I'm still a Christian. I stopped letting religious people tell me what to think and started investigating and evaluating matters for myself long ago. And I've come to some very different conclusions about many things from reading the Bible for myself and thinking about it critically, instead of how the preachers generally tell you to think.

I often say that a useful metaphor for pastors/preachers (and many "religious" people) is to view them as new car salesmen -- people who make a living off of selling the latest thing.

That tends to be especially true of the modern "evangelical" type churches, which really ARE in many ways just vehicles/mechanisms for the sale of "fashionable" products... books and packaged associated material (including canned sermons) for or from the latest fad in "theology/religion", whether it's some "Purpose Filled" thing, or "Promise Keepers" or "Utmost Life" or "Catching Fire" or "Mystical Spirit/Breath" or well... whatever the publishers are currently pushing/promoting (which may indeed be some "grassroots" thing that started to go viral and which they are then all collectively/opportunistically jump on board with and make money off of / or in the case of the local preachers use to promote their own little church {and thus build their congregation, increase their status, etc}).

IMO once you learn to "see" them in that way -- as akin to the local car dealer /salesman hawking a product on commission (or kickback, even if indirect) -- well you become relatively immune to the "what can I do to get you to drive this home today" sales pitch.

But that doesn't mean you can't still own and drive a car.