Religion can bring a community together. It can bodn them through a web of shared interpersonal beliefs whihc will make their bonds stronger. By doing so, it can make them be there to support one another in their troubles, and create a community support group for those that fall on even harder times.
I do believe that religion holds poor communities together. I think that faith can be equivalent to hope. Hope can do powerful things for people. Hope brings a sense of peace to people and can also be what bonds people in the same situations together. Togetherness is a big part of religion and a community.
Poor communities seem to want to believe in some form of religion to create more of a place for themselves. It's more of a way to give some meaning to their life and it makes a poor community generally happier to have a lot of established religion as a group.
Religion definitely influences cohesion in some poor communities. There tends to be more of a cohesive nature to communities that are in poorer levels. I think that the reason for that is because religion helps them to come together as a community more as a mean to deal with their problems.
Yes, I do think that in a poor community that the religion in the area can make all of the people come together and have something to relate on and worship together. It is good for people to get along and treat each other with a lot of respect and class.