Nothing Boosts Church Attendance Like A Good War

My mother, on returning from Sunday morning services this morning, mentioned that the priest made a comment to the congregation about people who show up at the last minute or, worse, after the service has already begun.   Needless to say, he disapproved of such behavior.  Nevertheless, he delivered the admonition in as genteel a manner as he could, politely suggesting that people consider getting up a bit earlier in order to arrive in a timely manner, as opposed to thumping his fist on the lectern and invoking God's wrath on non-compliers.

In days past, it was not always so.  Mom recalled her childhood days, when priests were much more given to scolding the impenitent and the impertinent in a fire-and-brimstone manner.  She mused that this may have been because people took church a lot more seriously back in those days, shortly after the end of the second world war, consequently giving the clergy an inflated sense of self-importance.  She had a point.  Nothing boosts church attendance quite like a good war.

On the other hand, I'm reminded of a certain bit of fundamental airplane pilot wisdom which tells us that "If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger.  If you pull the stick back, they get smaller,  unless you keep pulling it further back, in which case they get bigger again."  I suspect that church attendance follows a similar pattern.  When things get bad, attendance goes up, unless things continue to get even worse until there comes a point where attendance falls off, either because the worshipers have lost their faith, or because they are dead.  I wonder what church attendance is like in Syria nowadays?