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Lets say all welfare programs were ended with the idea that Christian Churches would pick up the slack.

Would non-Christians be eligible for foodstamps and other aid?

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If you're directing this question at me...

How the hell should I know? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

...but seriously, who could answer this?

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I direct it at anyone who wants to read peoples thoughts.

My point is all the wonderful christian aid that third world contries recieve comes with a religious lecture and a bible. Not to disparage anyone's future saints, but Mother Teresa actually encouraged poverty in the places she worked. (dont make me look it up, i dont have enough time today)

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Better a religious lecture and a Bible than dead. Like it or not, Christians are the ones doing the work and risking their very lives in many of the most dangerous areas in the world. Christian missionary groups are the ones running an underground railroad in China to get North Korean refugees smuggled safely into South Korea, which doesn't give a damn about them.

The soup kitchen I support is Christian oriented. It is laughable to suggest they would turn away the hungry if they were not of the same faith, as is your previous assertion charities run by Christians would slam the door on non-Christians should private charity replace public largesse. What is there to worry about anyway? Certainly athiest charities would spring forth to help the unbelieving? How likely would they be to grant favor on a needy family of evangelicals?

Lastly, your pot-shot at Mother Theresa was unecessary. Indians had certainly figured out how to propagate the species before she arrived and the focal point of her work was to comfort those already suffering and dying in the streets (thus not much of a risk to pop out some more "untouchables"). There certainly wasn't anyone else, religious or secular in Calcutta at the time willing to do that work.