Well, that seems like a bit of an arrogant, contemptuous assumption. I'm sorry if you've had a bad local experience, and count you as fortunate you've never experienced a similarly "arrogant, contemptuous" interaction with a Catholic,
Believe me, I've experienced bad Catholics too, but in general the Catholics seem to have a greater compassion for people outside of the faith and for those who stumble on their path. I suppose you could chalk it up to worldly corruption, but it's better than nothing.
There are good people in just about every group, doesn't necessarily make the whole group good. There are even good Muslims, despite how fucked their faith can get. I think about the only kind of group that could conceivably be 100% full of bad people would be something like NAMBLA.
but it's frankly ridiculous to call people running food drives and soup kitchens purely performative, and to believe you know the totality of every denomination that falls under that very broad category.
I feel like these food drives and soup kitchens also serve as a form of recruitment center. I realize I don't have any concrete proof that this is the case, but it does remind me of how AA, ostensibly a support group to help people struggling with alcohol addiction is really an underhanded way to lure vulnerable people into the church, which I find cultish and distateful.
Being as you seem hesitant to explain in exact terms what your specific beef with "American Protestantism" is beyond some vaguely Calvinist approach to the nature of good (which is certainly not anywhere approaching universal), I'll refrain from speculating.
It's too much to go into. I've been keeping in a lot of cynicism frankly out of fear of ostracization, which I realize is really pathetic.
In a general sense I find that those denominations that hold to a more Puritanical, fundamentalist belief are seen as more "good" in the eyes of the American Christian community, and something a little more—I guess "open" or "compassionate" would be the word—like Methodism is treated with petty disdain. And on an even more general note on Christianity as a whole, I feel like the whole idea of living a good life for the sake of an eternal reward is a life lived falsely. Personally, I think goodness is its own reward.
But the repeated references to RationalWiki suggest that you've been on a very interesting spiritual journey already, so I can only say I hope you eventually see fit to continue it with an open mind.
I appreciate that at least, but I've never stopped being an atheist. I've just stopped purposefully being an asshole about it.
Pretty much this. Been a Christian my whole life and it does feel pretty nice to see people say that we were right when it came to the alphabet soup slippery slope, but there has been a concerning amount of Christianity grifting and tourism. Which is something frowned upon in the Bible.
The amount of degenerates claiming "Christ is King" in their profiles only to post the most hanus and vile stuff that no God knowing and Bible reading "Christian" would ever say/post has been mind boggling.
As nice as the validation feels, it's not really worth the rise of these grifters.
Now imagine that you fervently believein your heart of hearts that you can live a moral life while also living a secular one, only to must realize that the people who share in your spiritual disbelief are a bunch of con artists, doomers, pretentious pseuds and opinionless bugmen.