I feel like this is in retaliation to those folks that go to restaurants and leave one of these (with scripture) instead of a tip. And if these parishioners are guilty of such, they deserve it.
Besides being one of the biggest pools of manpower and funding for foreign aid and serving the poor and disadvantaged in the US? They also pull together communities across the nation and serve them too. Sports, community organizing, suicide prevention, youth mentorship, basic education, medicine, medicine.
As much as I'm personally repulsed by most organized religion, they do too much good work nationally and globally for anyone to deny that their (modern and western) iterations are a net gain for the world.
I've seen it happen a few times where churches will do the same by leaving a fake tip for waiters and such. It's pretty sleazy no matter who's doing it
As much as I'm personally repulsed by most organized religion, they do too much good work nationally and globally for anyone to deny that their (modern and western) iterations are a net gain for the world.