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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a long-established, well-organized and scripturally-based system to help those in need to maintain their lives -- as opposed to "lifestyles" -- until they are able to get back on their feet through their own efforts and with the help of local Church leaders and members.

The progam is funded locally and almost entirely from members' monthly and voluntay "fast offerings," which represent, at a minimum, the cost of two or three meals foregone during a regular fast around the first Sunday of the month.

Do the math: $20 X 150 familes/month in each congregation ("ward") = $3,000 on average. This can be supplemented, if necessary, by funds from other of the 5 or 6 wards in a "stake." Any balance remaining at the end of the year is forwarded to the Church's General Welfare Fund in Salt Lake City.

Local funds rarely are depleted and routinely are used to assist those (Church members and non-members alike) afflicted by disasters and war in such diverse places as Florida, Guatemala, Kosovo, Afghanistan, African nations, and, currently, Iraq. All entirel without strings attached.

This program includes regional employment offices (open to non-LDS individuals and potential employers), training in the development and execution of job-hunting strategies, local "Bishop's storehouses," assistance with bills related to necessities of life, pro-active spiritual and temporal counseling, moral and emotional support, and many forms of help (offered on a voluntary and generally confidential/family-to-family basis) from individual Church members and their families.

Assistance is not considered to be a gift or a loan, and individuals receiving such provide labor, etc. in exchange for (but not necessarily in proportion to) that which is received.

The motto of this program -- which has been praised by US presidents, other elected leaders, clergymen of many other faiths, and many others -- is "Providing Assistance in the Lord's Way."

My family benefitted briefly from such assistance over twenty years ago when my employer unexpectedly (and fraudulently) filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection, and we voluntarily and eagerly have "given back" both on an informal basis and through formal Church assignments ("callings") ever since. Interestingly, nobody other than our bishop and those working with him on a strictly confidential basis ever knew that we were receiving Church assistance. The protection of privacy and dignity are hallmarks of this process.

If every religious body in this country and the world were to adopt this inspired program, there likely would be very few poor and needy among the Lord's children....

[3Lean]

But, what I asked was for a church that asks (tells) it's members to take a pass on government assistance. Is that the position of your denomination?
Many churches offer assistance to others throughout the world, but that has always been the case. What they are doing now is letting Uncle Sam take care of a part of their responsibility.
My opinion is unchanged. Churches do less now than they used to, and have allowed (even asked) the government to step in, in many cases with disastrous results. Who is more likely to get off welfare, someone receiving a check through the mail from a faceless government or someone who is receiving assistance (as you did) from a religious group who can monitor the situation?
Instead of pawning off responsibility to the government churches should be leading the charge to continue welfare reform.