Faith, politics, and public aid
Collecting donations for Evanston Community Fridges. Photo: Gerald Farinas.
There is a big disconnect happening right now in online comments and public debates, and we need to talk about it honestly. Every day, people argue that we should completely get rid of Section 8 housing, claiming it just makes people lazy and dependent on the government. You see the exact same arguments when people call for cutting food programs like WIC and SNAP, or reducing healthcare through Medicare.
Lately, there is also a trend of people blaming our current economic hardships, like the high price of groceries and gas, on these very programs. They claim that inflation is happening because the government is giving out handouts to people who do not work. It is a blatant untruth that has absolutely no basis in reality.
What makes this so troubling is that many of the people pushing these ideas claim to be devout Christians. This isn't just happening in Evangelical churches, either. You see it among Catholics and mainline Protestants, too. For those of us who serve as Presbyterian elders, this mindset feels like a direct attack on everything we believe. It goes completely against our Scriptures and our commitment to the new Covenant in Jesus.
How did we get to a place where cutting off support for the most vulnerable is seen as a Christian virtue?
A lot of it comes down to a major disagreement over how the Gospel applies to everyday life. Many Christians look at the world through a lens that only focuses on individual accountability. In this view, poverty is treated as a personal moral failure or a lack of effort, rather than a systemic problem. People will take verses out of context, like the line about how those who won't work shouldn't eat, to justify cutting public assistance. They argue that helping the poor is only the job of the local church, not the government.
But our Reformed tradition teaches us to look at the bigger picture. We know that sin does not just live in individual hearts. Sin can be structural. It gets built into laws, economic policies, and social systems that hurt and disadvantage poor people.
When you look at the Bible, supporting housing, food programs, and healthcare is not a secondary political debate. It is a central duty of our faith.
The Old Testament prophets did not just ask people to be nice. They demanded justice from the rulers and the entire society. God judged whole nations based on how they treated the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, and the poor—the people who had no economic security.
When Jesus started his ministry in the Gospel of Luke, he announced that he came to bring good news to the poor and free the oppressed. In Matthew 25, when he talks about judging the nations, the standard is incredibly practical. It is not about complicated theology. It is about whether we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and cared for the sick.
As a covenant people, taking care of our neighbors is how we show our faithfulness to God. When Christians reduce the Gospel to just personal salvation while pushing for policies that strip away basic human needs like food and shelter, they are separating what Jesus joined together.
It is hard to watch people use our faith to justify hurting others, especially when they spread lies about how welfare programs affect the economy. But it reminds us why our voice matters so much right now. We have to keep reminding the Church and the world that working for public justice and helping our neighbors are not optional. They are exactly what it means to follow Jesus.
