Religious "charity" NIGHTMARE! 

Thanks for watching! What are your worst religious "charity" stories, and what are your favorite secular charity alternatives?

When I was growing up, my family went to an Assembly of God church. One year, the pastor announced that our church was getting several thousand dollars from the central organization and our congregation could decide how to spend it. I suggested giving to the community in some way--there were are are lots of poor families in my home town. The pastor suggested making a new driveway closer to the church entrance so that husbands could drop their wives off 20 to 30 feet closer when it rained. We got the driveway, and to this day it reminds me of how uncharitible and short-sighted so-called Christians can be.

I knew a family that were in desperate need of some assistance--food, money, clothes, whatever. They went to several different types of churches asking for help. ALL of them turned them down, stating that they couldn't help unless they were a member of their church. So much for helping the poor!

It's so important to understand that being a decent human being has nothing to do with religious influence. Charity is a prime example of that.

So true. All churches should be taxed just like any other profit organization.

Very well articulated! And that Fergie bit was hilarious!

"I can't be a big blessing to people if I'm poor and broke and depressed and don't feel good about myself." - Joel Osteen. Are you shitting me, Joel?

The homeless shelter in my hometown is run by a religious organization. One of their requirements for admission to the shelter is for each applicant to agree to attend their chapel services on a daily basis. If the applicant refuses to agree to this, he/she is DENIED services/admittance to the shelter! This is true, no matter how cold it may be or what harm could come to the person by being denied services by the shelter! My sister, a devout Lutheran, tells me this is okay because it is public knowledge that the shelter is run by this Christian organization - AND it is their right to establish whatever requirements they wish based on their religion! To this, I say, "Just because they have the RIGHT to do so does not mean they SHOULD do it! The President of the United States has the authority/right to launch a nuclear attack whenever and upon whomever he so desires. This most definitely does NOT mean he should! I argued that a truly Christian organization would NOT make services dependent upon an agreement to attend its religious services. They would KNOW that the services they offer are much too critical to make such a requirement. They would also KNOW that anyone who 'comes to the word' of his/her own accord will most likely 'stay in the word'. Someone who is forced into the word may stay in it long enough to get what is needed in that moment, only to reject it once the need no longer exists. Belief through coercion or force - is this TRUE belief? Or is it temporary belief, necessary for immediate survival - only to be rejected when the need no longer exists?

When I worked in banking, you should have seen the untold billions Churches tucked away buying boats, expensive cars, high end apartment buildings, etc.

The LDS church makes over $7 billion per year in tithing alone (estimated since they don't reveal their finances) and owns one of the largest single-owner agricultural operations in the world, as well as trillions of dollars in property and for-profit companies. Yet they only donate $40 million per year to humanitarian aid (you can confirm this on their website) which amounts to less than ONE TENTH of a percent of their annual TITHING income, not including their for-profit incomes. Then they have the audacity to brag that they sent 28 truck loads of supplies to help hurricane victims. For a worldwide organization that makes so much money and claims to be charitable, these figures are nowhere near impressive.

Religions are out to help themselves, to build their clan and create wealth for the leadership. It's a tax free business.

The tax exempt religion rort has to end.

If Religion was taxed, USA's debt problem would quickly cease to exist.

Has anyone noticed that the pastors of churches have expensive houses while those within their congregation tend to be way poorer?

6:22 as Matt Dillahunty has said, if gay people cause hurricanes, then we need to distribute homosexuals more evenly to promote balanced rainfall.

To quote the late Christopher Hitchens: "Charity is not the love of the poor, it is the love of poverty."

As Clement Attlee put it, "If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim." Not only individuals, but companies, churches, etc. Trickle down economics doesn't work and they should be taxed at more than 50% of their revenue.

Hahaha, I love the animation of Joel Osteen, that's just too good! Great vid Thomas! Keep up the great work my friend.

"God is a lie, we made him up for money" -Rick and Morty

I've thought about the mission work of some local churches. In one case they spent a week down in Florida building homes. Which was good. What I found alarming was the percentage of time spent relaxing on the churches dime. Deep Sea fishing, golfing, Disney World. BBQ every night

As religious as my relatives liked to think of themselves...they weren't a family. I grew up without a real family....and I'll never have one of my own.

Churches sued for disaster relief ! Wow. Just wow. That should send a message to every believer out there who thinks they have an all powerful sky daddy.

I was on a church's mission cmte where we supposedly gave 10% of our total budget to groups outside the church. But about 7 percent went to the denomination we were a part of - sort of like a membership fee - and 3 percent went to local service groups. It's a tribe with most people in the pews content to spend money on themselves and their own people.

