Poor victims of the religion scam are never going to admit they're wrong as the price is too high. Too high because it means admitting a big mistake. Too high because like fish caught in a net, intertwined with human relationships which is nigh on impossible to rupture, friends, family, church associates and reputation. Breaking free means a new perspective is required on life. Church offers protection and shelter from the harsh reality of another life. Church offers familiarity and closeted with like minded deluded people. To break free is like betrayal (you are conditioned to believe this way), you feel guilty now of your sins, but leaving heaps on more guilt on top of guilt. You are trapped in your Church life, there is no way to escape, the other church victims will try and pull you back. How do you explain this to your kids? It's all too hard! Much easier to live a life of delusion than face reality. All those years of studying bible gone to waste, nah, can't do it!
Christianity preachers remind me of real estate agents. Always put a spin on what you are selling, glam it up, turn that sows ear into a silk purse. Use your personality to sell sell sell, project an image.
In the church service, use music to tweak emotions. Like Billy Graham jamborees, alter call, always play the same song, "Just as I am". Try and get some tear jerking going.
It's not church! I would have the same relationship with God if I were not in a church. In fact, there have been times I couldn't make it to church for a while, yet God was still with me. You and others will think we are under a delusion. But that is because you don't know God. I can't explain it any other way, except that I hope you and every one else will come to know God also, because He is a faithful friend.
Although Billy Graham does share the gospel, and turning to Jesus to be your Savior is a very simple process, there is a danger that the way the altar call is set up would easily give the wrong impression that coming forward and praying whatever they tell you to pray will make a person born again. In John chapter 3 Jesus describes the process without the buildup of emotions. Simple personal faith in Jesus, looking to him, as the Israelites looked to the serpent on the pole in the wilderness, is what saves. That can take place at an altar call, when you're by yourself, or anytime, really. My mom was saved at an altar call when she was a young girl and heard the gospel for the first time and I'm sure she was saved at that point (although she could have been saved later on) because of the way God worked in her life from that point on, even though she was not in a home with believing parents. I've also met many who went forward at an altar call and yet nothing happened, they prayed, yet never experienced God making Himself known to them. Why would God save one and not another? I personally think the answer is somewhere in the mystery of God working and man choosing. The two work together, and it is definitely true that "whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved," yet to truly call on the Lord, with a repentant heart and faith in Jesus, is a product of the Holy Spirit taking the Word of God and enlightening the heart to show the need for a Savior and to reveal Jesus as the Savior to the person.