It is at this point shocking when a church actually does something for the local area. There is one in my local community which does food drives, holds back to school night and gives kids backpacks/school supplies, houses a homeless shelter, holds a very non-Jesus dinner once a week so poorer folks around town can at least get one decent meal, and does other things that are generally good for the community. But that's one, out of at least 20 churches in my local area. When I lived in Charlottesville, it was more common as most churches there were involved with anti-Nazi activism, but here I can think of one and it's depressing.

 

@JediVision

 

Helping communities is nice and all, but does that help come with strings attached? Or to put it much more bluntly, are these churches helping people because they think it's the right thing to do, or because they expect people to convert as the price for their help?

 

Not going to answer for Mormons, but where Catholicism is concerned, the teachings are not to expect something in return. Which of course won't stop quite a few people from having expectations, but that's a human failing, not one of religion itself...

 

Speaking of human failings, it would seem that instead of Christianity improving upon man, man has corrupted Christianity.

 

Oh, absolutely. I mean, where Christians are concerned, our religion becoming "mainstream" saw the Roman Empire itself embracing it...

 

Well given that humans created Christianity in the first place, I’m not sure you can separate “human” from “Christianity” in the sense that Christianity acts as some external force which is independent of humanity like weather.

 

You can't separate both entirely, but you can look at origins. The first two monotheisms "of the book" have in common that they're the religious beliefs adopted by oppressed populations, with the latter "spreading virally" until it was coopted and subsumed by a proper Empire and became the titular religion of the oppressor.

 

Yeah, Constantine was one of the worst things to happen to Christianity.

 

I don't know, I find polytheism just as bad as monotheism. I don't think Ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians or Mesopotamians had the higher moral ground when it came to oppressing people and basic human rights.

But polytheistic religions are cooler. The gods tend to be wackier and you can at least choose who to pointlessly dedicate your precious time to worship.

 

I'd say Christians are the worst thing to happen to Christianity. I'm thinking the whole thing started to be corrupted the moment Jesus rose up into heaven.

 

*Humans. We Christians don't belong to a different species

 

Christians are the Bernie Bros of Jesus

 

Unfortunately, we also have our Centrists

 

The Church is not first and foremost a charity. And it is a total misconception to consider it so.

It is God's people in the world. Helping the poor, sick, and hungry is part of the christian duty. The ultimate goal is bringing the gospel, the former is often an effective way of doing the latter, but is not an end in itself.

The Gospel. Not Social Work.

There seems to be this bizarre notion that religion exists simply to fulfill some sort of community function, and the reasoning for this comes from a disbelief in God and eternity.

The Church will feed your body, but its real job is showing you where to satisfy the hunger of your soul.

 

As a Christian I will say this sometimes that help does comes with strings or exceptions depending on the church or organization. Like there are many Christian organizations that won’t help LGBTQ people. That’s the best example. However there are some churches who do help anyone. Like I have always been happy that my church has been so open to those of the LGBTQ community.

so long as you help everyone I think it’s great. But if you exclude people you might as well be helping no one.

 

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding here, the Church is not supposed to help the homeless, or the sick, or the poor. That is not its job. Its job is to spread the gospel. Yes even to the desperate and the hurting.

The early church assisted the poor, took care of widows, and distributed food to the needy, but it was not a charity service. Preaching the gospel was and is paramount.

 

So then it's not genuine service to the people, if it comes with strings attached.

 

We got Mother Teresa in here.

 

@Darth Invictus: I think you are seriously over-stating things. Yes, the primary mission of the Church is to spread the gospel. But we also have multiple, explicit commandments from God himself that we attend to the needs of the poor and disadvantaged. It is absolutely legitimate to hold people to account for that.

 

but the church has no trouble taking money from the homeless, or the sick or the poor

 

Right here. This. Especially the Catholic Church. The only people who should be giving are those who can afford to do so. And sadly the worse off financially you are the more likely you are to be very religious. So it’s the poor people who give the most. The Catholic Church is one of if not the most richest organization on earth. For instance the Catholic Church recommends that you give at least 5 percent of your gross income to the church. If your religious that’s fine. But you don’t need to give money to the church. If you want to give your money to help the downtrodden there are better places than the church.

 

Oh dear. No, it absolutely isn't. It doesn't even make a twentieth of the money any of the GAFA do, and despite literally two millennia worth of ancient buildings and art in its patrimony, it is worth less than them.

 

Still they are well off. You get my point