Why did Lyddie go to church?

Lyddie doesn’t usually go to church, but the factory she works at requires it.

When the girls ask Lyddie about church, she tells them that she hadn’t planned to go because she was very tired.  When she lived at home on the farm, her family hadn’t gone to church.

Lyddie looked up in alarm. Living as far as they had from the village, the Worthens had never even bothered to pay pew rent in the...

Lyddie doesn’t usually go to church, but the factory she works at requires it.

When the girls ask Lyddie about church, she tells them that she hadn’t planned to go because she was very tired.  When she lived at home on the farm, her family hadn’t gone to church.

Lyddie looked up in alarm. Living as far as they had from the village, the Worthens had never even bothered to pay pew rent in the village congregational church. "I‐I hadn't thought to go." (Ch. 8)

Lyddie also doesn’t do anything that costs money.  She is trying to save all of her money to buy back the family farm and bring her family back together again.

"What Amelia means," Betsy said, looking up from her novel, "is that regardless of the state of your immortal soul, the corporation requires regular attendance of all its girls. It makes us look respectable, even those of us who waste our precious minds on novels." (Ch. 8)

Betsy tells Lyddie that she should go to the Methodist church because they won’t charge her pew rent.  She recommends it to all of the new girls who don’t have a particularly religious bent.  The Methodist's sermon is longer, but cheaper. 

From then on, Amelia dragged a “reluctant” Lyddie to church.  Lyddie was glad that Betsy did not read without her, and waited until Sunday afternoon to read her novels.  She was much more interested in Oliver Twist than the Bible.

Forcing girls to go to church is just one way the factory controls them.  Lyddie has to buy new clothes, because she has to look respectable.  She also lives in corporate housing, which has all kinds of strict rules to govern her day to day life.  The factory does more than employ her, it is involved in every aspect of her life.  The corporation doesn't want any kind of scandal involving its girls.