Those dummy were singing at a hurricane cloud.Only in America.

My worst story is of donating some crockery to a church charity to help people that had been homeless with refurnishing a new home. A couple of weeks later I visited one of the volunteers and we drank coffee out of the very specific handpainted mugs I donated for charity. I felt so betrayed that our friendship has cooled because of that. My best story of secular charity is of the All-for-free store. I'm a single mom on welfare and my children have played computer games for a very long time for free, because they could get free games at the All-for-free store. When they were done with a game they simply swapped it for another one.

I remember a Baptist church in, I believe, Oklahoma, raised several thousand dollars via a supposed charity, to send to Haiti, after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country. After raising a few thousand dollars, they decided not to waste the money on the desperate Haitians, but rather to spend the money on a bus, to drive seniors in the congregation to their picnics. Things like that happened in Churches all over America. many protestant churches raised money, supposedly to help haiti but then changed their minds and spent it on themselves, yea though that was blatantly illegal in the places where they did it. Making a show of collecting for a charity and then keeping the money for yourself, is illegal. I heard of no one being charged.

My former church (mormon) gives roughly $40 million / year. Just a couple years ago they finished building a $1.5 Billion dollar mall. But yeah, tell me again that they're a charitable organization.

Thanks for my new favorite term for religious institutions: "dogma dispensaries."😅😂🤣

I'm so glad I saw this today. I've been very impressed by work done by 2 Churches in area this past year. The one that surprised me the most was the Catholic Church. We don't have a big problem with homelessness because our city has 2 Covid safe shelters where they give out 3 full meals per day, province clothing, toiletries and othèr essentials. Face masks are available at all times. During the 3 lockdowns, residents had to stay at the centres. There are televisions and board games and a large enclosed garden. I contribute to our food Bank weekly. They are helping so many. The Churches who help the least are those who demand 10% tithing from their congregants.

“Can I just hold out a helping hand that’s not covered in bull crap?” Best. Line. Ever. You won the internet. Not sure how I missed this last year, but I glad I’m watching it now! (Or maybe I am rewatching it. My memory sucks. Either way, you win the internet.)

Archdiocese of Manila in the Philippines is one of the wealthiest organization in South East Asia yet it is surrounded by people who were the most pooriest in the city. How about that?

I used to watch the collection plate go from the congregation to vestry. I watched priests filch money from the plate before it was counted. This is just one way religions exploit us. I agree that we can help others without the religious baggage. So many churches are involved in false charity...it's mind boggling.

I heard about this. Isn't that guy rich enough? Thank goodness for my fellow atheists bringing this to surface. Amazing how oblivious humans are, lol. Maybe we are the dumbest primate species after all. (:

I can't thank you enough for this info. I'm so tired of this argument. Now i have the info to back down the religious charity bullcrap.

TAX churches! Make them report their books like any other BUSINESS.

FANTASTIC video! I will be sharing it far and wide.

Great video, religion is such a criminal organisation. These rich pastors need to be stripped of the people's money and distributed to the poor who need it.

Excellent video. Well said.

Showing kindness and generosity to people is more important then buying a thousand Mega churches.

I wish I had seen this video several weeks ago. I know a lady whose pastor told the church in a sermon that your generosity depends on your view of God. I couldn't resist, I went off on her

I went to a church once, that rented a run down movie theater for the services. It was badly scraping by, because the pastor felt it more important to use the money to buy food to distribute to the poor than to build up the church.

"Religion poisons everything." - Christopher Hitchens

A local business owner found Jesus. She chased all the longtime customers out and invited new clientele. The advertising campaign was "real men take their wives to dinner". Before long, the obedient men lined up each evening and suffered through the meal. Bait and switch replaced the good food with garbage. THEN she started a "charity event" every week, collecting money with which to lavish prizes on some unfortunate child and invited motorcycle clubs to participate every week. Now, one hundred customers, who had never been there before, came in and spent money for two hours each week (more revenue than she had in a month). All for Jesus (The business is a bar.)

When I clicked on the video it had 666 views.😍😍😍

Dude, that dancing animation of Olsteen just kills me. I laughed every time it was on screen.

My husband's family (I think his great grandfather) started a church and around the time that I met him a decade ago, people started getting suspicious because they kept asking for money for a new building and yet somehow, never seemed to have enough. It also didn't even appear that they were actively looking for locations. I am so glad my husband was never a religious people, I imagine a lot of people gave a significant amount of their money to thieves and frauds.

