Two things I've been told in life might apply here:
1) "Going to
church has as much chance of making you
religious and going to a
garage has of making you a
mechanic."
2 ) "There are a lot of
chirstians, but not a lot of
christianity."
I have found these both to be quite true form
my own experience. I used to attend church
regularly, but as i got older, I started to notice the
politics going on behind the scenes. In this, case 1) above was
evident. Many of the people higher up in this particular church attended regularly, but you very rarely saw them anywhere else! eg: didn't attend fund raisers, didn't help out after services and the like.
Also, the
hypocrasy was more noticeable. The whole
notion of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" seemed to go out the window. For
example: many of the people round my age were getting
affirmed, but I chose not to because I didn't belive I had the
faith at that time to do it, and have it actualy
mean something to me. After the others were affirmed, very few of them spoke to me. Point 2) above.
Again, I point out that this is my own
experience, and that there are many good churches out there. This one turned me off
religion as a whole, as I saw people
preaching, but not
practicing.
If you can stay
true to your
beliefs (no matter what they may be), then you have
strength, and my
respect.