Are Nonreligious Organizations Able to Provide the Same Services as Churches?

[Nope]

I have no idea how to title this thread so I apologize if the name of the thread is confusing.

I have friends who join churches for the community, singing and childcare services. They might give lip service to the preaching but there seems to be other aspects that actually attract them to some churches over others.


For example, youth groups not only indoctrinate future religious people but they provide a physically safe environment for kids to meet one another. Sometimes they encourage kids to try to actually make a difference in their communities even if it only means converting others. Teenagers and their parents might like it if there were more secular youth groups were teens could have the same needs met without religious indoctrination.

Sometimes people who have trouble meeting or forming friends use church as a way to socialize with others. There should be some sort of outreach to those people.

Do you think that there is a way for nonreligious groups to take over the place that churches and other religious institutions serve in our communities?


I think that one advantage of being evangelical is that Christian churches work very hard to get the word out that they have such services, like childcare, available. A secular organization would need to be just as aggressive in letting people know that they exists to help.

[The Grand Nudger]

A secular organization like our government?

[abaris]

I think that one advantage of being evangelical is that Christian churches work very hard to get the word out that they have such services, like childcare, available. A secular organization would need to be just as aggressive in letting people know that they exists to help.

Agressive seems to be the operative word here, since child care probably comes with a price tag attached. The price being catching them while they're very very young.

[Nope]

A secular organization like our government?

I don't know. Maybe. The government generally only provides certain things to the poor. Churches provide them to a lot of different people regardless of income.

Talking to my friends, the social aspect of church seems to be one of the selling points of attending. They can meet new friends or let their kids leave their side while someone cares for them for free. Of course, there is more than just childcare available at churches. My friend's church encouraged people to host small bible study groups in their house. From what I understand, the groups were less about the bible and more about the free food and social interaction

Perhaps there would be less religious people if such needs could be somehow addressed. I just don't know how that would work.

Edited to add this: We tend to accept people's word when they say that they attend church for religious reasons but I think that a lot of people go to church so that they can get help, meet new people, get free child care, have a safe place to send their teenagers etc.

Sometimes things just suddenly click in my head that should have been obvious and I feel stupid for not realizing it sooner. Maybe the reason that religious people in the USA are so against the government providing more services to people is that church leaders know people will turn away from religion if they have other options to meet their needs.

[The Grand Nudger]

You think the government only provides or caters to the poor? I don;t know, I think that you might be looking at a narrow range of services provided as juxtaposed against services you feel that churches provide. Name a service provided by a church, I'll show you the myriad ways our government provides that same service in a variety of ways and with a crippling amount of effort and resources compared to whatever coin a church might throw at the same.

As to social benefits...who builds and maintains community centers, libraries, public parks (or the roads to get to them all....or to get to the churches...).........? This "services rendered" business as a boon for religious organizations is the close cousin of the "religious charities" line of thinking. The truth, plainly, is that secular organizations provide more -of everything- offered by a church (be it service or resource) than churches would even be capable of...and have for some time, often enough, the funds used by religious organizations to offer this or that resource actually came from our secular government or is administered by our secular government in the first place. We (as in we the people) subsidize their services while providing greater and wider services simultaneously through many other channels.

[watchamadoodle]

A coworker told me that many of our local churches (in the US) receive money from government to provide food and other services to the needy. Apparently these churches are allowed to keep the excess food that isn't distributed, and it becomes somewhat profitable. I don't know if this is true.

[Nope]

A coworker told me that many of our local churches (in the US) receive money from government to provide food and other services to the needy. Apparently these churches are allowed to keep the excess food that isn't distributed, and it becomes somewhat profitable. I don't know if this is true.

I don't know if it is true either. Churches are tax exempt even if they don't help feed the or clothe the needy like Jesus told them to do.

[The Grand Nudger]

They do, though I doubt that overt grift is all that common, though it probably happens here and there.

(80 some odd billion a year, btw, is the tune we're whistling, RE: federal subsidy paid out to religious organizations)

[Nope]

You think the government only provides or caters to the poor? I don;t know, I think that you might be looking at a narrow range of services provided as juxtaposed against services you feel that churches provide. Name a service provided by a church, I'll show you the myriad ways our government provides that same service in a variety of ways and with a crippling amount of effort and resources compared to whatever coin a church might throw at the same.

As to social benefits...who builds and maintains community centers, libraries, public parks (or the roads to get to them all....or to get to the churches...).........? This "services rendered" business as a boon for religious organizations is the close cousin of the "religious charities" line of thinking. The truth, plainly, is that secular organizations provide more -of everything- offered by a church (be it service or resource) than churches would even be capable of...and have for some time, often enough, the funds used by religious organizations to offer this or that resource actually came from our secular government or is administered by our secular government in the first place. We (as in we the people) subsidize their services while providing greater and wider services simultaneously through many other channels.

That is an interesting point that I never thought about before.

My friends' churches provide day care so they can get a respite from their children. Do government services provide youth services for teenagers? Do they provide a place for the elderly to come and meet with people of various ages? Is it as easy to get such services through the government as it is through a church? I honestly don't know the answers to these questions as I have never tried to look for such services but I have also never heard of anyone taking advantage of them either.

I think that people would move away from religion if such services were easily available and didn't take a lot of hoops to jump through to use.

---

They do, though I doubt that overt grift is all that common, though it probably happens here and there.

(80 some odd billion a year, btw, is the tune we're whistling, RE: federal subsidy paid out to religious organizations)

Well, for 80 billion a year, the government itself could provide all the services that churches provide. Wow.

[bennyboy]

No, I don't think churches can be replaced by secular organizations. They have a built-in reason for everyone to attend even when they don't need help, which keeps a church a community center rather than a welfare office. And they have better coffee cake than any atheist could ever make.