Alms for the Poor!

Wanted: More Miracle Workers

Photo by LSE Library on Unsplash

I didn't attend The Family Leader Summit last week. But comments made by select speakers on the agenda of this evangelical conservative group caught my attention.

You might say I was gob smacked. Or, considering the context, Godsmacked?

Kelly Garcia, the first Iowa Health and Human Services Director to address the Family Leader Summit, seemed to be setting the stage to turn over the poverty of Iowans and our fraying social support safety net to . . . churches. Garcia said she's been traveling the state to connect with Iowa pastors and churches, accompanied by Greg Baker, The Family Leader's vice president of Church Engagement for the Ambassador Network.

"We don't need to be involved in everything," she said. "And this is where the government gets it wrong, the notion that we can somehow solve poverty as a government? No."

Garcia said she's found a team of church leaders eager to step in to fill the gaps. She asserted that "the work alongside community building and through church is lasting, and that's where redemption happens."

Baker agreed, saying, "Poverty is a spiritual issue. Addictions are spiritual issues, and they will only be solved in the spiritual realm." He declared that the evangelical church is ready "to dive into social service side" of government, and it will "outperform expectations."

One phrase immediately popped to mind when I heard this, although no one at The Family Leader Summit said it. But these four words have been echoing in my head ever since:

"Alms for the poor! Alms for the poor!"

The word "alms" is uncommon today, but it refers to money, food, or similar items provided as a charitable act. Jesus emphasized almsgiving, telling followers to sell their possessions, and give alms to the poor. In almost any movie that's set in the 1800s or earlier, you'll surely see a scene with a ragged street beggar holding a tin cup, and shouting "Alms for the Poor."

I haven't noticed Garcia and Baker in my neck of the woods in Boone County. I'm sure they spend most of their Iowa tour in urban areas, meeting with one evangelical mega church after another, all created in their own mirror image.

I'd be happy to give them a church tour in rural Boone and Webster Counties.

Here in rural Iowa, we know we can't expect our churches to bridge the gaps created by government shortfalls, especially those triggered by the recent passage of the budget reconciliation/tax cut law, notably:

· Medicaid cuts: One in five Americans depends on Medicaid for health insurance. In Iowa, and other rural states, it's even higher. Most vulnerable are children, nursing home residents, and low income adults who are self-employed or work jobs that don't health insurance. The American Hospital Association estimates 10.9 million more uninsured people in the U.S. by 2034. How can churches respond to such significant losses?

· SNAP reductions. The Congressional Budget Office estimates $287 billion in federal spending reductions between 2025 and 2034. By Fiscal year 2028, approximately 5% to 15% of this federal program's benefit costs will be shifted to individual states. New eligibility criteria also are likely to impact older adults, parents with older children, and veterans. And there will be a ripple effect; for every $1 in additional spending on SNAP, $1.54 is returned to the local economy, including grocery stores, producers, processors, and transportation.

Churches are sure to hear an increasingly common question from community members: "Do I pay for my prescriptions, or my groceries?"

But in many small Iowa communities, groceries aren't easy to come by. Dayton Community Grocery in Webster County closed its doors in June after 24 years as a community-owned store. In July, the Stratford Food Center, 10 miles to the east, shuttered. The two stores had been sharing a delivery truck. In Jewell, in Hamilton County, the grocery store recently restocked its shelves after a community fundraiser re-opened its doors.

Churches Struggle, Too

Most churches in Iowa won't be able to pick up the slack from government cuts. They're following the same directive given to airline passengers prior to take-off: "Put on your oxygen mask first before helping others."

Churches are struggling to afford rising property insurance rates, salaries, utilities, and they rely on volunteers for custodial and lawn care. They hold fundraising dinners and breakfasts to fill their budget gaps.

So, here are a few highlights from the church tour that I'd offer to Director Garcia and The Family Leader if they venture here:

One year ago, on August 4, this United Methodist Church in Boxholm closed its doors. It was incredibly sad. And increasingly common. Another church in nearby Pilot Mound was converted to a home at least 15 years ago.

Here's a Lutheran church in Dayton. Maybe it could help? No? It was shuttered a few years ago. The Catholic church on the north edge of Dayton was remodeled into a home recently.

This relatively new Catholic church in Ogden no longer has a weekly congregation.

This church in Ogden closed its doors, and was converted into a pre-school for several years. Another church in town also was a preschool, and now is a home.

