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amazing photos

Hey Motts,

Its been a long time. My comment is in regards to your statement about the number of churches that are abandoned vs. the lack of abandoned synagogues.

The priesthood in the Catholic Church is shrinking. Probably a combination of Rome's inability to progress forward with the times and allow priests to marry as well the various scandals that have rocked the church (including how they dealt with those scandals for decades).

Someone previously mentioned congregations being combined due to a lack of parish members. While that may be happening in some situations I still think the larger cause is a lack of priests.

Synagogue's on the other hand do not have trouble finding rabbis to service their temple. The few that shut down are probably more the results of the congregation moving away. As for the occasional synagogue abandonment usually being inaccessible - lets face it - the jewish people have been an object of so much prejudice and attacks on their places of worship that they are prepared to lock up properly after themselves when they are ready to leave.

John Black
Ps. My perspective is shaped by having grown up Catholic although I am largely non-practicing now. My general view is that religion has not been a positive thing for the world. More people have killed other people in the name of religion than perhaps anything else.