we were trying to set up a soup kitchen, and asked to use their basement and they kicked us out once they learned that we were "political". I guess that's more important than feeding people huh?
this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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Fuuuuuuuuck me. Every single accusation made about communist countries is an admission of guilt by the accuser and everyone would realize this if they just talked to vulnerable people. I don’t have words to describe it
A local church nearby spent a shit ton of money on a luxury gym. And they will be all for helping the poor if you come to Bible study or some shit, so essentially they’re gatekeeping assistance
Learning some good things about the Catholic Church in this thread though 🙏🙏
Oh and the same church (Catholics) built a fence because people using a safe consumption site nearby, the homeless, etc "made parishioners feel unsafe" and then they fought the city when they told them to take it down.
The church won, so it's still up
I read the article where they interviewed parishioners about it, and one of them said something like "the fence will prevent the homeless from dirtying the lawn" among other things. Just makes my blood boil
after a brief interlude the pharisees are back and with a vengence
that church wouldn't even let Jesus near the building
Christians will often brag that the data shows that people who go to church akshully are the most charitable. And - on a very superficial level - they are correct. But the reality is that most of that “charitable giving” is paying for the pastor’s salary, church upkeep, denominational support, sending the youth group on a “mission trip” to Belize, etc. In the data that’s all lumped in with “charitable giving”. Their levels of giving to help the unhoused, feed the poor, help out single moms with new babies… it’s basically zero. At least for your typical white evangelical, certainly other religions are better on this than others.
going to church is a fucking meme, especially when you talk to people there after it ends and you hear some of the most incredibly vile shit you've ever heard that directly contradicts basically everything christianity supposedly stands for
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Local catholic church offered to allow local orgs who were building onsulated shacks in parks and creating programs to house people in them who were living in tents to move to church properties when the city decided this was no longer a grassroots effort in their benefit as covid lockdowns ended and they wanted tourism again. The city wouldn't allow that either and was threatening to fine the church $10k a day per shelter. Now we just have tent cities everywhere
This is why you go jam with the Sikhs. Those folks crush it.
My old town has a Sikh temple that feeds anyone for free regardless of if you're rich or poor. I've always wanted to go inside and chill there.
All Sikh temples do that. Unconditionally assisting people in need is one of their core tenets, and they take it very seriously.
Caution: You may become an assassination target for the Indian government.
you weren't already? nerd
That hasn't been my experience at all. Protestant churches, sure. But the Catholic church is pretty ingrained and tends to do a lot for the poor. Most leftists are involved with the church in some way.
My dad sleeps/chaperones at the protestant church some nights with some unhoused families. I'm sure a lot of churches don't do jack, but some do... 🤷
Protestant church my family went to in my (small) hometown had a program partially organized by my grandparents for free weekly community meals and a food bank. Was never religious even as a kid but I volunteered there for 10 years or so; they had hundreds of people through there every week...it was pretty cool ngl. Definitely not the rule from what I've experienced though.
That makes a ton of sense, honestly. Because all we have are Protestant churches around here
The sooner their movement dies out the better it is for society around the world
There are people who think churches do shit in 2023?
I was one until today 
Hearing good stuff about the Catholic Church though
The Catholic Church is neck and neck with the friends of Jeffrey Epstein for the title of "World's largest and most powerful child sex abuse ring"
Hell
Where are you hearing that? Because not only is it a lie, it's also insane. Catholic church has the largest land holdings and gold stockpile in the world, they're responsible for the deaths of probably millions in the past 2000 years, and the Catholic church was instrumental in setting up rat lines to help high ranking Nazis flee Europe and get away with their crimes. I can keep going with this, like how the killed thousands of orphans in Ireland and buried them in mass graves for the sake of profit. The Catholic church is literally the devil.
