Atheist Evangelism

[Thumpalumpacus]

No.  Soup kitchens aren't harmful.  But they don't require religion.

But religious organizations can and do fund food pantries. Is that harmful? This is a yes-or-no question.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

No.  Soup kitchens aren't harmful.  But they don't require religion.

But religious organizations can and do fund food pantries. Is that harmful? This is a yes-or-no question.

(Bold mine)

I’ll give you any odds you like that it won’t be.

Boru

[FrustratedFool]

Is a good deed done by bad ideological organisation harmful or not? Like, is a food bank run by Nazis harmful or not?

Is a church run food pantry harmful?
If forced to give only a Y or N response, I'll say Y to make the provocative point. Although it would be easier to say N
(as I previously did in the post you quoted).

Why? Because I'm going to take harm here as doing more to hinder progress than not, and cause overall more harm longterm than not. The continuation of the ideology will create more harm over time than the food pantry will relieve suffering. I'm also going to take harm here as meaning causing more harm than necessary. The same people can do the good deed without the religious or Nazi or whatever ideology.

[awty]

Blah, blah, blah.

[Fake Messiah]

But religious organizations can and do fund food pantries. Is that harmful? This is a yes-or-no question.

(Bold mine)

I’ll give you any odds you like that it won’t be.

Boru

Would you call Sai Baba's religious organization nonharmful just because they have food pantries?

[The Grand Nudger]

Anecdotal, but the main thing that made the wife start a food pantry here was that the ones that were in operation were, to a man, scams designed to negotiate employee wages down. Consider this..a part...of your overall compensation plan. On the global food aid scale we know that direct food aid is in fact a bad idea that does more harm than good.

Yes, it's harmful for bad actors to run food pantries. It may even, if we allow a little reality to seep into our gotchas, be a bad idea to have food pantries at all. The bandaid becomes the cure, so to speak. Just hand them the cash, or, even better..to take it biblical, teach them to fish.

If there were multiple union organizing booths at every food pantry food pantries would go the way of the dodo fast.

[Fake Messiah]

Yeah, Scientologists will also tell you that they are a force for good because all that money that their church is taking from them is actually used for good, like feeding hungry people. And, thus, it is only the non-Scientologists who are ignorant and full of hate that are spreading rumors that Scientology is a scam.



Almost as if the whole food pantry thing is just a stunt to brainwash Scientologists to keep giving them money and work for no pay.

[The Grand Nudger]

Scam adjacent even when the pantry actually exists - but just as often..it doesn't, and people are pocketing the cash. People will give you tens of millions of dollars just for saying you're gonna feed the poor in china, all christlike..and when you don't...it's not even a crime.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

They had good food at Jonestown.

[awty]

I am not a fan of trading the needs of some people for preaching. But if someone is hungry or in need and there's nowhere else to turn, I'd rather a person get a meal now and again.

Back in the day I had to go to the food pantry at the Catholic church because my child needed to be fed and there was no place else to go. Also, after being written off by my parents when I got pregnant with my first, Catholic Charities gave me a crib and some other supplies that I needed desperately. Would I rather not have had to resort to baby blankets made by old Catholic ladies? Yeah, but the bottom line is sometimes you do what you have to do to survive.

I am not so high and mighty that I can't accept help when it's offered. Now I try to give back.