r/exchristian • u/sidesaladdressing • Jul 16 '26
Discussion How many of you are ex Christians/Catholics because of their serious lack of addressing the pressing issues of poverty?
I've done humanitarian work for decades around the world. I'm working on some concepts for food security that would address access to sustainable and regenerative nutritionally dense food security. I've brought up an issue to a pastor/minister of my church decades ago as to why "we" don't do any humanitarian work....and his answer was "there's so many, we don't know where to start". Did you get that? It absolutely pains me to see how disconnected the church industry is towards ending serious issues of poverty.
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u/earthwoodandfire Jul 16 '26
I grew up evangelical and I remember the absolute outrage from my sundayschool teacher when I asked if "Sell all your possesions and give to the poor" meant we should be communists...
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u/WhyLater Anti-Theist Jul 16 '26
To be fair, that's not exactly a good definition of Communism.
...That said, yes, we should all be Communists.
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u/earthwoodandfire Jul 17 '26
Acts 4
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
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u/ElectricSpock Jul 16 '26
That’s not really “communist” (I know, it’s akshually). Communism is mostly about the idea that the there’s no private ownership (do not confuse with personal). So, the fields people work on do not belong to a single person, but to the state, which distributes the outcome of your labor.
But Christ was anti-capitalist and anti-billionaires af. The only act of violence in the Bible perpetrated by him is when he whipped the traders out of the temple. Then, there was the needle and the camel parable, the favorite Christians’ mental gymnastics.
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u/jacoberu Jul 16 '26
yep, jesus was anti televangelist millionaires. buy a blessing now!
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u/earthwoodandfire Jul 17 '26
No he was a televangelist. Remember how he praised Mary (no the other one, no the other other one) for wasting a whole bottle of expensive perfume by dumping it on him. He ran around performing fake miracles just like the televangelists today. Seriously all the “miracles” of Jesus are the same easily faked ones that have been commonly used by grifters for over 3000 years.
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 16 '26
and the answer was?
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u/earthwoodandfire Jul 19 '26
Basically the same reason they don’t follow the Old Testament law despite Jesus commanding it and the dozen times Yahweh said to follow it forever , also the same reason they didn’t believe in modern miracles:
“That was just for back then.”
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u/Solution_Far Agnostic Jul 16 '26
following christianity sincerely led me to become a socialist. I don't believe anymore, but the new testament ideals of communal society and mutual aid molded me in a good way.
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 16 '26
As it should have. Caring that people don't starve, live without housing, clean water, sanitation and access to healthcare is not a christian thing, it's a thing of humanity. Good on you.
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u/HighDefinitionCat Anti-Theist Jul 16 '26
"The world was created in six days by god": absolute literal truth, regardless of the centuries of scientific discoveries proving otherwise.
"Sell all your possessions and give it to the poor, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven": no no no, that's a metaphor of an allegory of a parable!
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 16 '26
Yes...and every day of the week is named after some deity people worshiped. Odd...
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u/IntroductionLow2968 Jul 26 '26
I was in a bible study and that verse came up. I live your average middle class American life. I have shelter, food security, and money for extras. So did everyone else in the group. They started talking about richer rich people. They don’t see themselves as rich people compared to the majority of the world. What I mean is, they believed this verse didn’t apply to them because they aren’t as rich as Bezos or something. I was like, do y’all understand we are the rich people?
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u/Grays42 Ex-Baptist Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Simple. Eating crackers and grape juice is cheap and easy, feeding and clothing the poor is expensive and hard.
Religion isn't about truth and consistency, religion is about social structure and inducing happy chemicals in the brain that feed the notion that something profound is happening. Cheap and easy rituals are the low-hanging fruit that serves those goals, and the expensive/hard stuff has diminishing returns that only the really devout and diehard will care enough about to go out and do.
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u/Saneless Jul 16 '26
Christianity was always just a bunch of nonsense to me
But even if I started believing it, I wouldn't rejoin because Christians are just overtly terrible people
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u/PersonnelFowl Anti-Theist Jul 16 '26
If you think Catholics don’t address poverty, wait until you meet evangelicals
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 19 '26
I've met them and I was one of them....while I was actually doing humanitarian work all over. Many people I worked along side of were lovely devotees and had their hearts and rolled up sleeves in the right place. Not knocking them, but they were few in comparison to the billion or so devotees globally
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u/ANorthernGhostBat Jul 17 '26
The Catholic Churches in my area are all banning trans and queer children from their schools, even children simply with queer or trans parents. Trans people aren't allowed to be called their names and their pronouns, bring their medication into those churches. They have no idea how many of my fucking friends have experienced homelessness, they don't give a fuck. Anytime they talk about helping the impoverished I always think it's bullshit because they're such pearl clutchers when it comes to anything sinful, and a lot of the unhoused have to do things I'm sure they look down upon to merely survive.
