Mainly coming from a small town, my dad was a preacher and talked all about love (my dad has since become extremely racist, since the 9-11 attacks, talking my ear off and anyone who'll listen about how Muslims are evil. Yea, it's a sucky religion, but the point is individuals have to put up with said sucky religion, you're a priest for ****'s sake stop talking about how you'd like to kill all of them, it's disturbing me), and I felt kinda awesome, but it was less the church which was the thing, and more the priest. Since then, whenever I visit the church, the one I identify with is not the lay but the priest and their hospitality (though it pretty much depends on their sermon, I've not been above walking out in the middle of a service if I feel creeped out). I'm told that statistically, 99% or so connect with a church because the lay people make them feel welcome. My second experience with religion comes from this parish camp we went to alot in the summer, where we had this Billy Graham cultist-knockoff called Billy Green, who basically was all about "couples shall not couple" but the ones who did got away with it because they kept cozy with dirty old man Billy. Meanwhile, trying to meet someone, anyone of the opposite sex there was a lost cause, they were a "loving Christian community" which meant they were a clique of hypocrites that marginalized me, and about five other people who weren't cool, and didn't really think like them.