They throw parties to raise money to throw parties to raise money which mostly gets spent on photo opportunities to raise money to send the CEO's on First Class planes fares to stay in 5 Star hotels to have a photo opportunity tho show them distributing a few paltry dollars to some specially picked group so it will look like they are providing help for the needy & that will get them more money to throw parties to raise money. Scrimple.

World's Greatest Scam. The only people benefiting from these schemes are the top echelon of these Charities & they're living high off your hog.

Where are all the Children saved with the" Save The Children Campaign." Out there blowing up our soldiers & their own countrymen & racing around hijacking ships. That's where they are. Thanks a lot.

Most organizations founded in the West between, say, 1700 and 1950 have explicitly or implicitly Christian origins, simply because most of the people in the West at that time had, or claimed to have, Christian beliefs. You will find similar organisations operating in predominantly Muslim nations under the aegis of Islam, and in Hindu and Buddhist nations under the aegis of their respective religions. But if you look at the total amount of benefits paid to the poor and sick, payments made from tax revenue by modern secular states outweigh charity-based benefits by many hundred to one.

Last financial year the Australian government spent $137 billion on welfare; enough to make charity spending utterly insignificant by comparison. And it was motivated by a genuine public concern for health, happiness and human rights, not a holy terror of burning in hell.

One way the atheists, secularist, humanists and sceptics work is to bring advances through the political system. I personally spend my savings on very direct charity efforts and my spare time on advocating beneficial change.

We have public hospitals, public education, public water and sewerage systems, vaccination systems and progressive tax systems etc., because secular people fought religious influences to bring those benefits into existence.

What advance in the human condition did religion ever not condemn?

Remember, smallpox vaccination was thwarting god's will.
Recall also that it was the religious support of the divine right of those in power that kept the general populace in servitude for centuries.

I suggest the author of the is article should read-up on Epicurus and Lucretius. Born in 341 BC Epicurus advocated that bringing pleasure to everyone in society in this life was far better that advocating living in fear of superstition.

Lucretius retrieved the views of Epicurus from the efforts of the early monotheist religions to bury those beliefs and, in doing so, laid the foundations for the Enlightenment and the benefits of the age of science.

In the last few years the RC church has opposed even AIDS prevention methods and has denied that young children have the right to know what cultural pressures influence their peers. They even appealed a decision as far as the Canadian Supreme Court when Quebec, Canada, introduced a compulsory course, Religions and Ethics, which had that aim. Fortunately the church lost. We could benefit from such a course in Australia rather than waste money on proselytising, largely useless, chaplains.

If you think the Christian church is charitable read what they did to the early advocates of a sun centred system particularly if the advocates were heretics (clear thinkers). After Bruno was sentenced to death they drove a "nail though his cheeks and tongue to shut him up on his ride to the stake. After the fire they smashed his bones to pieces.

What nice people the religious were when they wielded power!

Jon J,
How much of the state welfare budget is administered by Christian organisations? I don't know exactly but I'd bet the majority of "private" service providers are Christian organisations.

Jayb,
Islam is the reason we need to stand up and defend our societies, Judeo Christianity is the reason we can't

Gee Rowan, you didn't look very far to find a non-Christian based aid organisation did you?
I found 2 big ones straight away:
AusAID:
The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) is an Australian Government agency within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

CARE Australia:
The largest non-political non-religious overseas aid organisation in Australia, providing humanitarian assistance across the globe.

Just because one religion or another uses their substantial financial clout to fund their aid agencies does not mean that only Christians work for them either.

Being Christian does not make one person any more morally superior than anyone else.

I also severely dislike those who blow their own trumpet.
It immediately brings to mind all those holier than thou Priests who spent Sundays bringing the morally superior word to the congregations at Mass, while all the while abusing kids during the week...

"In summary, there would be none of the innumerable benefits and blessings that have flowed and continue to flow from the vastly transformative influence of the Bethlehem baby, who grew up to change the course of human history in ways beyond counting."

With all respect and adoration to the Bethlehem baby, it is either arrogance or ignorance to attribute all charity to him. Had it never existed before?

It is also arrogant or ignorant to attempt dividing the world into "Christians" and "atheists" - unless you refer to the true definition of a Christian:
A Christian is s/he who is willing to lay themselves on the cross (or its equivalent, as required) for the good of all others.

Sevashrama is an example of a non-Christian charity: http://www.rkmkankhal.org