I am currently a student at Boyce College in Louisville, Ky. I have had just a little exposure to the issue of government lending to religious social services.
After reading your article “On the Horns of a Dilemma,” I was perplexed to see that this was such a dilemma for churches. I do not believe that there should be any quandary over this issue.
The American government does not seem to be in line with the cliche, “The government is for the people not the people for the government.”
In other words, the government should aid its people without, in turn, using the people to push its ideology (which is more often liberal and ungodly).
Even if it followed this paradigm consistently, I see it making no difference in this issue.
To the church that Jesus Christ established and promised to build (Matt. 16:18), the government is never offered as a source of aid to outreach.
The initiative that President Bush has promoted is good in intent, but it is not a positive development.
A positive development for the church would be that her members give and provide for her needs and for outreach.
You say, “The rule of public control following public money is creating dilemmas across the nation for some ministries that initially saw President Bush’s support for faith-based social services.”
Yet this dependence does not fit into what we see in the book of Acts concerning the church and her ministries.
Furthermore, what does the government have to do with the salvation of souls?
If a ministry accepts the government’s aid, then she forfeits the purity of the gospel. When she forfeits the purity of the gospel, her work is no longer eternal, but temporary.
Ultimately this is useless pragmatism. The government is intolerant of the gospel.
If we are to be the body of Christ, we are to give to the social services that are involved in the propagation of the gospel.
Do we not think Christ will provide for His church?
If the well-intending people want to keep the social aspect of ministry and not the weightier aspect of furthering the Kingdom, they can accept the aid and carry on.
Yet they must not fool themselves into thinking that their ministry is Christ’s ministry. Christ is about the saving of lost souls.
You say, “The ultimate outcome is to lead clients to faith in Jesus Christ.” There is no dilemma. The church’s end is always to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ and none other or she is not a church, but a social organization.
Joshua Hollis
Cave City, Ky.
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