Just as an aside, the Quaker church is pretty much awesome. If I were a believer, I'd join the Religious Society of Friends. They're pro-peace and tolerant to a degree that should shame most other Christian churches into trying to be better Christians.

And, you're right that churches can be helpful to folks dealing with situations like this. I've become a lot more tolerant of churches and devout religious folks over the past year or so that I've been interested in and working on homelessness issues.