Sounds like another (extreme) group home scam. I hear about less extreme versions of this all the time.

/e At my wife's previous job, occasionally she would have to find housing for homeless mental patients; and it was her policy to not place them in group homes without checking out the homes ahead of time; because of bullshit like this.

Nothing new.
In his book People of the Abyss Jack London detailed the extreme poverty of thousands of destitue poor living on the streets of London in the opening years of the 20th century when the British Empire was at its peak.
Jack checked into a cheap East End hotel and without any ID joined the homeless in the streets. The treatment of the poor by the church charities was pretty appalling particularly the Salvation Army. Most of the homeless were offered food and meagre shelter in exchange for long hours of process work in work houses or hours of church services and sermons.
Another book from that time is The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists which details the distressing conditions of the poor in Edwardian England and all the attendant social hypocrisies.
The poor and dispossessed are easy meat for the ruthless.

Australia has something along those lines, they are government initiatives.

The first is a requirement of those receiving Unemployment benefit (here we use the cynical euphemism 'Newstart' )

People are required to keep a diary (stamped by relevant businesses) of X number a week of employers approached for work .

People receiving unemployment benefits are subject to the "work for the dole" programme. They do the same kind of work done by people with court ordered community work. ,

Those ideas have been introduced because our Federal welfare system has always been based on the nineteenth century concoction of "the deserving poor". This view is based on the notion that poverty and unemployment are more often than not the fault of the individual. That such people are feckless and choose to live on government 'hand outs' IE that they LIKE being poor.

In Australia 'the dole' is well below the poverty line, and has not been increased for over a decade .

Religions tend to side with the status quo.It's how they get and keep political power.

I'm still staggered that Scientology has not been banned in the US.

I often pass by the Salvation Army's building...Time to go for a little investigation????

Salvation Army does have a program to help people get jobs and the positions are paid. However. I doubt it helps them out of poverty. Minimum wage is not much. Salvation Army operates thrift stores and they hire the handicapped, mildly mentally disabled, the homeless, etc,,, to work in the stores and restore donations. Parts from several bikes can be turned into one good bike. Wood can be stripped and reshaped or mended if a person knows what they are doing. Clothing is washed. sized, and placed on racks for sale. Unlike other religious organizations not everyone is a volunteer.

The best part about forcing the homeless to volunteer "IT'S FREE" I've never know a priest or pastor to turn down money! This is how the Church sees it.

https://www.sharefaith.com/blog/2011/03/pick-me-pick-me-pros-cons-volunt...

Best church organisation I know about is "LifeLine' telephone and face- to- face [free] counselling. Run here by Adelaide Central Mission , which in turn is run by The Uniting Church. I Think that was formed with a merger of several smaller denominations. Methodist ,Presbyterian and Congregationalist..

I know this organisation is a good one because I was a Lifeline telephone counsellor for 2 years. (it's all volunteer, One 6 hour session a week) Their training is excellent . Lifeline offers non directive counselling.

The counsellor has no agenda, presenting choices. With pregnancy, abortion is discussed as realistic option, with contacts provided if wanted.

Hardest calls; suicide attempts, where the person has already taken something, . Counsellor stays with them until we can get an ambulance to them. Mercifully, I only ever had one.The call lasted an hour, ending when the ambulance arrived. I put the phone down and burst into tears,. A common reaction after such calls.

Yeah some churches actually do a lot of good,. I've alway found some really good people with any religious organisation I've dealt with.

I don't want to see the end of religion until I know what will replace them,. In Russia they had the Stalin personality cult, in China, Mao Tse Dung- and of course there's the hideous personality cult of North Korea, currently in its third generation.

@Thread

Is any of us atheist regulars even remotely surprised by this?

Maybe a tiny bit surprised it managed to make national news before the church could cover it up. Churches do this shit all the time, perhaps this one was particularly egregious, but churches taking advantage of the poor and desperate? Absolute standard operating procedure. It is often times how they try to recoup their losses of "faithful" when things like the internet and basic reasoning skills draw people away from the ridiculously insane religious ideas.

Re: OP

Seems to me they are just trying their best to bring back slave labor according to the teachings of their beloved bible. True dedication at work, ladies and gentlemen.

I think it's ok to work. After all, unemployed people have a very hard time in life.