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  • dead [he/him]
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    102 years ago

    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.

  • Awoo [she/her]
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    132 years ago

    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.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
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      2 years ago

      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

  • boog [none/use name]
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    442 years ago

    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

  • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
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    142 years ago

    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?

  • @[email protected]
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    252 years ago

    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.

      • windowlicker [she/her]
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        62 years ago

        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.

  • wahwahwah [none/use name]
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    2 years ago

    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.

  • ChairmanSpongebob [he/him]
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    532 years ago

    10000-com 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?

    • Hohsia [he/him]OP
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      252 years ago

      amerikkka

      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

    • ChairmanSpongebob [he/him]
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      162 years ago

      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

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
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        2 years ago

        after a brief interlude the pharisees are back and with a vengence

        that church wouldn’t even let Jesus near the building

    • Hohsia [he/him]OP
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      172 years ago

      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 🙏🙏

  • 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.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
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    282 years ago

    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.

    • Smeagolicious [they/them]
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      142 years ago

      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.

    • Hohsia [he/him]OP
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      102 years ago

      That makes a ton of sense, honestly. Because all we have are Protestant churches around here

      agony-shivering

    • StalinistApologist [he/him]
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      192 years ago

      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… 🤷

    • Hohsia [he/him]OP
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      142 years ago

      I was one until today deeper-sadness

      Hearing good stuff about the Catholic Church though

      • anonochronomus [comrade/them, she/her]
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        102 years ago

        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.

        • Hohsia [he/him]OP
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          82 years ago

          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.

      • buckykat [none/use name]
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        332 years ago

        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”