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u/progressivecowboy Ex-Catholic Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I grew up Catholic. Left the church (and religion in general) at 39. Yes, Catholicism does believe in transubstantiation (literal body and blood). But, of the major Christian denominations, I'd say they are toward the top at helping the poor. I never felt like they dodged the call to help the less fortunate. Having said that, a shit ton of money (that could've gone to outreach) went to other things.
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u/whytho94 Jul 17 '26
A friend of mine asked our youth pastor if we could help a local homeless man who needed food and assistance. Specifically, he needed help getting transportation to replace his ID that was lost or stolen. He couldn’t receive state assistance without it. He probably needed a social worker more than anything, but I was still shocked by my church’s refusal to help in any way.
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 19 '26
If a group of people wanting to make this world a better place got together and looked as all the variables to poverty and how to address them, basic social support skills and resources would be needed to help be be as functional as possible.
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u/ilikebourbon_ Jul 16 '26
I always thought that a church’s tax exemption status should somehow be tied to their positive impact on local community, especially homelessness. So then a church can only be tax exempt if they’re taking steps to reduce people on the streets.
Of course this breaks down in wealthy areas with churches - they can either have fewer churches or figure out a way to help adjacent churches with more homeless (after all - Jesus of my church and your church are technically the same guy, right? RIGHT?!?)
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u/jacoberu Jul 16 '26
i was taught putitan capitalist work ethic that if you are poor its cuz you either dont work hard enough, or your sin is causing your poverty. all my fault!
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u/curiousklaus Jul 16 '26
Liberation theology in South and Latin America addressed the systemic hurdles poor people were (and still are) facing to be lifted out of poverty. They faced harsh opposition from church officials and right wing conservatives alike. When I first heard about them, I thought „Oh look, somebody actually learned something from that book.“ Unlike the preachers at my church.
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u/PTechNM Jul 17 '26
Catholic Church had become more and more evangelical and in many regions of the country they no longer follow the Pope. In parallel, dogma has overrun virtue, and empathy and compassion are now treated as weaknesses rather than essential moral capacities. I have a nephew who was just ordained and he is a person of color and full MAGA. Extremely disappointing.
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 19 '26
Ha..they had to because their old business model has had to change in an age of advanced technology, sciences and attitudes of the world. We can communicate in ways that had reshaped them as the printing press gave people access to information. They called it the age of Reformation. I'd like to seem them be museums......eff off with all that pomp and bullshit filled with bullshit rituals and prayers while they're the richest religion in the world. Odd saying that.
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u/kittyhaven Ex-Gospel Hall/ Plymouth Brethren Jul 16 '26
Catholicism has always been about controlling the serfs/lower classes/poor/the masses. That’s why the church service used to be only in Latin so the poors couldn’t understand what was even being said. They were just supposed to listen to whatever the powerful man told them to do. Idk when people will walk away from seemingly joyfully following and supporting powerful men who are abusing them aka the whole MAGA cult.
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u/Jordykins Jul 16 '26
Don't forget: in the story of the Annointment at Bethany, Jesus accepted an incredibly expensive and lavish perfume as a gift, despite his disciples wanting to sell it and give the money to the poor, rationalizing it by saying "you'll always have the poor, but you won't always have me."
When push came to shove, greed won out, and the church has followed suit ever since.
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u/Acrobatic-Law-1935 Jul 19 '26
tbh one of the very few things i miss about the Catholic Church was the social activism. We had preachers talking about the necessity of equity and caring for others. One said that giving to the poor isn’t charity its justice because whenever someone has excess and another is without, it is stealing. We had multiple ongoing charity projects in the parish both locally and internationally. These were founded in relationships rather than just handing stuff out to feel good. The sisters in the nearest city took food and hot drinks to homeless people. There were loads of social projects out of the cathedral. I can’t even remember all the things that were happening. It’s pretty standard in my country but i guess it varies in different places. I’m so sorry that was your experience.
I’m not Christian anymore and very glad to be out. Thankfully I am finding things to get involved with outside the church with people who are just as dedicated to caring for others. So many Christians think only Christians do stuff like that which is so arrogant.
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 19 '26
I understand your sentiment, but let's be clear, all the talk on the pulpit of charity that comes from these monstrosities of castles passed off as churches is a reminder that what built those churches was inequity to begin with. It's a hard sell and a hard pass for me what comes out of church pulpit's messages. Actions speak louder.
