Many churches do wonderful social work. Helping the poor was one of Jesus’s most important messages (along with loving one’s neighbor and tolerance). It’s sad to me that G.W. Bush hypocritically promotes himself as a christian while taking money from the poor and giving it to the richest Americans in the form of tax breaks and corporate welfare.
There are some fantastic liberal churches out there that accept homosexuality and understand that promoting birth control, not abstinence is the best way to lower the abortion rate.
I do wonder how the donation statistics would skew if you factored out general donations to churches as charitable giving. (I’d allow giving at church to specific charitable causes to still be counted, but not those that pay pastor’s salaries, building and maintainence costs, etc).
