I'm sorry to hear that. Certainly there are bad churches in the world. But there are many many more churches that are helping meet needs (physical, mental, spiritual) in their communities. I hate that you've only seen negative affects of religion when there is so much good in spirituality and community you didn't see. :-(
Religious "good" is really selfish, mitigating the existential fear and providing "guidance" while society absorbs the negative externalities of decreased critical reasoning, departure from reality and increased sectarian tensions and so forth.
So while communally your project is beneficial, locally and globally it decreases the pace of human development as a whole.