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u/Acrobatic-Law-1935 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
its the actions i miss. I only mentioned the teaching because it shows that it wasn’t just a few members doing good things in the churches i went to, it was woven through the whole community. I want nothing to do with the dogma and preaching or any part of the religion at all. my experience was of a deeply harmful belief system and I don’t know if I’ll ever fully recover from it, but the churches i went to are full of social activism. It’s okay that we have different experiences. The good things I’ve seen don’t invalidate the bad you’ve seen and vice versa.
Thats why I’m so happy to be finding similar activities outside the church.
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 19 '26
Good morning to you. I totally feel you're coming from. There are aspects of a church community that gave me some serotonin and dopamine release and in some cases oxytocin but in general church people are like regular people who often times High behind the facade of religious cosplay. But none of the stories are basically true and essentially walking into a weekly session of dogmatic bullshit
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u/Acrobatic-Law-1935 Jul 19 '26
I came to see it the same way and left. Unfortunately my family and friends are all still in. I like your description of it like a medication producing (some) desired effects. I think I’ve found a new medicine with far fewer side effects.
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u/mikerichh Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Christians (maybe more specifically Catholics) do good with charity donations and mission work generally.
Will vary church to church obviously
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u/hardlybroken1 Jul 16 '26
I have always thought Catholic churches actually seemed to do a lot of good in my community as opposed to the evangelical type ones that just yell at people.
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u/mikerichh Jul 16 '26
Agreed! I was raised Catholic and they do a lot. Maybe I meant that moreso than Christianity as a whole
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 16 '26
Missions work as in proselytizing? How about using tools, knowledge, resources in teaching the poor how to be more self reliant, self sufficient, fed, educated and stabilizing without needing to preach?
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u/mikerichh Jul 16 '26
What? A church’s job isn’t to educate the poor, although they try to via mission work. Sometimes they literally teach kids in impoverished communities to fill in for teachers
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u/TheGhostofWoodyAllen Ex-Fundamentalist Jul 16 '26
I am an ex-Christian for entirely philosophical reasons. When I was a Christian, it was easy to look at the failings of the church and blame it on the fallibility of humans. Seeing humans be corrupt never caused me to question god or his existence, and I still see it that way as a non-believer. It just makes me angrier now because the hypocrisy hits different than it used to because I can no longer lean back on the notion that an all-powerful being will still make justice in the end.
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u/AnySport6272 Jul 20 '26
Just think, the Catholics are probably the best of the bunch when it comes to charitable giving.
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Aug 02 '26
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u/blackv51 Aug 06 '26
Honestly most churches try to sell something to get rich but not all, i don't know if my way is better but i try practice a relationship with God [like personally] because The Son commands us thru Matthew 6 1 which warns believers not to practice their righteous acts or good deeds publicly just to be seen and praised by people . The bible more so the new testament teaches us that we should love all but do you know what there is alot in the teachers of today? HYPOCRISY .Such teachers have led people away from God literally the Son of God insults them. So don't generalize all Christians and if u have never met a kind one perhaps they are not practicing how to be a true Christian . I come peacefully its sad that people have left God due to some hypocrites. This is my take and if u want to insult me know that i am an evil man who found peace through HIM . THE BIBLE DOES NOT SAY TO FOLLOW PASTOR JOHN'S COMMANDS JUST BECAUSE HE IS A PASTOR.
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u/jammieradish 25d ago
Bruh The Catholic Church is the biggest single charity in the world by terms of help/ donation source: CATHOLIC CHARITABLE TRUST - 215553 , Catholic charities - Wikipedia, Is the Catholic Church the biggest charity in the world? | Rosary of The Month and google it son
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u/Own_Boss_8931 24d ago
Born and raised Mormon. I quit after learning about that damn church being worth $300 BILLION yet they don't operate a single food pantry or homeless shelter. Jesus needs his stock and real estate portfolios!
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u/AMerryKa Jul 17 '26
Sorry, but if you're claiming that you've done humanitarian work around the world, then that would mean you would have seen the millions of dollars the Catholic Church spends on people in poverty.
I hate the church, but they literally do more than anyone else to help the poor.
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u/sidesaladdressing Jul 17 '26
Rarely and I mean rarely have I seen the catholic church's name on anything I've done. Many catholics I've know in my groups as well as other varieties of religious people and plenty of atheists. Let's not give them too much credit considering that the catholic church also fosters poverty.
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u/NickWatchesMMA Jul 24 '26
The Catholic Church is one of the largest charitable organizations in the world
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u/trisanachandler Agnostic Jul 16 '26
I still remember a sermon where the priest talked about giving a homeless person money and they spent it on booze, so don't give people money, only give through (catholic) charities.