What anecdotes? The woman who called dozens of churches and only got 3 willing to provide emergency food for a hungry child? You can listen to these calls yourself in the video I shared. Notice that I’m not arguing about food pantries, but rather congregations not willing to help adequately.
And still, your emphasis on food pantries is exaggerated. They were invented in the 1960s and are a distinctly American religious invention, so naturally, they would be primarily religious. Your article even mentions the negative effects these food banks have and questions their efficacy:
Despite the rise in charitable food, there is a lack of evidence supporting their effectiveness in addressing the main issue of food insecurity. At the individual-level, the charitable food system has been shown to contribute to stigma and shame among patrons [13–15], offer poor nutritional value [11, 16], provide insufficient and inconsistent food supply [11–17], consist of limited food choice and variety [16], and exacerbate pre-existing chronic health conditions [11, 18, 19]. Furthermore, “pantries spring up wherever someone is moved to create them” [20] (p221). In this way, the geographical distribution of food pantries may not follow any systematic pattern or necessarily reflect need. Many food pantries operate out of churches and volunteers are often motivated to volunteer because of their religious commitments. Given these circumstances and undercurrents, faith is an important and dynamic element of the charitable food system. However, faith-based affiliations within the current charitable food system is unknown and likely context-specific.
I also found this:
a study involving case studies in Indonesia, Fiji and Samoa (Thornton, Sakai, and Hassall, 2012) showed that the contribution of religious groups in providing disaster relief and welfare services to their members and advocacy for the poor is often present but not always comprehensive or positive. The influence of religious groups in the public sphere and as institutions can also exacerbate unresolved tensions between different ethnic and secular groups.
Regardless, food pantries and poverty in general are symptoms of great social inequality and of a society that doesn’t prioritize welfare, despite its religiosity. So why limit ourselves to questionable religious initiatives? I’d much rather focus on the overall investment in social programs and their impacts between religious and secular countries.
I agree that religion is useful for bringing communities together and alleviating the hardships of poverty by providing people with a coping mechanism, but it’s by no means towering over secular initiatives because charity is innately human. Religion arguably only serves as a reminder of that with regular church attendance.
What anecdotes? The woman who called dozens of churches and only got 3 willing to provide emergency food for a hungry child? You can listen to these calls yourself in the video I shared. Notice that I’m not arguing about food pantries, but rather congregations not willing to help adequately.
And still, your emphasis on food pantries is exaggerated. They were invented in the 1960s and are a distinctly American religious invention, so naturally, they would be primarily religious. Your article even mentions the negative effects these food banks have and questions their efficacy:
I also found this:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-019-0272-3
Regardless, food pantries and poverty in general are symptoms of great social inequality and of a society that doesn’t prioritize welfare, despite its religiosity. So why limit ourselves to questionable religious initiatives? I’d much rather focus on the overall investment in social programs and their impacts between religious and secular countries.
I agree that religion is useful for bringing communities together and alleviating the hardships of poverty by providing people with a coping mechanism, but it’s by no means towering over secular initiatives because charity is innately human. Religion arguably only serves as a reminder of that with regular church attendance.