California is full of weird cult bullshit. And if you are too smart to go along with their bullshit then you are made out to be the bad guy, and they make Christians out to be the bad guys as they burn churches, and other bullshit.
And if you do not go along with it you are black-listed and people make up lies about you. You might even get murdered if you try to stop your friends and family from joining a cult.
And in California some people just go to church to make business connections, etc, and they do not go out and help the poor and feed the hungry like the Bible says, many people are fake Christians. You can tell a real Christian by their fruit, watch what they do, drop a nail in the street and see if they pick it up to prevent people from getting a flat tire. Pretend you are hungry and ask them for some money so that you can eat. Do they gossip and create turmoil for their own gain?
I may not have succeeded among these assholes, but at least I made it to middle age without getting murdered. I have had some good friends who were real Christians, including friends from the Philippines, who spent their whole lives doing as the Bible tells us in Matthew 25: 31-46, helping the homeless and feeding the hungry, and teaching the poor, and creating jobs for the poor, they spent their whole lives helping others. The people of the Philippines are great, many good Christians from the Philippines come to America and serve the homeless, etc.
And I remember as a teen going to Mexico with real Christians, with Youth For Christ, who went to Mexico to help people living in a garbage dump, and we also went to a couple of Catholic orphanages. We were real Christians and we went out to help the poor and the needy and the orphans.
I also remember in Oregon, the farmers were all hippies, and we had Christian church buses driving around picking everyone up to go to church. Those people were true Christians. Those people had a wonderful vision of what the USA could be.
There are some bad people, who will burn your church, and who will try to make you look like the bad guy, like you deserved for your church to be burned, and they will make up lies to serve themselves. And if a person is not serving the Lord then they are not a real Christian, you can tell by their fruit, look at what they do and see if they help the homeless, etc.
Salute,
Tony V.