Churches should certainly be viewed as charities. They usually help the indigent (shelters and soup kitchens, sometimes the only ones in smaller, rural areas), they run schools to educate children, and they create a sense of community among members of the congregation which encourages direct member-to-member help. They also provide counseling and spiritual sustenance for their members - not all help need be material. Man does not live by bread alone...

Regardless of whether or not you accept the teachings of the church, if it encourages people to try to be better human beings, to give of themselves, to feel a sense of community and to be spiritually healthy, I think the resultant society will be better - far better - for it, and money which supports that church is "charity" in the fullest sense of the word.