SHOULD CHURCHES BE REIMBURSED BY FEMA?

The question about reimbursement by FEMA presents a particular quandary for those in Church leadership; on the one hand the church shouldn’t be looking to the Government for our provision, because that in effect gives the Government power over the Church to some degree, yet on the other hand religious organizations shouldn’t be discriminated against simply because they are religious.

Religion isn’t what’s wrong with America; it’s what’s right with America, and it should be encouraged and supported in general by our public policy.

What we do as a Church we do in response to the law of love, which by definition, is sacrifice. We live to give, not to take. Jesus taught us and we’ve found it to be true, “It is better to give than to receive.” We don’t live by the law of the jungle.

So what we do, we do whether FEMA would reimburse us or not, because we know we’ve already received the greatest gift of all in the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ which grants us citizenship in the City of God.

But we are also citizens of the city of man, and when we look from the perspective of Government and Public policy, there should be no discrimination, particularly against the organizations that do the best job in helping those in need.

Any attempt to separate religious groups from secular non-profit groups performing the same mission reflects not a preference or even neutrality toward religion, but rather hostility toward religion.

That’s why at the forefront of this move you find groups like the American Atheists, and Americans for Separation of Church and State and the ACLU (The anti-Christian liberties Union).

These groups are fundamentally un-American at their core; their primary agenda is to bring a revolution so that we would be no longer one nation under God, but rather many nations under man. This is Secular Humanism, a religion that sets man as the highest authority, and is more consistent with communism and fascism, than it is with Americanism. Remember, our national motto is “In God We Trust”

It was President Eisenhower who said, and it was later repeated by President Ford,

“Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first –the most basic- expression of Americanism”

So I guess the conclusion of the matter should be that the Government should not discriminate against the Church in considering reimbursements, and the Church will always have the freedom to accept or not to accept Government reimbursements knowing that we are accountable not to the Federal Government, but to the Supreme Judge of the Universe for its faithful stewardship.