Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,” he recalled.

Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.

“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    None of my family were pilgrims. I don’t think you can just ignore the tens of millions of immigrants from Europe who weren’t pilgrims

    • vonbaronhans@midwest.social
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      2 years ago

      I think their point is that the pilgrims set the cultural precedents for what would later become America, to which later immigrants would be beholden.

      I don’t know how true that is, but I think “protestant work ethic” is at least one example of that sort of thing.