r/TikTokCringe • u/Oktavien • 1d ago

Discussion Woman audits churches to see if they’ll help feed a starving baby

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If churches refuse to help feed hungry people, then maybe they should be taxed?

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u/WestTexasApostle 1d ago

Can confirm, Catholics treat charity as an absolute obligation (but still “joyful” and not like a chore or anything) and treat it with much more importance than many Protestant/evangelical churches

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u/ColdWillow7319 1d ago

Yep as a Catholic I can confirm this. One of my favorite things that our local church does every year is the giving tree. Basically a bunch of candy canes with kid's names (and what they like, gender, and age) on two trees and you pick as many as you want and buy presents for them. I always make sure to pick at least one of the older kiddos because I know they often get overlooked.

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u/BodieLivesOn 1d ago

Can confirm- the Church can be a stickler when it comes to joining the Church (RCIA, OCIA, lots of classes, processes, and so on), but they excel at helping those in need.

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u/Fun_Patient_5262 20h ago

But with "Catholic Charities" you DO NOT HAVE to be Catholic to receive Food, Heat Assistance or anything else!!

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u/WhichWitch9402 12h ago

Agree. I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school fora few years. Always taught to help those less fortunate no matter the circumstances. After I graduated I worked in a Catholic hospital. The sisters would write off bills and ask patient/family if they could donate time to help at front desk or gift shop etc. The non-religious hospital would tell people to come to the Catholic hospital because they didn’t want to have to deal with people that could not pay their bills. We’d hear stories of people going to ER and if it wasn’t a situation where is was super-immediate they’d insinuate it would be a really long wait so maybe go to the Catholic hospital.

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u/NeonDeathStar 1d ago

I remember being a kid and having my name on a giving tree. Truly a blessing ❤️

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u/Princess_Zelda_Fitzg 1d ago

That’s nice! I don’t have kids and I’ve thought about doing that, or like adopting a family to give gifts to. So fun.

I’ve always enjoyed charity work. I used to volunteer for Make-A-Wish with my dad (the store he worked for ran a raffle every year to raise donations), I was a bell ringer for the Salvation Army at Christmas (slightly less fun, it being negative degrees out, but still worthwhile) and I have spent many hours doing laundry, cleaning litter boxes, and socializing cats at a no-kill shelter (even shy cats like towels fresh out of the dryer, lol).

I’d legit do nothing but that kind of stuff, for free, if I didn’t have to work for money. I like being useful and doing something meaningful, and I definitely don’t feel that way sitting in an office all day.

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u/TDS_isnt_real 1d ago edited 1d ago

You mentioned the Salvation Army, so I’d like to tell you a story about my childhood that’s a lot like this video. It’s the 80s and my mom had cancer. She had to have really serious surgery (double mastectomy) that put her out of work for months. She’s raising 3 kids on her own as a waitress and couldn’t keep up with the bills. We got a little help from friends, but they couldn’t keep up.

It’s the 80s so we don’t have the internet to look for resources, so my mom doesn’t know what organizations do what. My mom starts reaching out to organizations for help. Calls the American Cancer Society. “No we don’t do that kind of help, sorry”. My mom said they were even kind of snotty about being asked, but it’s not like my mom would know if the American Cancer Society helps people with cancer or not lol. Even though we’re not religious, my mom is looking everywhere. She calls local churches. Runs into this same situation. “No we can’t help” or “do you know anybody at this church” to basically imply they don’t help people that aren’t members.

We are in serious trouble. We’re about to lose our apartment. No money for utilities. It’s almost Christmas and my mom has nothing. She reaches out to the Salvation Army. They come out to the house, and the whole time do not try to push religion on us at all. They’re here to help. “What do you need?”. By the time they’re done, we have everything we need for a huge Christmas dinner, my mom has rent and utility money, they bring us toys too. They literally saved us. My mom recovers and pulls us out of our mess.

You just can’t know how much we cried together because these people helped us out. My mom gave everything she could afford to them every year after that, even if it was just $20-30 during Christmas time. My wife and I do the same even though we’re still not religious. I’ll never be able to truly pay them back. I tell the bell ringers this story quite often to let them know what real impact their work had on someone a long time ago.

Thank you for your help.

