We have private charities AND government progams and it's still not enough. Could you possibly imagine making do on less

that they cannot be the only answer.

So everyone is supposed to join a church/synagogue/mosque/other house of worship to get needs met ? What's wrong with that ?

thrift shop and social agency for many of the other churches running the local food shelf and emergency aid program. They work for what is called the Ministerial Committee and they are expected to help anyone who comes in. No prayer or questions.

But the point that the Rs do not understand is the enormity of the problem. The private charities all have a problem meeting the needs even when the poor are getting the majority of the help from government programs.

One of the reasons that they say that is because they have no intention of helping anyone not in their church.

In the 60s I worked on some of the reservations out west in Montana. This is the story that they told us about this talking point. Years ago the War Department decided that they would hand the various government programs on the reservation over to the churches. So when it came to social services and law enforcement, schools, etc. the local priest or preacher was given some program to run. And of course they did exactly what you said. If you wanted help you had to agree to let them baptize you. So if grandma got arrested in order to get her out of jail you all had to go to the preachers church the next Sunday and be baptized. Same with all the other organizations in town.

Now first we need to look at one of the beliefs of the churches even today. Most of them accepted one baptism and that baptism was all one needed to be a part of God's universal church. But not on the reservation. Many of the older people I knew on the reservation who were alive during this time had been baptized no less that seven or eight times.

Needless to say there was not much respect for any of the churches.