Look, if someone was kidnapped, and forced to attend a church, I doubt if anything good would happen. The person needs to want to attend.
In the Middle Ages the church dominated almost every aspect of European life. Going to church then wasn’t voluntary (neither was tithing), people were forced to go to church (and forced to tithe), it was mandatory. The church condoned feudalism...a kind of institutionalized slavery...where the subjugated peasantry did all of the hard labor. For this 90% of the population life was pretty miserable. Most kids died before adulthood, punishments for the poor were very harsh, people worked the land hoping only to survive another season...or day. Life for the vast majority was a dreary existence. Entire communities dedicated generations of their resources to build huge awe inspiring cathedrals with stained glass, statues, pulpits, and guilted altarpieces...and Europe’s faithful masses paid the price for all of it. You can still see much of it to this day. Once a week these illiterate peasants would walk into these churches and be told what to believe. If they questioned any of it, or believed the wrong thing, they could be excommunicated (damned to hell). They could even be executed.
Religion's main purpose has historically been to maintain the social strata and keep people in their place. This has been true all over the world. India is not near about the only place with a caste system. Thanks to our founding documents in this country religious domination of society has been kept to a minimum. We should be very glad of that now that some pretty intolerant religious adherents are immigrating to this country. I can promise you we do NOT need religion involved in our public schools and government institutions.
Patriotism (and religion) is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