Religion:the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Worshiping things doesn't bring food. Farming and hunting brings food. Worshiping things doesn't bring housing. Carpentry, house making skills, physics and hard work bring housing. Worshiping things doesn't bring drinkable water. Tapping lakes and cleaning water brings drinkable water. Worshipping things doesn't bring happiness. It alleviates religion made problems. It tells you that you have a problem and manipulates you into thinking they fixed a problem they caused.

...and many religious charities are selective with regard to whom they will give help to and have political agendas that are anything but "compassionate" (the Salvation Army being but one example thereof) and often have to strong-armed, litigiously, into being more-inclusive and agenda-free.

My; @%$$@! Thing is; the church exspects %10 of our income then trick the seniors on fixed incomes to give %10 and usually get that%10 from them each sunday! That's %40 some months! I brought this to the churches attention and was snarled at for it! I wonder whhhhhyyyy?🙄

Go to Greece, you will find in a small village a church busting at the seams with gold while surrounded by poverty stricken houses, now go to the USA.

"Non-Prophet" ! LOL

I worked in a church run soup kitchen until the guy who ran it (the minister of the church) asked me why I never came into church on Sundays. When I explained I was atheist I was asked not to come back. I had never spoken about religion to anyone, I had was getting along with everyone, I was enjoying helping out. The only reason I was asked not to come back was that I was proof that not all atheists were assholes.

A 10 million dollar mansion? That's a belief in greed, not god!

I don't recall ever being a believer in any religion. When I was young and foolish, I thought that giving to a church would help people. After a while, I found out that most of the money was being spent to send missionaries, build churches, buy bibles, and so on. To get any help, people had to sit for a sermon. To sit for the sermon, they had to be properly dressed. So now more money was being spent on unnecessary clothing when they were going without food and medicine.

I did not grow up around church because of my dad's story. He was an alter boy, and had a successful paper route and worked at the grocery store as a cashier when he was 15. His dad died when he was 13 and it was him and his mom that supported the six of them. The catholic church had the gull to note they were not "tithing" like they should, and could give more in the name of god. So dad gave up the church and would not allow us to go. But we did, and that is a story for another time.

You're right, but I was homeless for a year and a bunch of religious shelters were extremely good to me. Three hot meals a day, laundry, showers...the kind of thing you appreciate after freezing on a bus station bench all night. I don't believe in any religion, and none of them tried to make me. No one needs a religious organization to good because morality doesn't come from someone's idea of god. But I owe those guys and girls big time, so on sheer principle...Also, if you haven't yet, please do something about the prosperity gospel. That is one of the most harmful ideas religion has yet produced.

Let's not even mention all the religious wars over charity. Amnon Yishaq has ordered a religious boycot against Zamir Cohen. Claiming he does not adhere to A.Y's religious interpretation. (That being of religious coersion, isolationism, theocracy, fire and brimstone.) The same thing with Yaron Ruben and Manis friedman.

My step-dad works as a handyman at a church. While he calls himself a Christian, he doesn't go to church. He tells me stories about how stupid they are with their money, since he gets to sit in on some of the meetings they have about spending it. It seems like he regularly tells me about some wealthy parishioner that recently passed away and left the church a ton of money. Instead of doing anything for the community, they're always adding onto their building, which is now a giant compound....kinda looks like a small campus or something. He tells me about how their pastor lives in this pretty awesome house and all of his bills are paid and he gets a nice salary. Yet, he tells me the church is always crying poverty. Anyway, the moral of the story is, I'm sure this is what Jesus would have wanted.

Every time I see a church I think, "Wow, imagine if all the money spent on that taxfree, worthless building had actually been used to help people."

This chanel is SO under rated, keep up the great work!!

You're forgetting the Manhattan sushi bar that donates to world hunger: Octopi Wall Street.

Not a charity issue, but a good example of churches protecting their books: My mom was a teacher and a principal in the Catholic school system. She was working in a tiny towns school and the parish priest was replaced with someone who had grown up in this small town. Turns out he was best friends growing up with the school aide my mom had been forced to let go for financial reasons. This woman got the new priest to fire my mom for no reason, going directly against my mom’s contract. My mom went to the Bishop and asked for several months pay (it was the very start of the school year, a time when principal jobs aren’t available) and an apology. She was told to go the hell away. Thankfully, she stood up for herself and sued- the only money she asked for was a single years pay and her attorney fees, but she did want a letter of apology. Seemed fair enough! The Catholic Church responded by going to the courts and demanding the suit be thrown out as the employment records constitute a religious document. And the court agreed with that! *The Catholic Church is permitted to seal all employment documents in the US like this, which essentially renders all employment contracts null and void.* My moms lawyer had encountered this before and she asked my mom if she could take the case to the state Supreme Court. My mom agreed, knowing at this point that she nor the lawyer would likely ever see a single penny, but the lawyer was willing to keep working the case, knowing she’d likely never get paid, in order to try to break down this impenetrable wall around the Church. They won and the Church was forced to unseal the employment records, and my mom won the case. Obviously, any and all agreements beyond that are sealed for privacy, but the biggest thing that made everyone happy was knowing future claimants now have a precedent in place to help them. ETA: They estimate the Church spent more than 2-3 times my moms annual salary fighting the law suit.

