THEY STOLE EVERYTHING (THE RELIGION BUSINESS): Nathan Apffel & Jay Dyer

Religious institutions in America operate like businesses

“this kind of weird stuff does produce a lot of unbelief”

American churches have a corporate structure

“this model only dates back to 1913”

The Mormon church's financial growth highlights the profit motives in religion

“the LDS church is going to hit a trillion dollars in market assets”

Church auxiliary terms allow for profit-motivated ventures

“anything now can be a church, a hedge fund can be a church”

Mega churches generate immense revenue

“the church could buy the entire NBA, every team twice over”

Rick Warren embodies the commercialization of faith in churches.

“when Rick Warren went away, that kind of...”

Peter Drucker viewed church as a business model.

“the crazy thing about Peter Drucker was, he was like, I'm not a believer... but I do understand that church is an amazing business model.”

The consumerist approach leads to faux Christianity that does not last.

“they also had massive turnover rates where... a lot of these people had already gone.”

The prosperity gospel is linked to American capitalist ideology.

“do you see a connection with the American capitalist ideology...”

Prosperity gospel reflects capitalism's negative aspects.

“the prosperity gospel is a conclusion to, uh, I call it crony capitalism.”

Christianity is fundamentally about community and charity, contrasting with capitalism.

“Christianity is actually the antithesis and, ... it's antithetical to that concept.”

Orthodox practices promote communal living and voluntary charity.

“within the structure of Orthodoxy, there is the voluntary giving up of that stuff and living in a sort of a communal monastic existence.”

Government utilizes churches for political influence.

“the state, the American government, again, whether it's GOP or whether it's Democrat”

Churches were used as instruments during the Cold War.

“During the cold war, the CIA came up with this idea...”

The church was supposed to act as a counterbalance to government.

“the reason for separation of church state... was because the denominations were already infighting in the colonies”

Religion has been commodified and made ineffective.

“the government built the 14 point checklist... to take the teeth out of religion”

The church has lost its voice and role as a moral authority in society.

“the church has essentially become a kind of an adjacent arm of the state”

Religious institutions need transparency and accountability.

“you should know your pastor's salary... and voting rights on how that money is being used”

Critique of how movies depict church affiliations being exploited.

“Even movies like the Godfather have actually kind of been telling us kind of some of this for a while.”

American Christians can solve major social issues through local action.

“the American Christian church donates enough to almost eradicate all the social problems”

Small local churches are preferable to mega-churches for community impact.

“it's where there's 50, there's a hundred. And so it's this small community that focuses on their, their little five mile radius.”

Child sexual abuse is foundational to many social problems.

“the bedrock of most social ills is child sexual abuse.”

Institutional church culture commodifies faith practice.

“you're a part of consumerist Christianity. You see people in your pews as customers and consumers.”

Nathan Apffel critiques Ruslan's relationship with the institutional church.

“if you see Jesus and quote unquote get saved, and then you immediately turn to the institution for work... you are a by -product of the machine.”