[PuppyTailWags]

I would offer some hesitations to offer Church without knowing too much about someone or without caveats. Lots of people have religious trauma from being sexually assaulted/abused by church members or religious leaders, being ostracized for being LGBTQ or even just not performing gender strongly enough, or from being autistic/ADHD/a weirdo. When religion is good, it's a great pin to community building and mutual aid. When religion is bad it's a nightmare.

[codemonkey-zeta]

Eh, just steer clear of hardcore churches and you'll be good. Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist are going to be too intense for a first-time churchgoer, but plenty of other Protestant churches are very liberal. Hell my Lutheran church in Massachusetts even had a gay minister. There are so many liberal protestant sects it will make your head spin, to the point that recommending someone try going to church these days (especially with all the polarizing, isolating events of the last decade) is probably solid advice if they're seeking community.

[smeej]

Ironically I spent a few years looking in all those places before ending up Catholic.

Everybody else "tolerated" the heck out of my gender-bewildered, 'spergie self from the messed up family, but it was the Catholics who finally showed me a love that would actually sacrifice something for my sake. Up until then, I sincerely believed "love" was like "Santa Claus" - a nice story you tell children, but nobody actually believes when they grow up.

Are there some Catholics who wouldn't know love if it came back from the dead? Absolutely. But there are others who stake their lives and well-being on the belief that love is at the center of everything, and wow are they worth meeting.

[galaxyLogic]

Love is great but it's even better if you can put it in action. Love without acting to try to help others, is that love really?

There are lots of suffering in the world caused by systemic factors. If you think all that matters is that God loves YOU and EVERYBODY then you will probably not spend much time thinking about the systemic causes of suffering, and how to alleviate them.

The thing about religion is it mostly advocates keeping the status quo as is. Religion doesn't demand that you use your brain does it? Whereas if you are serious about making the world a better place then you MUST use your brain.

I know, there is something called Liberation Theology:

https://www.religion-online.org/article/an-evangelical-theol...

"...central biblical doctrines is that God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed. Tragically, evangelical theology has largely ignored this doctrine"

[amanaplanacanal]

From what I can see Unitarians welcome all the weirdos (saying this as a weirdo myself). My local church has Zen meditation groups, Wiccan circles, and specifically LGBT hangouts.

[PuppyTailWags]

I agree there are plenty of liberal churches. I'm merely saying that "go to church" isn't without caveats. You have to have some consideration about ensuring they go to a church that won't make their mental health worse, or that the advice you're giving doesn't come off as totally bone-headed (suggesting church to someone who was raped by a minister is obviously cruel, for example).

[vagrantJin]

> ...being ostracized for being LGBT...sexual trauma...autism

Right...