Personally, I think the $18,000 could have been much better spent. Free Bibles are available all over the place for people who want them, and undoubtedly, for many people, they were unwanted. I don't know about you folks, but I don't like religious people knocking on my door with literature, despite that I know they're being nice and trying to save my soul.
But I'm sure lots of people were happy to have someone come by to give them a free Bible and pray with them.
All that said, it's their $18,000 to spend. As
Granite's said in the past about a somewhat similar situation (now purged thread about a "green" hotel giving out free copies of Al Gore's book*):
That's pretty much what I think of this.
But also, as misdirected as I think it is, the purpose of the churches giving out the Bibles wasn't really about helping the homeless or vets or the hungry with sandwiches (though maybe it should have been); it was response to a rash of crime and what they thought was a general "gloom" in the city, and the purpose of giving away the Bibles was to provide "hope."
Now, while I think there are much better ways to do that, and that instead of Bibles, $18,000 could go a long way to say, setting up some sort of real community program, it does make sense for a Church to think that a free Bible and door-to-door praying is a perfect way to spread positivity and hope.
My hope is that they're doing more than giving out Bibles.