There are numerous churches in both Detroit and Chicago. Most of them operate some type of assistance programs from homeless shelters to youth programs to soup kitchens to housing assistance, etc.
Interfaith is a nation wide program, operated by a coalition of several denominational and non-denominational churches which provides assistance for housing.
And, yes, the Salvation Army is a faith based assistance foundation which does a lot of good assisting the needy nation wide.
There are many, many examples of faith based assistance programs. Most are local operated by individual churches. And they do more with each dollar received than the government will ever dream of.
Try doing a little honest research on this topic instead of spouting incorrect guesswork. Religious contributions totaled approximately $34 billion dollars in 2006. Of that, approximately 80% goes to operating expenses of the churches that received the contributions. (A few of which resulted in the leadership attaining a high level of wealth. But over 99% are honest and reasonable operating expenses.) So, including missionary services, there is about 6.8 billion dollars left. Most is used in community assistance programs as those mentioned above.
Compare that to the federal welfare budget which totals well over $100 billion annually, not including medicaid or any of the non-retirement related SS payments. Tack on all 50 states' welfafre budgets and the totals reach over $200 billion.
Now do you wonder why the government programs are more visible?
You have yet to quantify or validate any of the claims you've made other than "lots of churches doing lots of things."
In Detroit, as in many major innercities, there is often a church on all four corners of some blocks. There are multi-million dollar church/cathedrals sitting in communities with a median income below the poverty level. On Sunday mornings, sitting outside of many of these oppulent temples you'll find Mercedes, BMW's, Jags, and sometimes Bentleys and Rolls that do not belong to the flock .. although the flock paid for them. When these pimpmobiles aren't parked outside the church, they are parked in front of oppulent homes .. the flock paid for.
Some of these churches take in millions of dollars individually and shell out just enough to the poor to give the impression of legitimacy. I know this for fact because I've worked with churches and the Detroit Council of Baptist Ministers to establish a program to get churches to adopt indiviual high schools close to their locations.
I've also worked with churches in Atlanta through the Congressional office I worked for trying to assist the poor. One of the best programs in the nation in addressing the needs of the poor has been that of late civil rights activisy and minister, Hosea Williams. Yet, one of his greatest frustrations was that he could not get the assistance from area churches that he knew they were capable of. Atlanta area churches rack in millions of dollars every Sunday, but contributed precious little to his program .. so he went to the government and corporations for help.
My point is that although thare are a great many churches doing good work, there are many doing nothing but pimping and trickling down crumbs to the poor .. like Bishop Eddie Long and many others.
If the church wants tax-exempt status and taxpayer money in the form of "faith-based" programs, them the American people deserve an accounting of what that church is doing.
Where is your great difficulty in shining the light on what churches may or may not be doing? In the investigation of mega-churches, some pastors are refusing to open their books. They think themselves above the law and you seem to agree with that nonsense.
Without shining a light on these ministers, many of whom have almost sole control of the church finances, abuses go undiscovered ..
like this one ..
Days before pleading guilty to money laundering earlier this month, former legislator Ron Sailor Jr. secretly took out a $250,000 mortgage on the southwest Atlanta church where he was pastor.
The congregation had no idea what he had done, church leaders say. Now, they say they have no idea where the money is.
The deacons of Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church were scrambling Thursday to piece together what happened and just who was the minister they thought they knew.
"It's amazing to all of us," said Jimmie Evans, chairman of the board of deacons. "We can't believe it."
Sailor resigned his legislative post after pleading guilty March 18 in federal court. Gov. Sonny Perdue on Thursday called a May 13 election to fill the seat, which represents sections of DeKalb and Rockdale counties.
A church trustee began checking records Tuesday after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Sailor had accepted at least $80,000 from a lobbyist in a 2007 land transaction, Evans said.
The board soon learned Sailor had secretly changed church bylaws to make himself chief executive officer, Evans said.
They also found Sailor had borrowed $250,000 using the church's buildings and 2.5-acre property as collateral. Fulton County tax assessors value the property at 2540 Campbellton Road at $369,200.
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/dekalb/stories/2008/03/27/sailorchurchindex_0328.html
There are hundreds of such abuses .. but the abuses aren't just financial as the revelations of sexual abuses my Catholic clergy, and the revelations of pedophillia sex dens clearly demonstrate.
I wonder if you believe the "secular" government has the right to taking action against these abuses .. that would not have been discovered without investigation.
Believe as you will, but neither the church nor religion are above the law.
AND, government assistance to poor families in the form of food stamps, medical care, welfare payments, and care for disabled children far exceeds the occasional assistance any family may recieve from a church.
AND, many of the programs run by churches are funded by the government.
Could the government do better? .. Of course they can .. but tyey can also do better by ensuring that ANY organization that gets government funding or tax-exempt status are actually doing what they say they are.