I don't think any of these churches would "outperform expectations," do you?

But it's not only churches in rural areas that are being shuttered. The 163-year-old First Baptist Church in Iowa Falls recently announced it will be closing on August 31.

Church closings diminish both the communities of people who gathered regularly and shared their lives there as well as the larger communities that benefit from church ministries, including the economically and socially disadvantaged.

It's a simple formula: smaller, older congregations + higher costs =church closures.

Next Generation AWOL

Of course churches will do what they can to help. Two churches in nearby Ogden offer a monthly food pantry, along with one church in Dayton. Sometimes churches provide local students with school supplies. Others open their doors to offer Thanksgiving meals. A few reach out to immigrants.

The part-time pastor model is the norm. Multiple rural churches are "yoked" with one another, sharing pastors and alternating with lay guest speakers. It's the modern-day equivalent of the circuit rider pastor who rode on horseback to serve different communities.

But Covid-19 closures wreaked havoc on churches; all denominations report attendance is only 85% of pre- Covid attendance. Iowa has been "hemorrhaging" members and churches even faster than the rest of the U.S., especially Catholic churches. A total of 72% of Iowa counties report a decreasing number of congregations, writes Daniel Henderson, Iowa Writers' Collaborative.

Rural depopulation plays a role. Culture wars also turn off young people. LGBTQ issues have divided congregations, beginning with the Episcopal Church in 2009, followed by the largest Lutheran denomination in 2010, and most recently United Methodists in 2024. God can't love everyone and condemn LGBTQ individuals or immigrants, right? Livestreaming the sermons of celebrity pastors at megachurches doesn't fill local pews, either.

In fact, the biggest increase in religion in Iowa is the "unaffiliated" category.

Religious Conservatives Have Outsized Role

The precipitous decline in church affiliation is taking place at a time when Christian nationalism is playing an outsized role and exerting influence in public policy through the state legislature and the Iowa Governor's mansion.

The Heritage Society's Project 2025 blueprint re-interprets poverty as an individual moral and spiritual deficiency, not as a structural failure. Self-reliance, on the other hand, is considered a form of righteousness.

During The Family Leader Summit, President and CEO Bob Vander Plaat, who has run for state office, stated he wants to "elect ministers of God" to public office. "We don't ask churches to get political, but to get biblical, in engaging with government," he said. What does this mean?

It raises an array of questions about the policy direction Iowa and a significant swath of the country is headed. For instance:

· The recently passed budget reconciliation/tax bill offers a tax credit up to $1,700 per year to give to a private school. It's the first federal tax credit for education scholarship program. This diverts funding from public schools to private, mostly Christian schools that are allowed to discriminate because of religion, sexuality, gender, or race.

· In Iowa this fall, the K-12 private school voucher program initiated by Gov. Reynolds is fully phased in, without regard to family income. Public school enrollment is declining, while private schools are growing.

· A recent IRS ruling agreed that churches can openly campaign and endorse candidates, reversing decades of the Johnson amendment, which prohibited this as a condition of retaining a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt status.

Of course, government can't solve all problems of poverty. But government shouldn't intentionally make life worse for its citizens. Studies show that the expanded child tax credit during Covid-19 reduced hunger by 11%. The Affordable Care Act allowed millions access to affordable, quality health care. But KFF, a non-partisan health policy research group, recently reported that expiration of enhanced premiums tax credits this year will hike the average premium by 75%, worsening health disparities.

Clearly, there's a disconnect in the belief that Iowa churches could play a significant role in addressing the losses from government social safety net programs.

Is it appropriate for the HHS director to partner with a religious group with a partisan political playbook aimed at closing all Planned Parenthood Clinics in Iowa?

Following the lead of Project 2025, The Family Leader, clearly is eager to remake Iowa in its own image: white, Christian, evangelical. However, it's not Christian to demonize people of other denominations, or those with no faith at all. Poverty isn't a moral failing. Substance abuse isn't a sin. Being LBGTQ isn't a choice.

For almost 300 years prior to the Social Security Act of 1935, local officials known as Overseers of the Poor would judge whether someone was a member of the "undeserving poor" or "worthy" of a minimum of "alms for the poor".

Let's not go back there. We can work together to strength families and communities through government, without blaming every social ill on breakdown of the family or moral weakness.

Photo by Art Institute of Chicago on UnsplashI

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