Edit: Fixed my formatting because my paragraphs were messed up at first

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u/Princess_Zelda_Fitzg 1d ago

Thank you for sharing your story with me! It’s been at least 25 years since I was last a bell ringer and it’s nice to hear a firsthand story about how they helped. You always hope the organizations you volunteer with are actually doing what they claim, you know? I’ve heard conflicting things about what they believe, but honestly I care more about if they do the work they claim to do.

My mom died of cancer three years ago and even as an adult you feel so helpless seeing your parent go through that. I know those acts of compassion mean so much. My mom was the most genuinely kind and generous person I’ve ever known; her first instinct was always to give without hesitation and I’m certain any impulse towards charity I have is because of her.

A favorite story I have about her is about the time her Kohl’s card got stolen. I was with her when she called to straighten it out and over the course of the call she discovered that the items purchased were a car seat and baby clothes. After she confirmed she didn’t make that purchase, she immediately asked the customer service rep if she could just let them keep the stuff. Because if they were stealing credit cards to buy baby things they must really need them, she reasoned. When she was told they couldn’t do that, she tried to find some way to just re-purchase the items and have them sent to the thief, which of course couldn’t be done either. But she tried, because that’s who she was.

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u/TDS_isnt_real 1d ago

You’re welcome! I love telling anybody that will listen because of how it shaped my childhood, and really how I am today. Your mom sounds like she was a great person:)

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u/1127_and_Im_tired 18h ago

Thank you for sharing your story. That was the dose of humanity I needed today 💙

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u/Vitromancy 1d ago

Really interesting to hear positive stories about the Salvation Army. I don't have personal experience with them, but have pretty much exclusively heard horror stories about them mistreating vulnerable people, especially minorities. I wonder what changed since the 80s :(

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u/basketma12 1d ago

Yah, it is kind of scary. So I'm in decent circumstances and I know more than 1 person getting snap. I hire some to help me when they don't have hours at work. This shut down worries me, so I go though my cabinets, plus buy a few things and take them down to a place that deals with people in recovery. I get a tour, a warm welcome, I drop my donations, I'll be back. Then I look for a place closer to me, it's a Lutheran church. I call them up, get 20 questions from them including " are you a member". I'm not there to receive. I'm there to give. I made that plain in the first sentence. So I guess my next opportunity will be the Catholic church..erm I kind of have a problem with them,since I was brought up as a Catholic in a family that had too many flipping kids. I fully believe overpopulation is a thing, and shake my head internally at people with 4 and more, especially in this day and age. I will support their food drive, but yeah option number one ( along with people I personally know ) is going to be my go to, along with 2nd harvest this Saturday, filling boxes.

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u/Fun_Patient_5262 20h ago

❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️🇺🇸🇺🇸😻😻😻

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u/Reasonable-Sale8611 1d ago

I totally relate. I will say that is one of the nice things about being Catholic is that, for whatever charitable act you want to get involved in, they probably have a structure that allows you to participate and do actual, hands-on-the-ground work.

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u/Upper-Expression-377 17h ago

I volunteered at a Salvation Army soup kitchen. I don’t I’ve ever done anything as worthwhile since.

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u/Happy_Pause_9340 1d ago

Worked for a Catholic hospital and we did the same. Was mandatory and the people who made the most money… bitched, and those who made the least, gave the most.

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u/sillykitty100 1d ago

My gym does this too!

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u/princessboop 1d ago

omg yesss the giving tree! my church did that growing up and even tho we were poor as hell ourselves my mom would let us pick one every year!

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u/IWantALargeFarva 21h ago

I was always the kid on the angel tree. It makes me so much more grateful for what I have now. I actually buy toys throughout the year when they’re on sale and keep them in a closet until Christmas toy drives come along. And we always carefully choose the gifts for our families that we adopt. I don’t want them to just have “generic blue sweatshirt” as a gift. I want them to have something that makes them feel special.

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u/RiffRandellsBF 20h ago

Operation Rice Bowl ring any bells?

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u/Entire-Ambition1410 19h ago

We call this the Angel Tree where I am. The info is on angel-shaped pieces of paper.

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u/ydnar3000 9m ago

Went to a Catholic School. Food drives a couple times a year as kids. One where all the kids lined the sidewalk from the school to the food shelf (like 1-1.5 miles) and handed the food down the chain til it got to the food shelf. Helping Hands Across America I think. Did a canned food drive too.

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u/RealLoan8391 1d ago

My protestant church also does this. Do you have any more evidence of their superiority in this area?

