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Nobody tell this guy about Ceaușescu or Hoxha.

Unfortunately this is correct. Churches (Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise) have historically played a role that most 21st-century urban workers expect nonprofits and local governments to play. Before there was such a thing as the secular welfare state, church-adjacent and church-sponsored charities and community organizations were heavily relied on (and even now still are!) to deliver the goods for poor people, for workers and peasants! Orgs like the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, not to mention all the church-owned schools and hospitals have acted and continue to act in such capacities.

Basically, through acts of charity and funding public services they keep their (ultimately reactionary) religious institutions alive, and even in some US communities they still play such a significant role, especially in exurban and segregated communities where the sort of infrastructure urban people rely on is underdeveloped. The corrosion of these institutions originally coincided with the ascent of the welfare state, but then neoliberalism came in and also corroded the welfare state, leaving a vacuum open for what was left of the private religious charities and institutions to fill the void (and also screw over LGBT people by withholding aid).