Again, I do not come from the church angle (though you're certainly correct about it being seen very differently in the US and parts of Europe, although the difference within Europe also is huge) but from a gameplay angle.
Within this game are dozens of locations. The game gives you reasons to go there - you buy at the different stores at the mall, you work at the office, you learn at the university, you will be asked to go to the water park, you can have dates on the beach, you train at the gym, and so on.
The only reason to go to the church is to meet Harmony. But you don't know that. Unlike Bree's café (or room) or Aletta's office you will not know that somebody will be there. Or even some stores at the mall, where you see the icons of girls in the overview. No other girl visits this location. So basically the game gives you no incentive to visit a specific location, you cannot do something useful in game there, while every other location does have incentives and other uses besides "meeting somebody". This feels odd. I do understand that exploring your surroundings and finding something hidden can also be rewarding, but it is curious to limit this to one location only, also not to then also have an empty location.
This is not a bad thing in and of itself, it just feels slightly off and a strange design choice. As well as mass only giving a negative effect - having a completely useless option in a game is also pretty rare. Because players will try it once and then avoid it so it does nothing for the game. It'd be akin to some "spend $100 for charity" option which does nothing except that you lose $100.