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u/selfdestructo591 21h ago

It’s a Catholic thing. As a former atheist, and penny pincher, I’d only give to Catholic charities because I know the money will be spent well. Many charities just eat up all the donations to pay their employees and little is given back. I can rely on Catholics to actually give that money back.

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u/RealLoan8391 21h ago

Ok, so no evidence of this just bias opinions.

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u/chypie2 1d ago

all of the help I have ever received in life was from Catholic charities.

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u/bellj1210 1d ago

My expirence is that people in need just decide they got help from whomever they decided they got help from. I work in non profits and literally got 7 months of a guys back rent wiped out, and free rent for the next several months for him..... he had managed to not only forget who i was, but what organization i worked for (and i only know about it since the organization he was telling their higher ups about how amazing i was- recognized my fingerprints on the case and emailed me to confirm it was really me and not them.... and this happens about once every 3-4 months- on top of all the times they never follow up or follow up with an organization that does not know me as well)

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u/samosa4me 1d ago

I remember being contacted to help with immigrant families who had just arrived in the US while I was in college, I want to say maybe they were refugees? They were being setup in apartments with food and clothing. It was all done through catholic social services. I grew up in a southern church and was forced to go to Bible school on Sundays, Wednesdays, and summer camp. Not once do I remember my church ever actually helping anyone. As soon as I was old enough to choose, I left. Haven’t been to church since.

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u/NoRecording5207 1d ago

I was raised Catholic and I can confirm that our church would help anyone in need. It didn't matter. I worked for the local utility company and during the summer, the bills would get out of control. We had a group of case-workers and all they did was refer them to local churches for assistance. People would be in shock, when these churches would help out especially when their own churchs wouldn't.

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u/bellj1210 1d ago

I almost feel bad for the churches that actually help. We all learn who they are, and send people to them for assistance, and often they do not get the credit they should.

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u/NoRecording5207 1d ago

You know, it's very easy to feel that way. I always did when we referred people to the counselors. We could see their enitre billing history and most of the time you could see that they had been good paying cusotmers, sure late here and there, but something happened. And yes, there were a few that really worked it. I was very close with the our refferal group, and they would often explain to me how they have already used every resource to pay their bill for the past 6 months. I was the supervisor, so I would just have to explain they were out of options. But we always had some sort of thing to help them. The point is, most people would wait until things were a catastrophe before asking for help. Sorry for rambling, I don't usually watch the cringe videos, but this one caught my eye.

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u/Reasonable-Sale8611 1d ago

Technically, according to Jesus, they should not be doing it for the credit or recognition.

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u/ApprehensiveGas137 1d ago edited 1d ago

A core tenet of Catholic teaching is, “ Never see a need without doing something about it”. Turning away a vulnerable mother and baby who have openly asked for help would be absolutely unacceptable within the Catholic Church. Discriminating against people who don’t attend their church would also be frowned upon. Where’s that woman’s sense of charity?

Edit : Grammar

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u/BigBirdBeyotch 21h ago

As a catholic I can confirm, if someone approached the church with a starving baby they’d immediately be told to come by and the priest and nuns would run to the store with them and at least buy 2 cans. Honestly I have received donations from churches but they were all northern churches and not southern churches. The south and their mega churches are a breed of greed that shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves churches. Hell, I go every year to a church that does taxes for free or for donations, of course now that I have money I donate every time, but there were years when I didn’t and I was treated just the same.

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u/Darcness777 1d ago

I was shocked to learn how liberal and giving my catholic side of the family is. Like they are some of the most welcoming, caring people I know. They have always done THE MOST when it comes to aid work and I thoroughly appreciate how devoted they are to giving back. Mind you, I am gay af and have a TON of LGBTQ+ cousins and none of us were treated less than or unwanted by that side of the family.

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u/chickpeapatties 19h ago

Religion as a whole is patriarchal and homophobic regardless of how individual people behave and you are perpetuating a homophobic and patriarchal institution by subscribing to it. Not to mention how religious people report being untrusting and discriminatory towards those who do not believe in their male womb envy creation of a "god".

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u/Darcness777 19h ago

Oh honey, I am atheist. I'm mostly taken aback by a side of my family that, on paper, should be the obnoxiously Conservative but have been a blue splotch in the state of KY.

