Should The Church Replace Secular Programs?

“People say ‘The Church ought to give us a lead.’ That is true if they mean it in the right way, but false if they mean it in the wrong way.” -C.S. Lewis

Allow me to summarize what Lewis is saying. Many people say, “The government should get out of the job of taking care of the poor. The church should do that.”

Lewis would say, “If you mean by that that Christians who know how to take care of the poor should care for them, then you are right. But if you mean that the institution of the church and the clergy should be the political institution that cares for the poor, that is silly.” It is a summary of what he says in his chapter “Social Morality”

Why is this? Clergy are trained to be students of Scripture, readers of ritual, comforters for the afflicted and to give general principles of worshipping God and assisting one’s neighbor. But they are not trained to help the poor. That is what social workers, food service workers and administrators are trained to do. If the church gives opportunity for these experts to do what they do well, then that is all fine. But usually the church doesn’t have the finances to support these people.

Where the church should step in is if society is heading the wrong direction. For instance, when American society was going in the wrong direction with slavery, with female suffrage or with civil rights, then the church should step in and point the right direction, and the church did take the first step in determining the right in all these circumstances. Not all the church, mind you, but a prophetic segment of the church that was appointed by God to show the right way.

Even so, now the church is showing society how to treat the homeless humanely, and society would do well to listen to the direction of the church, or else greater suffering will result. But this does not mean that the church should be the location for all the homeless. Maybe it will, but it isn’t necessary. It doesn’t mean that all food banks should be located at churches—it is well for churches to do this, but there is nothing wrong for churches to support other locations.

The church is supposed to point the way of Jesus and follow it themselves. That’s the church’s job. Not to be politicians or even social workers. It is, however, the job of Christians to do what they are trained to do according to Jesus’ words—with mercy and with the idea “I need to treat others as I would be treated”.