TD Jakes’ Potter House is one of the most popular mega-churches in the world. There was a time when tens of thousands of people would stand on line to hear Bishop TD Jakes preach.
But that was before the mega-church pastor began bashing Black women in his sermons. Nowadays, the crowds aren’t quite what they used to be.
Media Take Out got pics from inside TD Jakes church this past Sunday, and there were tons of empty seats. And all those empty seats, means that the collection plate was likely coming up light.
In the images, obtained by Media Take Out, there were entire sections of the church that were completely empty. It’s clear, from our images that the producers of TD Jakes livestream put all the people in a single section so that in the Youtube stream of the sermon, the church appeared to be full.
TD Jakes recently went viral, for making comments that many felt were disparaging towards Black women. He downed Black women for their independence and success – even in the face of racism and sexism. According to TD Jakes, their struggle made them “like men.”
It’s possible that the TD Jake’s poor church attendance was a result of Black women protesting his controversial sermons.
And there’s also a national trend towards lower church attendance, which Media Take Out is recognizing.
According to data collected in April/May 2020 by Barna Group, one-in-three practicing Christians dropped out of church completely during COVID-19. Last June, the AP broke a story about many houses of worship in the U.S. that were shuttered forever due to the pandemic . What’s worse, church membership in the U.S. dropped below 50% for the first time in 2020, according to Gallup data dating back to 1940.
A new IFS analysis using the American Family Survey suggests that religious attendance has declined significantly in the past two years. The share of regular churchgoers is down by 6 percentage points, from 34% in 2019 to 28% in 2021.1 Meanwhile, the share of secular Americans who have never or seldom attended religious services increased by 7 percentage points.
And less churchgoers mean less tithing.
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