Can We Find the Best Christianity in the Worst Places?

Question by : Can we find the best Christianity in the worst places?
Novokuznetsk, Russia, was in a documentary by Vice Magazine. It wasn’t about religion, it was about drugs.

The city, like other Russian cities, was victim to a heroin epidemic. The heroin came from narco-terrorists from Afghanistan. Russia is to the heroin trade as America is to every other drug. Since heroin got too expensive, some resorted to using Krokodil, a drug that is named after the Crocodile because it makes your skin green and scaly and eats your flesh from the inside out.

The government turns its head from the epidemic, since Novokuznetsk and other heroin towns aren’t extremely important. Novokuznetsk has a population slightly lower than Denver, (My home town) and right next to the Russian/Kazakhstan border. The town is riddled with syringes and abandoned buildings. The population has grown poorer, because of government neglect, and there are no state sponsored rehabilitation centers. The rehab centers are owned by private institutions, like the Russian Orthodox Church, and other sects, (Cults, said the priest at the Orthodox Church) who run them for the community.

The community has gotten too poor to buy heroin, or just want to save money. Krokodil is cheaper, but doesn’t last as long. Instead of standard Morphine found in heroin, Krokodil has Desomorphine, which is less potent, but easier to make. The thing about Krokodil is that it kills cells, namely blood vessels and flesh, when you miss the vein when you inject it. This could lead to a decay that is very frostbite-like, when the skin turns black, green, and white, all the colors it shouldn’t be. The decay can get so bad that bones get exposed. Their bones.

It seems that the only people who cared to stop this were the Christians. Novokuznetsk needed someone to stop the epidemic, and it was the Christians. Like the documentary said, Christianity isn’t the answer, but they are the only people willing to help out.

This brings me to the original question, Can we find the best Christianity in the worst places? Religion like that, not Christianity, but the religion that makes you want to reach out and help people in need could not possibly be bad, even if the god they worship was false. The atheists in Novokuznetsk were probably the hardest hit by heroin, not that they were atheist, but because they were uneducated AND atheist. They saw no consequences with heroin or Krokodil, which led them to do those drugs. The Christians were less impacted, but still hit hard. Since those are the two only demographics, that’s the complete data. Obviously there have been no atheist congregations to help, since atheists, especially in that region, would have no reason to congregate. The church, however, was grouped up one day a week, if not more to fix the epidemic. Even the so-called cults helped more. That is where the church has an advantage financially, spiritually, and objectively. They give their money to the church, who wants to solve the problem. Churches in the US do not solve problems as well because they are not as imminent as Russia’s. The statistics in this town are unreliable, since the conditions are horrible and there is no way to census in a region like this, but because of the Soviet influence on this place, it is most likely the majority is Atheist. Most people in the Middle East are Muslim, and the major religion that helps out is Judaism or Christianity. Religions in the minority are more likely to be helpful, which we can see with atheism today. Places that are primarily atheist, however, do not follow by same example for the reason Christianity in the United States doesn’t need to help…they are already at the top. Every belief seems benevolent until they are the majority. I can see that with Christianity here, Judaism in Israel, Hinduism in India, and Atheism in Post-Soviet Russia. The minorities with reach out and help, whether they are Buddhist, Atheist, Christian, or Sikh. That’s just how it is.

Do you agree with my rant?

Best answer:

Answer by Some Person
You are not going to find many people here who would read that wall of text. I’d strongly suggest you check out reddit.com/r/religion (or even reddit.com/r/rants) if you want people to actually read it.

I’m not entirely sure how you are defining “Worse places”. There are certainly bad parts of the United States that get helped out. Moreover, comparing the US and Russia is extremely difficult to do.

The US is a melting pot of immigrants – is it really any wonder that it’s hard for us to unite in a common cause? We still have issues of racism, whereas at least in Russia it’s more homogenous in terms of culture/race. That in itself plays a huge role in religion, more than people think.

For example, I cannot go to a Korean church in the U.S. without getting some strange looks. It would be uncomfortable on both sides, there’d also be a huge language barrier because they pretty much speak only Korean. So doesn’t it make sense that there would be less people helping out those in need over here?

At the same time, I don’t want to say that the US does nothing to help those in need. It just really depends on where you go and its hard to make hasty generalizations. Every year, many CA high schools offer a chance to go down to Mexico and build houses for the poor. Its a trip often funded by churches and its at least -something-.

Also, you don’t really need to congregate in order to help people. The problem with your argument is that money from churches helps solve problems, and that churches require congregation.

But what about money from people who simply donate online, without going to church? Don’t they count too?

What about the countless university students who donate time and effort to increase awareness and collect donations for the poor?

Red Cross / Habitats for Humanity / Helping Hearts for the Homeless? There are so many organizations and there are definitely some atheists in each of them.

First world countries (or more well to do countries) tend to seem like they’re doing less…but we can do the same if not more…
But there are no statistics on how often atheists donate.So how can you compare it to churches donations? I’m glad Christians and other religious people donate, I just think you’re not looking at the whole picture here.

After all, if I were to donate 10,000 dollars right now, they’d never ask me for my religious viewpoint. They would accept the money graciously, and it wouldn’t really matter what religion I was or whether I was atheist.

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