Many of you might be wondering, how do churches relate to the new federal stimulus package? With many small businesses, mom and pop stores, and even large corporations such as Starbucks struggling due to the government shutdown the the government recently released that it will loan out money to many businesses to help pay utilities, salary, and other fixed expenses that businesses are struggling to pay. I’m figured this would directly benefit local restaurants, non-essential businesses, and other corporations that cannot pay employees and bills. This has forced many of these small companies to innovate in the e-commerce world. I just recently looked up several pizza places in my area and they are offering DIY pizza making kits. Online Pickup for grocery stores is in very high demand, and even coffee shops are selling beans and other things online. Many of these places want to continue to innovate in the small ways that they have, but need to be able to afford their expenses in this transition period, and that is why the federal government is offering this stimulus package.
Now you may be asking: “wait Matt, didn’t you talk about the struggling churches and how donations have fallen substantially during this time?” Why yes all of you who are reading my articles. I did in my last blog post. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, go back and see how churches are transitioning in this time of social distancing. But those of you who did, remember the struggle many churches are currently going through who are not able to take physical tithes in offering plates. This was how many churches who are smaller, have older congregations, or saw no need to transition to online giving. Many of them are being hurt, and the government recognized it. Yes, churches are receiving access to the same benefits as the pizza shop in your home town. These will help pay for salaries, utilities, and other fixed expenses just like small businesses. But then this raises a whole new moral question. Does this break the separation of church and state? While many people might find this relieving , many of us at “Freedom’s College” (Grove City College) believe in the separation from government funding and sponsorship in faith based organizations. It will be interesting to see how churches react to this bill. Many though will say that this is an opportunity for churches to innovate. Online church seems to be a fairly large movement, and with many pastors now running podcasts, YouTube channels, and social media will this give churches the funding and time to contextualize and reach out to the “online generation”? There is no doubt that money allows churches to innovate, but does it matter if the donations and loans come from the congregation, or can the come from the people (i.e. the Government).
Please comment down below and tell me what your thoughts are on this situation!
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I think that it is very interesting to see the governments willingness to provide money to Churches at all in the country because, as you mentioned this seems to go against the idea of separation of Church and state. That however is from our counties stand point and I don't think that the Church should turn down this money if they are given the opportunity but rather use the money for new innovative outreaches.
Oh gosh... I'm not surprised that anybody else has tried to tackle their thoughts about this in your comments (ha). This is super interesting and definitely something I'm not sure I would've ever thought of had you not brought it to my attention. I whipped out my Bible for this. I was looking at Romans 13:1-7, which discusses "Submission to Governing Authorities" and really emphasizes that there is no authority from which God did not establish and that we're all subject to obey governing authorities, unless it goes against God and His Word. The question that arises in this discussion then is are we discussing the Church, as in God's people, or the church, as in an institution? Since God is the establisher of all governing authorities, of which all of God's people are subject under, is it then wrong to deny the "gift" of financial aid from an establishment created by God and for His people (Romans 13:4)? Separation of church and state really only became a thing in the U.S. to protect both the state from religious influence and also religions from state influence around 1947 in the Everson v Board of Education Supreme Court Case... the phrase "separation of state and church" isn't even in the Constitution, nor in the Bible, so I'm not sure why, specifically, we'd make such an effort to ensure that the church and the state cannot even help support one another financially in a time of crisis. I'm still not solid on all of my thoughts about this for sure, but this is such an interesting topic to bring up - thank you!
My church is going through this right now! There are a few little things that they sneak in there that can be confusing and kind of controlling and the elders of my church are going through this all right now! Very relevant.
This was a really interesting article. I had never really thought about this issue in that way. My first reaction was that it's awesome that churches will be getting that funding, but after your point about the separation from government funding I am curious what they will do. Churches are definitely hurting right now, more than we probably even know.