A reader makes a point regarding megachurches:

[M]egachurches succeed not because they fill a social need replacing the back fence and extended families, they prosper because they fill the fundamental religious need.

I’m sympathetic to this point, and, without wading too deep into arguments about religion and human psychology, I’ll just say that, at the very minimum, I think they succeed because they give people the opportunity to act in the service of something greater than the state. A sincere belief in an eternal, all-powerful God is probably going to be a little more compelling than a belief in the necessity of the welfare state.