HAROLD KELLER

Government wants to help church groups? How about Jesus’s way?

Tuesday, I met with one of my good friends and a strong supporter of Get High on Life. He greeted me with, “I thought you’d be in Washington, D.C. by now.” Puzzled, I asked, “Why?” “Didn’t you see where President Bush is boosting church charity to religions and non-profit groups?” he questioned. (Get High on Life is a non-profit organization.) I admitted that I had heard the news and read the news release but was not very excited. Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, writing on the subject, admitted to being double-minded on the president’s plan to offer government funds to religious charities that provide social services. He went on to say the following: “It is beyond debate that programs with a life-changing, spiritual element produce the results government seeks, but has yet to find, in secular’ programs. Organizations like Prison Fellowship, where the recidivism rate is in single digits, and Teen Challenge, a drug rehabilitation program President Bush praised when he was governor of Texas, change lives and substantially reduce the likelihood of repeat offenses.” The question in my mind is: Does religion need the government to advance its primary calling of sharing Jesus with a lost world? I’m also conscious of the fact that churches don’t necessarily want government interfering with God’s business. Will this plan allow the government entrance into the church doors? The only thing I know for sure is that with money available to such groups, we will have an explosion of new, so-called religious or spiritual ministries competing for the money. If all the Christian churches in America were to reach out to the people in need as God so instructs us to do, there would be no need for such programs. God’s program for mankind is simple – love your neighbor as yourself and minister to each other’s needs. If we did that there would be no need for welfare or any social programs. Sounds ridiculous? It is – not because of God, but because of man. God’s call is for people to reach people, not government subsidies. His ministry was so effective, it confused the government. Come to think of it, it was the government that crucified Jesus for His free, social programs of healing the sick, visiting the fatherless and reaching out to the less fortunate. HAROLD KELLER writes this column as part of his affiliation with the Get High on Life religious motivational group.