Religious blindness knows no boundaries 🙈🙉🙊... Good work exposing all this.... 👍 👍

I've been in the homeless shelters. In my experience there are more churches giving out meals and helping out. To be fair, Gateway and Phoenix Rising were secular, and Bank of America employees _did_ help feed us, but most that I saw were churches.

This is truly a wonderful video, very much needed as this charity excuse is used a lot.

4:08 ...And though they don't have nearly the fundraising capabilities as these religious organizations, it does not make their compassion and desire to help any less sincere either.

Thank you for posting the video.

Plethora means TOO MUCH of a good thing, not just a lot.

I agree that they can’t have the nerve to ask the rebuild from the government if they aren’t paying their taxes...

Coming from a town where the best company working is a church yeah this is true, Let's not forget that when people donate to a church hundreds of dollars that same money is taken from money to help improve the town, actually, this seems to make them look like leeches. This is from my town/state considering hundreds do get sent to my churches yet my town is very behind on the times, compared to say the next state over, we have bad housing, poor dental, and even the schools are pretty terrible if the money was wiser spent and managed people would not have to keep traveling far to get good dental, learn shit and deal with other things while praying for God to make life better, which he doesn't.

That’s a good idea churches should be transparent about their books since they don’t pay taxes

"'butt' delusional" "non-prophet organizations" hahahahahahhahaahahaha. Can't breathe! You're killing me!

The Humane Society has numerous problems, donate directly to local shelters!

I a religious historian specialist and only religion that helps and feeds millions of poor every single day is the Sikh faith even though it's not an ancient religion and not big in population its the only one iv found that actually feeds and helps people irrespective of what religion they belong too it treats everyone equal! I have never come across such good nice people such as the Sikhs who recognised women equal to men all colours and cast creed equal to themselves the Sikhs have been doing all this when they started 500 approx years ago! everyone is welcome in sikh gurdwara 247 and get free food and sometimes a place to stay! very good people we could all learn something from them! god bless the Sikh faith which without the help of governments saved Millon's of poor dying of hungry each and every day especially in India where a lot of poor are!

you need to hammer it home where the religious organisations get their money from! , that is the key to waking people up.

Thanks.....😊

you're absolutely right, this is usually the last claim I have to disprove when I discuss religion with a religious person

Dude I fucking died laughing when you edited the Christians trying to pray away the storm with rain dance music.

I'm an atheist and I literally give money to charities almost every time I'm asked in stores or see them. It's not much, but I'm happier giving my money to people in need than a boring pastor.

And, what if "they" learned for a fact that no, there is no god or an after life in heaven? Do they stop being "charitable"? Does the knowledge of no grand prize change their minds about helping thy neighbour?

I live in an extremely christian neighbourhood , and then im treated like a wild beast because im an atheist

Hell why not just give food or clothing or money to those in need, screw charity. Most charities keep 70-90 percent of the donations they take in, what hypocrisy.

Ken Ham actually told people on Facebook not to give to the Red Cross.

Hi holy Koolaid. Being fair, i've to say that the "gold buildings" of the Vatican were ancient, so they were built in the time where the Vatican had actually real power. You should focus on other things, that are worst in my country, Italy, that has been destroyed by the catholic church. First of all, the Catholic Churc as a whole (in Italy, they have to track all the foundings and the money) less than 8% of the taxes go into charitable actions, so we have the prove that they do not care for the helpless, but italians still believe that they do. Also, in italy, the state channels have A LOT of series that gave credits to the catholic church and their priests. An last, but not least, the catholic church cancelled, erased totally, a special day, the 20 sept, that is the day when our national hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, broke into the walls of the Vatican and took Rome, to be our capital. Becouse that day the vatican ceased to exist as a temporal power, thanks to that bastard of Mussolini, they erased from our social history the most important day of our nation. In America, your churches lie, in Italy, our church erase our history.

