First Impressions

My cultural site will be at a local church in my hometown.  I have been to many services there and is made up of people from all ages.  When you walk in there are people there to greet you and then hand you an Bulletin of the events that will be happening for that days service along with events that the church will be holding later on in the week.  They usually involve a men's and women's bible study, where they gather and talk about how they interpret certain readings from the Bible and how one should act and carry out the "will of God."  

When first visiting the field site I was a little bit anxious, mostly because I was having to see and speak with people that I hadn't seen in a while.  Although everyone seems to be very nice and approachable its almost like its a fake gesture.  After the initial meet and greet of the people joining the service everyone takes their seats and waits on the pastor to start the sermon.  

With me being an outsider I find it interesting that all these people gathering take what the pastor says as absolute truth, when all he is doing is sharing with everyone how he is interpreting certain passages from the bible.  Everyone is just blindly submitting to these statements and accepting them as facts.  They all have been told since they were knee high that this was the truth and if you didn't follow along you were "wrong" and essentially would end up in the firery pits of hell.  In modern terms these are scare tactics.  As an outsider it seems odd that their is a Man in the sky who has a list of principles that everyone must follow, but if you dont......you will spend all of eternity doing laps in a lake of fire.........BUT HE LOVES YOU......?