3 ms·

Be careful in the US too, churches aren't so nice here.

s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
In my experience, churches are filled with the nicest people. Even though I'm not religious I go with my wife sometimes and everyone is very welcoming. Seems like you had a bad experience at a church or maybe you've never been in one and you're judging them based on the media you view. Either way, not a good reason to make wide blanket statements like that.
aphextim 7y ago
Sounds like you had a bad experience with a church. Every church I've ever gone to even without me being very religious has been very accepting and nice. Making blanket statements after one or even a handful of experiences doesn't help anyone and can be said about things also not relating to churches as well.
magic_beans 7y ago
This is really not true of 90% of churches. Let's distinguish between actual churches and personality cults like Westboro.
twoquestions 7y ago
EDIT: Looks like I'm outside the edit window. A late family member of mine in the OP's approximate situation was taken advantage of by a local church, which gives me pause when people say going to one for help is a bulletproof-good idea. I'm sorry for not providing context right away, the original statement on it's own was too broad.
skrtskrt 7y ago
As an ex-Catholic, all the churches I was a member of growing up took charity and things like this very seriously - there were many immigrant families that came to our churches and we would find them families that would let them stay with them until they got on their feet. It is, however, unfortunately not universal. I recently tried to drop off some extra Christmas toys I had mistakenly ordered on Amazon to a local Catholic church and they absolutely refused to take them and distribute to a needy family. I was floored.
- maffydub 7y ago
  I don't know the situation with the church in question, but I've been on the other side of a similar situation... For the last ~9 years, I've helped run a homeless shelter based out of a church in London, UK. We often get offered donations of clothes and unfortunately we have to turn them down unless we know of guests who need those specific items (e.g. men's 32-34" waist trousers or a pair of size 10 shoes). This is because otherwise we find that very few items get taken and we don't have space to store them, so it just means we have to take them to a charity shop anyway. Please don't be upset by your offering not being accepted - it can be hard to find the right place to use it and, if the organization is run by volunteers (as the one above is), they might not have the time to manage this. Incidentally, other shelters operate very differently from ours, and some definitely do accept clothing donations.

In my experience, churches are filled with the nicest people. Even though I'm not religious I go with my wife sometimes and everyone is very welcoming. Seems like you had a bad experience at a church or maybe you've never been in one and you're judging them based on the media you view. Either way, not a good reason to make wide blanket statements like that.

aphextim 7y ago

Sounds like you had a bad experience with a church. Every church I've ever gone to even without me being very religious has been very accepting and nice. Making blanket statements after one or even a handful of experiences doesn't help anyone and can be said about things also not relating to churches as well.

magic_beans 7y ago

This is really not true of 90% of churches. Let's distinguish between actual churches and personality cults like Westboro.

twoquestions 7y ago

EDIT: Looks like I'm outside the edit window. A late family member of mine in the OP's approximate situation was taken advantage of by a local church, which gives me pause when people say going to one for help is a bulletproof-good idea. I'm sorry for not providing context right away, the original statement on it's own was too broad.

skrtskrt 7y ago

As an ex-Catholic, all the churches I was a member of growing up took charity and things like this very seriously - there were many immigrant families that came to our churches and we would find them families that would let them stay with them until they got on their feet. It is, however, unfortunately not universal. I recently tried to drop off some extra Christmas toys I had mistakenly ordered on Amazon to a local Catholic church and they absolutely refused to take them and distribute to a needy family. I was floored.

maffydub 7y ago
I don't know the situation with the church in question, but I've been on the other side of a similar situation... For the last ~9 years, I've helped run a homeless shelter based out of a church in London, UK. We often get offered donations of clothes and unfortunately we have to turn them down unless we know of guests who need those specific items (e.g. men's 32-34" waist trousers or a pair of size 10 shoes). This is because otherwise we find that very few items get taken and we don't have space to store them, so it just means we have to take them to a charity shop anyway. Please don't be upset by your offering not being accepted - it can be hard to find the right place to use it and, if the organization is run by volunteers (as the one above is), they might not have the time to manage this. Incidentally, other shelters operate very differently from ours, and some definitely do accept clothing donations.