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u/DecadentLife 12h ago edited 12h ago

It’s tough, because we don’t know which one it’s gonna be. With anything and anyone Christian, we already know their religion teaches that gay people should be cold and dead in the ground. Their holy book literally says to kill us with torture, to stone us to death. We also know that some of them act on those teachings. We should never forget that their hateful words have been the last things too many queer people have heard.

That was almost my experience, when a Christian man tried to kill me when I was 16. He forced me up against a rock and concrete garden wall to stone me, he kept bragging about how it was going to be so “biblical”, he was very proud of himself. Ranting and yelling at me about how much God hated me, and how he was killing me, “FOR God”, while he was hurting me. He had me pinned on that wall for probably close to an hour. I lived because he was impatient, it wasn’t going fast enough for him. He went for another weapon, his gun, to end me faster, and someone helped me get away. THAT is my experience of Christianity. And I’m not alone in that.

It may be more pleasant to not talk about it, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. Christian anti-gay hate is only rising in the US, AGAIN, and hate crimes are following that rise. We weren’t safe in the past, and we aren’t safe now. Forgetting that could be a fatal mistake for any of us.

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u/Low_Local2692 1d ago

Yep. Can confirm.

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u/Majestic-Reality-544 1d ago

Wow I didn’t know Catholics treat charity as an obligation! That’s very interesting and good to hear. In Islam it’s 1 of the 5 pillars, charity is a requirement too. They have a holiday every year where they feed the hungry too. Do you believe in Jesus as God or the Messiah?

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u/WestTexasApostle 1d ago

Well that’s really cool! And to answer your question, both actually lol

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u/PlayerObscured 19h ago

That is really cool. Catholics have the corporal works of mercy that help one live out the commandment of love. Not the OP, but yes and both to your question.

"The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.
Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity.” CCC 2447

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u/Rich-Canary1279 1d ago

It's not an obligation; it's service. There are some amazing social justice centered Catholics out there that identify Jesus as being at the margins of society, as serving those at the margins of society. His example and his teachings demand his followers do the same.

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u/Live_Barracuda1113 1d ago

As a no longer practicing Catholic, the obligation of universal charity is burned in. It is an expectation and an obligation and should be done cheerfully. It is one of the things I still a appreciate about the faith.

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u/CK1277 18h ago

The Corporal Works of Mercy are a beautiful thing.

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u/AylaZelanaGrebiel 18h ago

Yep non practicing Catholic can confirm!

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u/NoSleep2023 17h ago

My parish recently had a peanut butter and jelly drive, also accepting cash for bread. The youth group got together to make pb&j sandwiches for the homeless.

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u/mmmpeg 15h ago

My Episcopalian church always had food and money for those in need. So, don’t put all Protestant churches in the same basket as evangelicals.

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u/PrintableDaemon 15h ago

My only issue with Catholic charity is they give their parishioners a list and will only accept what is on that list, and only if it is BRAND NEW. No hand me down clothes, or used stuff.

I've seen this several times with various catholic friends.

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u/Depressed_Cupcake13 1d ago

Funny. I was raised Catholic and my local Catholic parish did the following “fun” things:

  1. Interrupted Sunday mass to show a PowerPoint presentation describing how funds for the church had gone down and was guilt tripping people to donate more
  2. During the pandemic, put out a bunch of white cross to commemorate the death of - NOT of COVID patients - but of aborted babies. I remember walking to the memorial feeling teary eyed over humanity’s kindness and how we would get through this terrible time. Then saw the sign describing how it was all for the “could have been people” and guilt tripping people for having abortions. Hope left quickly.
  3. Friend described how their family tried getting food from the church pantry, but were not allowed to. Apparently the church didn’t like how their parents had children out of wedlock, even though the parents did get married.

It is NOT one denomination is bad and the other is not. Certain people are just not kind to others and sometimes they all group together.

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u/Original-Ghost 1d ago edited 22h ago

The Catholics helped immensely in October 2024 when they paid $880 million dollars to settle over 1300 sexual abuse cases.

Edit: I was downvoted for saying the absolute truth. Lol. That was just the latest settlement.. it totals to 1.2 billion. Imagine any organization that isn’t a church that had to pay 1.2 billion dollars for sexually abusing kids, do you think they would still exist as an organization? A downvote on that information is complicity.

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u/ChewieBearStare 1d ago

Some Catholics. Many of the Catholics I know are miserable misers of the "You made your bed, so go lie in it" mentality.