and the only time someone asked me where I went to church was when I first moved here. That was at a wedding and it came up in conversation that we had recently moved back to NC.
For the entire 12 years, other than that ONE TIME, no one has randomly asked me if I attend church. Friends and I have discussed things about church, but again - no one randomly has ever asked me if I attend church.
I couldn't tell you if folks in my neighborhood attend church or not. I have had a conversation with 2 neighbors re: events they were attending "at their church" -- so because of that, I know where 2 families attend church.
The dozens of other families? I have no idea if any of them attend church.
There surely are some strange ideas "out there" about Southerners in general and Charlotte, in particular . . . this "shunning" thing . . . my oh my.
In small towns (anywhere!) -- one of the fastest ways to meet folks and to have a youth group with activities for young people is to join a church. But in a metropolitan area the size of Charlotte? It just doesn't apply.
I would add that the further out you get away from the city and the smaller the town, the more people are going to notice what you are doing. Again, that is true anywhere.
Bless your heart, if you are troubled about being around "church" people or religious people, those folks are not the problem. We don't go to church anymore. We did in the past. The same applies to many of my neighbors. On the other hand, those who do frequent a place of worship (maybe more of us need to consider the option), do good works in their community and give back more than they receive, as a rule. The beauty of the Constitution is that word "freedom" and no one has tried to push their religious beliefs on me ... and I know some very devout Christians who I admire and love as a member of the human race and one of God's people, as the expression goes. And, have a blessed day.
A few years after I moved to SE Charlotte I had a couple show up at my front door to ask me where I attended church. The conversation was very brief due to the fact that I had my shirt off & I am heavily tattooed. I simply told them as I have told others over the years that I have not found a church that I am comfortable with. Since I find myself working around the city for a variety of different clients, church is only mentioned in general terms as other posters have experienced. I'd have to say that its a non-issue. Now if you lived next to an abortion clinic you could find it to be a daily issue. We have a live and let live attitude down here & we generally get along.
I have lived in Charlotte for the last 6 years and I have never been asked what church I go to. I have never had someone bring up church or try to recruit me to go to a person's church.
This sums it up for my wife and I. This topic is ridiculous.
Do you live in the city itself? I was under the impression that the city and the suburbs/exurbs are very different. Do you think it would be an issue for children not attending church on sundays? I would loathe to see kids being excluded, shunned and mistreated as "priests of satan" by the other families in the neighborhood, that's why it is important.
Where are you living that your kids are being treated this way? That's terrible!
I have lived here for several years and never encountered fanatic church goers as you mentioned nor have I ever seen an entire community centered around a church. No wonder you want to move here, I would have left the first week if I saw that.
I live in a huge community in SE Charlotte and doing a "poll" on my friends/kids' friends, not one go to the same church. (and many don't go at all)
Look in NoDa. There's an atheist church somewhere around those parts. Sort of like Flannery O'Connor's Church of God Without God.
I'm not a churchgoer. I became an independent when I was fifteen years old. When I moved to Charlotte, most of my neighbors were North Carolinians, and the first question my neighbors asked was, "Which church do you attend?"
I'd sort of shuffle my feet and mumble something to the fact that I was a hell-bound heathen. They'd invite me to their churches for Sunday service and lunch anyway. I'd decline. I don't know why. I didn't feel right. I mean, I was raised Italian Catholic. I'd mention that, and I was told that nobody would hold it against me.
All that stopped when I was seen painting my shutters then mowing my lawn one Sunday. I was shunned. Nobody in my neighborhood would talk to me after that. The rejection was palpable. People drove on the far side of the street when they passed my house.
Fast forward thirty years. You know what? I miss the invitations to the church covered dish lunches.
I'd give anything to be part of a neighborhood church with their covered dish lunches rather than be part of a Megamillions Church-of-Somebody-Might-or-Might-Not-Be-Watching. Give me a pastor who has a wife and kids and a part-time job rather than some guy named Nimrod who came from nowhere, cut book deals and then leveraged it into a Tower of Babel.
Do the Bible thumpers bother you? Hey, it gets worse than that. Wait 'til the checkbook thumpers come calling.
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