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The word on the street is simple – “church sucks.”

Plastered throughout one city in northern California are signs stating the same message, stirring some controversy among the local residents.

But it’s all part of the plan, according to Stu Streeter, the lead pastor of Disciples Church in Folsom.

Using the slogan as a way to attract those who have stopped attending church, Streeter, along with Adam Adams, his connection ministry director, have teamed up to ironically bring people back into the church, reported El Dorado Hills Telegraph.

“The whole point behind it was twofold,” the pastor told EDHT. “To stir awareness and that we have something to say.”

The message was not targeted towards his congregation, but rather for potential churchgoers.

“You probably saw our signs … and thought ‘What’s Church Sucks?’” the website churchsucks.net states. “The sad fact is that sometimes church does suck.”

“It sucks when people are made to feel like outsiders, or when power gets abused. It sucks when leaders don’t serve. When people are selfish, when we give up on people, or when talking trumps listening, church sucks!”

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New research shows that those who believe in a loving and merciful God are more prone to cheat than those who believe in a punishing God.

According to research done by psychologist Azim F. Shariff from the University of Oregon and Ara Norenzayan from the University of British Columbia, belief in a forgiving God will not stop undergraduate students from cheating on exams.

“Taken together, our findings demonstrate, at least in some preliminary way, that religious beliefs do have an effect on moral behavior, but what matters more than whether you believe in a god is what kind of god you believe in,” Shariff said.

“What we found is that those people who see God as a more punitive, angry, vengeful God, they tend to – in a laboratory-based cheating measure – they cheat a lot less, whereas people who believe in God as a comforting, loving agent, forgiving agent seem to cheat more.”

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