The majority of churches are non-profit; I'd say you just notice the ones that aren't.
Not quite. It
may just be a USA thing, I'unno, but the financial side of even non-profit churches in the US is often... kinda' scummy. There's a
lot of shit involving taxes and frank abuse of what counts as charity to milk cash from taxpayers. And that's not even including the churches that are non-profit in the same way some hospitals are (which is to say, in name only).
Let's just say there's a lot of churches in the states that are siphoning money from the public to keep themselves running. It's honestly kinda' fucked up, especially when many of them are using strictly "spiritual" services to qualify as a charitable non-profit. Which
really shouldn't goddamn fly, but whatever.
When it comes to the material side of things, the christian religion (mind you, most
others, as well) in general has pretty much always been a bit... well, not on the up and up. Insofar as I'm aware.
Also partly because singing together is fun and a great way to build community spirit.
Very much this - it's one of the few places where you can sing freely in public. That's one of the main reasons I enjoy going to Church.
Never said there was, strictly speaking, anything wrong with the songfics. It sorta' goes against parts of the bible (Sup matthews, again. Probably some other places, too.), and I'unno about other places but most of the gospel they sing in this area friggin'
sucks,* but m'not exactly going to complain about people getting their sing on.
It's just, as y'all are kinda' noting, less about biblical adherence and more about group cohesion. Last I checked, it's even been noted that many hymns are specifically constructed to be... mildly hypnotic, or something along those lines. It's been quite a few years since I last looked into it.
... but hymnals and their singing are definitely something right out of the fan playbook. You see the same sort of thing come from the fanfiction community, and there's considerably more social approbation directed towards that
*Sweet christ but the majority of southern protestant gospel is just freaking
terrible -- sounds bad, poor singers, poor instrumentals, and shitty messages from the lyrics, too. Only genre I've of music I've seen that's as consistently low quality as most mainstream rap or country. Even the choice of hymnals in the churches I've been in are just painful. Couple hundred people singing in concert should
not make you want to fall asleep or run away to escape the racket.
It's not like the genre can't produce decent stuff, even. I'm quite fond of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, just as an example. One of the most cheery songs of about
freaking dying I've ever heard.