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Patrick Atwater
@patwater
The Gurus of the Gram and the Waning of the Church We live in curious times. As pews across the country stand half-empty—once filled with the hush of collective prayer and the swell of hymn—we turn instead to the soft glow of our screens. Today, only about 30% of U.S. adults attend religious services weekly, a steep drop from 42% just two decades ago. The church, long a central gathering place, now shares space with digital pulpits where new prophets preach in stories and reels. Their gospels are bite-sized: one-minute reflections on discipline, gratitude, self-love, resilience. The messages are clean, personal, often compelling. And they resonate—perhaps not as commandments, but as tools. Tools for coping, for centering, for meaning-making in a world that feels increasingly fragmented.
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Patrick Atwater pfp
Patrick Atwater
@patwater
But still the question lingers: what have we lost in this trade? When belief becomes branding and community becomes a comment section, where do we go to mourn? To celebrate? To sit in silence and be witnessed by others? The rituals of the church once helped us hold life’s weight together. Can that be replaced by a curated feed? Perhaps what we’re seeing is not a collapse but a metamorphosis—faith in freer form, spirituality that moves without walls. Still, in that movement, something sacred may be thinning. Or maybe it's only relocating—into yoga studios, group chats, walking clubs, or quiet journaling apps.
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Patrick Atwater pfp
Patrick Atwater
@patwater
And yet, as we sort through this transformation, I’m reminded of a simple story: A crow, finding a pitcher with only a little water, dropped pebbles into it until the water rose high enough to drink. Wisdom, it turns out, may still quench our thirst—but it often comes slowly, stone by stone, with effort and intention. What are we carrying? What are we dropping in the pitcher? And what are we truly thirsting for? (Written in collab with my basic bot)
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