Reply #2: Most churches give back to the community, one way or another

[noonwitch]

There are always scammers in religion and pretty much every other field there is.

But whether a church is liberal or conservative, most do community work. A lot of conservative christians have no objection to helping the poor voluntarily, they just don't want their tax money used for that when they give generously to private charities. I don't necessarily agree with them, but I understand why they think that way.

Pretty much every church of every stripe does canned food collections, and either distribute the food themselves or donate it to a larger community agency-my church does it and gives the food to a homeless shelter. We also do a coat drive every year and we donate teddy bears to the police department, so that they can give them to kids they have to take into protective custody. The teddy bear drive in ecumenical-my liberal church participates as do a bunch of more conservative churches.