Oh my goodness, I can't get away from religion. It's EVERYWHERE in Brooklyn. My very large family is very Christian. Seventh Day Adventist, actually. The older generation are firm believers and participants: no makeup, no jewelry, no non-religious thoughts from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. The whole time on Saturday is spent in church celebrating sabbath. The younger generation will stop by church on a Saturday afternoon, mostly for the music, gossip and flirting. Then at sundown, they all crack open their beers and blunts.
On my street, there are about 3 makeshift Hispanic Pentacostal churches (and more on every other street in this neighborhood) on the ground floor of apartment buildings or in abandoned storefronts. They usually worship 3 times per week and come to church in their finest, laciest, frilly, prom dress attire. They sing and dance and have the whole service amplified to the outside. Most unaware people think that these are discos.
When I walk into any bodega, I have to wait for the Moslem men to get off their prayer rugs before they light up a cigarette and ring up my purchase, while trying to leer down my shirt.
Across the avenue from me, is the largest and most conservative sect of Orthodox Hasidic Judaism. And they own and operate everything, as far as the eye can see. If my apartment was on fire on Friday night, I would be shit out of luck. The shabbos sirens blow through my neighborhood every Friday, exactly 18 minutes before sundown and then again at sundown to get the last minute stragglers off the streets. All day Saturday, you see the men in their finest fur hats (even in the dead of summer) walking to their synagogues with their army of young children.
But on Saturday nights, these same men prowl the streets in their massive mini-vans filled with car seats, looking for goyim (non-Jews) because they literally believe that we are all loose women and prostitutes.
The brownstone behind me is a group of Orthodox Conservative Jews... who are black. They break shabbos by traveling in cars to get to synagogue because this is the only black synagogue in I don't know how many miles. They don't worship with the Ashkenazi (white, eastern European origin) Jews because of doubts about their lineage. Of course, they believe that their own lineage traces back to some dude in the Torah. I don't really know, actually. They also have loud worship parties.
And they (both the white and black Jews) also build succahs, which are tents made out of palm leaves that every single Jewish person in my area of Brooklyn sleeps in (outside on the sidewalk, or on their balconies) for about 1 week each September. They do everything in these tents, from cooking to sleeping for the duration of the holiday. It's always fascinating to tourists.
And every month, at the new moon, you will see all the men outside hovered over their prayer books, rocking back and forth in order to bless the new moon.
There are about 12 really beautiful and massive Catholic cathedrals which have been abandoned in my area. A few of them were taken over by some Hispanic catholics, but most are empty from the massive departure of the Italian catholics that once were the essence of this neighborhood.
I would say that religion is in every part of my life. I stay away from all of it, although all of it fascinates me.