It sounds like the bar is on the floor
Idk how to see it morally, but if you are a local Catholic Church helping out locally, it makes you much better than the Protestants who don’t
I almost look at like individual Catholic churches can be good but the Catholic church as an institution is evil.
it's pretty much the DSA
I think it depends on the church those American abominations where they have thousands of people there and it's more like a concert are fucked up
yeah the local mainline protestant churches are actually not only helpful to the poor but allies with local organizing. under the dicprole it'd probably be more productive to expropriate evangelical churches and give them to mainline protestants than it would be to outright ban protestantism.
protestantism isn't really a singular movement after all all you have to do to be protestant is offshoot from Catholicism
I think a rule that if a church is over 100 people you should split it into 2 churches would help
megachurches are obscene but it's worth noting that they are not how the median churchgoing american christian worships, at least in the parts of the country i've lived. the more usual kind of church has its own problems of course, but the thing where you're essentially watching a sporting event or a stadium rock concert is the exception.
There's nothing like walking into one of those mega churches and wonder how many families could be fed for a year with their expensive decor.
Or the AV equipment. So many of those places have less than ideal feeds because they can just throw money at better equipment but don’t want to pay for professional technicians.
i always question why they even need all of that equipment. i've seen churches totally decked out with top-of-the-line mixers, huge PA systems, etc. and it leaves me wondering what the purpose even is. aren't churches built to have pretty good acoustics? they're just doing soft rock and sermons, it's not a fucking metallica concert. just get up there and sing with your acoustic guitar and get down.
There are accessibility reasons why you’d want a mic, especially with churches dominated by older people who are more likely to have hearing problems. But I loved the setup one of my old churches had. There was a room in the back behind windows that had a speaker on the ceiling. There was a single knob that turned it up and down and there was a little radio transmitter with ear piece receivers if anybody wanted that. And then there was a 4 channel mixer up front that plugged into the feed to the back. So for most of the congregation, they’d sit up front and hear everything acoustically. In the back, they’d hear it mostly over the speaker and someone would just sit there and turn the knob up and down as needed. Was it ideal? No. But it was a setup that worked for 30 years straight with only one or two points of failure which rarely failed and were relatively cheap and easy to repair.
It's always bizarre to me that churches are closed and locked. What are you even for?
just a free money glitch
Our food ministries are actually pretty good around here. But our shelters are generally full of very privileged people with no idea how to relate to someone who’s unhoused. The condescension is real.
churches fed my family when we couldn't buy groceries and paid our rent when we were about to be kicked out. church i'm a part of now is one of a few in the area that actively feed and house people and have been involved in getting tenant unions set up.
never once did a megachurch do shit for me but take my parents money. in material terms, these are small churches that acted like community hubs where folks could do direct action and were our only options in the face of 0 safety nets.
The United Churches I've been involved with have done lots of events for getting food to the poor
If it wasn't for our local food bank (which is a Catholic church) I would have went hungry ages ago, they seem like decent people. People are welcome in their building at any time to take shelter, they hand out school supplies in the summer before the next school year starts, they hand out coats and gloves in the winter, they work with some local organizing groups, and plenty of other stuff. They have my critical support. And yes, I'm aware charity doesn't solve the root of the problem, capitalism, but it's still a decent resource for people in need since the state isn't going to do anything to help.
Can we just fast forward through the new atheism phase cause this shit reminds me of 2005. Congratulations you have realized most churches or organized religion sucks. Can we go back to critiquing white supremacist, patriarchal, imperialist capitalism?
Can't say I know how it is in the states but a good proportion of the foodbanks over here in the UK are connected to CoE churches or Salvation Army.
synod on sexuality has really kicked the hornets nest of bigotted opinions though lately
that shit really gets me mad. To them God is the kind of father that kicks their kid out to be homeless for being gay. Their version of God is straight up evil
when Jesus comes back those guys are in for a surprise and no mistake
Glad to know my church is an exception.
A lot of churches in American cities have high gates that they lock at night so that homeless people can’t sleep on their stairs or under their porticos.
Churches don't just do nothing of value to help financially insecure people. Churches also act as the propaganda wing for the interests of capital. Every week, in churches across America, pastors are telling their congregations what they should believe politically, who they should support, and who they should vote for.
Most churches in America spent decades telling their followers to oppose the civil rights movement. Most churches in America spent decades telling their followers to oppose same-sex marriage. Most churches in America right now tell their followers to oppose rights for transgender people. Right now, most churches in America are telling their congregations to support Zionism because they believe that the state of Israel will bring the rapture and all the good Christians will be teleported to heaven.