WHOA, Sparky!! Calm down! When you get excited, your already soprano-like voice almost goes ultrasonic. 😈 Keep up the excellent work. 👍

I wouldn’t mind seeing a change to the tax code that would tax all income according to their expenditures. Administrative, building upgrades, etc? Tax the portion of the budget for that. Leave the portion of the annual income dedicated to actually helping those in need free of a tax burden. But, the condition is free and open viewing of the budget as a non-profit.

Hi! first time commenting here. I'm an atheist but I'm not really out because the rest of my family are devout to a fault. My aunt is a missionary and she said that its not the church's responsibility to take care of the needy. She explained that the purpose of the church is to cultivate the soul. For me, I just don't think that kind of thing is right and just plain stupid.

I will stick up for Joel here a little bit... He stated his rejection was also due to insurance coverage. If he took people in, he would be liable for any little thing. Being in the insurance industry, I totally understand why he would turn people away. Odds are, some one would see dollor signs and sue the hell out of him. Now for his blinding white teeth.... that's on him.

Very well done, thanks. The more videos of yours I watch, the bigger fan I'm becoming. My views on subject are same.

When a church provides monthly payments to keep people’s electricity on each month or any other bills that are past due for that matter, provides food boxes several times a week to the same household every week, provides hot meals every week to the same elderly every week, provides transportation for people in the community, provides shelter to those in need, and a whole host of other things for the community and surrounding communities. Then no they do not need to pay taxes. Our church is actually in debt. We are only sustained by what the church members are capable of giving out of their checks that has already been taxed. Our preacher is provided with housing, and a small check to care for his family. These types of churches should be tax exempt. Mega churches, however should be taxed to high heaven. I have seen those churches not lift a finger for their own church members while making millions and that’s a disgrace. But please note that churches like mine are built off the backs of families who actually provide for the needy 💜 We are not rich with money but rich with love and acceptance of others. We do not cast stones at least I don’t nor does my preacher. He actually provides counseling to my son every week, and though they may not agree on everything. They still have respect for each other, and can debate their differences peacefully. There’s nothing wrong with believing in a higher power, prayer, and a church family that supports their members and the community. Not all churches work this way but should, and even if you needed helped you would be given help regardless if you were a believer or not 💜💜Also, we do disclose our finances every year to the IRS. We truly do try to do what’s right. Though we are not perfect either, but we do provide without the funds to even do so at times. We are certainly far from raining with money.

"I'm not paying for this!" Perhaps your best point in this video. If I don't have to pay for abortions with my taxes because it violates my beliefs, you don't have to pay for Church sanctuaries or spreading the Gospel with your taxes because it violates your beliefs, and nobody has to shovel their tax money into the jaws of corrupt megachurches that they don't belong to and disagree with the teachings of. Freedom is only freedom when everyone is free, isn't it? #freedomistherightofallsentientbeings

Your arguments for atheism are great and you're one of my favorite RU-vidrs. It's a bonus that your videos are well animated and well edited. So here's my question: What software do you use to animate? Did it take you a long time to learn how?

You know it's funny; this reminds me of a story I was told in an old children's bible I owned. The story was of a poor woman who had very little to give to the church compared to the rest of the people there. The lesson was that even though she had less money to give she actually gave more because while everyone else gave a portion of what they have she gave everything she had and thus in a way she was giving more. Funny then how churches are largely uninterested in this idea when it comes to charity.

The Mormon church doesn't disclose its finances.

Sorry but "YOU ARE THE ONE WHO ROCKS". Thanks for your humanitarian concern.

I did a little research myself just to try and figure out just how much do the churches save by not paying taxes in the US. Now I did not go super in depth, but I ended up at 66 billion dollars and I believe that was being generous. The amount of greenhouses and living structures that could be made with that amount of money per year could probably solve starvation and houselessness in the US. Ever hear about that one guy who tried to figure out just how much the catholic church is worth? After 6 years and still not seeing the end in sight, he gave up and said it would most likely take over his lifetime just to know.

I keep telling my family third world countries don't need more churches but they said they did

Are you saying that god is just an unnecessary middleman? GASP! But uh, props to you. Someone finally said it. An all-powerful, all-knowing deity doesn't seem to know how to be honest and forthcoming (or maybe he's just misunderstood and has really poor communication skills). Nor does he know how to manage finances for some reason. "Doh! Accounting and iron chariots... ...my only weaknesses!"

Although I give Olsteen a pass because he's not trying to interfere with my life or influence public policy he definitely dropped the ball on this one.

All I know is that when a religious person does charity, it is for selfish reasons (going to heaven, staying out of hell), but when an atheist does it, he/she does it for no other reason than doing good for our fellow human. Just as evolution would predict for an animal living in social groups...