Has your church/temple/mosque helped you, hurt you, or done nothing? (Read the whole question!)?

Question

A lot of people just came back from church about now today. So here's the question: Has your church ever done anything to help you? Has there been any time you've been a member of a church that hurt you? Or has there been no help or harm either way?

Now: I do NOT mean through prayer or salvation or anything like that. Those elements are a given if you are a church goer. I mean actual aid or harm: Physical, monetary, psychological. And I do NOT mean an individual within the church (a friend or relative or sole practitioner) but the church as an organization or as a whole.

And I DID NOT say Christian church. Any church, temple, coven or mosque will be suitable to answer this question.

I'm interested to see whether more people are helped by these organizations than harmed or ignored.

Answer 1

Well, I don't know about the church as an organization, but while I attended as a child, I quickly realized how segregated the church had become, regarding class, and how the higher class would treat the lower class. Now, it has to be pretty bad if a kid notices it. Anyways, after a while I went to my mom about it and we switched churches.

Now that I'm a Muslim, I've never really needed much assistance from the Mosque (thank God for His blessings), other than learning about Islam. They were a HUGE help! My first mosque offered classes for non-Muslims, new Muslims, "older" Muslims, Arabic speakers, English speakers, Spanish speakers, night classes, day classes, women's studies, men's studies, classes to learn how to speak Quranic Arabic, classes to memorize Quran, classes on Fiqh, on understanding the Quran, a library with almost any book or video lecture you needed, and even gave free Yusuf Ali translations of the Quran (which aren't inexpensive).

Although I didn't require any help, they also had clothes drives, food drives, drives for school supplies, regular monetary donations for the needy (one man even donated his brand new Benz), and also did community projects like Habitat for Humanity, soup kitchens during the holidays (even during non-Muslim holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas), blood drives in the mosque (I gave :-), gosh, I can't remember everything. It was really a great mosque and community. Since I've moved, my new mosque doesn't quite fill the shoes, but they're trying.

Answer 2

You wrote: And I do NOT mean an individual within the church (a friend or relative or sole practitioner) but the church as an organization or as a whole.

So what are you referring to. The people ARE the church.
Sorry, I just dont understand what you are asking here.
But yes, PEOPLE from church have hurt me. That's why I dont worship PEOPLE. I only worship God.

Answer 3

not personal experience, but I went to a church that gave away cars all the time. Instead of using it as a trade in, they just gave it to someone else in the church. Including the pastor.
They also went out and delivered food to shut-ins and took on two kids that their parents died and the state (Alabama) wanted to put into foster care. They found foster parents in the church so that the kids at least knew the people they were going to live with.
They were decent folks.

Answer 4

OH YES!!!!!

One good example was when I was going to have to move because my rent was going up and I couldn't afford it and my car was having mechanical problems.

My church group prayed for me, gave me a check for $1,100.00 from their combined efforts, which allowed me to make all the repairs to my car that was needed.

I "just happened" to come across an older gentleman (86 years old) who agreed to rent me out his finished basement for $100.00 less than I was able to afford, I was able to help him out around his house in return and be a blessing to him and when I got a letter from the IRS that I had made a mistake on my tax return and owed the IRS $400.00 that $100.00 a month extra I was able to afford was exactly what was needed to pay back the IRS without incurring any penalties.

I've also had many people in church who have stepped up to the plate for me whenever I've needed someone to talk to about problems and have been very supportive of me while gently helping to steer me back on the path of the straight and narrow.

Yes, a good church is an awesome blessing to any and all.

Answer 5

i am an athiest, married to a baptist. His church has driven my mother in law away from me because she hates that I do not believe what she does physically, i have speant several hours in church but did not gain or lose much in any other sense of it. for my MIL, the chruch has been there to help when her mother died, when her father died, and when her brother was killed in action. it has given her a support network she desperatly lacked, at the cost of money she should have been using to buy food and clothes and pay off her home. for my husband, it helped his mother raise him emotionally, but has let him down severly recently.

Answer 6

My church has helped me in fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ by providing me with a way to channel my financial resources to the home and foreign mission fields.

Answer 7

My church harms me. I have lived by my church for my entire life (21 years), and still it will not allow me to go and have sex before I am married.

The feeling of hate I get when all my friends have boyfriends who they regularly have sex with is overwhelming. My tension is so bad it is making me hate everyone. But I will not break my relationship with God for any man.

There's so much I would give right now to just get shafted silly, but I must resist temptation. Is there any way around this (I've tried 'manual release', but it just makes me worse)?

Answer 8

All the time. I belong to a reform temple (Jewish) and am low income. I have received scholarships for my kids at the religious school, they have paid for me to go on a women's retreat, drastically reduced annual "dues" (since Jews cannot handle money on Shabbat we don't have weekly giving- they do an annual thing)

Answer 9

When I used to go to church, it was all about money and money and more money. That's one reason I stopped going.

Answer 10

yes, they sponsored me on a mission trip to Costa Rica, otherwise I would not have been able to afford it.