Protest

The US government has been facilitating a lot of changes in policy and enforcement, on various issues, for half a decade or so...maybe a little more. Really polarizing stuff, in case you hadn't noticed - abortion, healthcare, immigration, education. 

And it seems to me, at least locally, that when I see the news at night, there always seems to be a conglomeration of pastors and "faith leaders" on the screen, banded together and carrying signs, touting how they wish the government would do more. No, that's not quite right. 

They wish the government would do better. 

They are protesting with a plea for the government to have more compassion, more heart, more mercy, more grace. 

Which is cool, I guess, if that's your thing. At least, everyone says how nice it is to see the church standing with the people on these things the government needs to get better at.

But... 

These are the things the church used to do. 

The church started healthcare. The church started education. The church was the sanctuary for the refugee and the outcast. The church took care of unwed mothers.

Historically, it was the church who saw these needs and met them...with compassion, with heart, with mercy, with grace. 

And then, somewhere along the way, the government took over. There are a couple of primary reasons for this. 

First, it seems logical that the government, with its much bigger reach and much bigger pool of resources to draw from, would be better able to provide these kinds of services. The government has the ability to reach places that were more difficult for the church, just by nature of being everywhere more conveniently all at once. 

Second, as society began to shift more secularly, culture asked for the government to take over these things. They wanted these services to be separated from "all the religious stuff." Prozac shouldn't come with a side of preaching, and it became intolerable to even have a Cross on the wall of the local hospital. We don't need that faith stuff, the culture said, and they asked the government to take over. 

Well, not exactly. First, they asked the government to oversee these activities, to ensure that access was fair and that no religion was being shoved down people's throats, but this oversight so tied the hands of those ministering to the poor, the sick, and the refugee, that it just became easier for the state to do their own thing. 

And now, here we are. But...have we gotten our money's worth?

Of course not. Now, we're hearing cries that the government shouldn't be in women's healthcare. That immigration is more complicated than policy makes it look. That healthcare should be a universal right and not a for-profit business. That education should be concerned with things it historically wasn't concerned about. 

Quite honestly, everything the government has touched is broken. Beyond broken. 

And here we are in our streets, crying out - even from the pulpit, even from our robes - that the government is failing in compassion, in mercy, in grace, in love. And of course they are. They're the government. 

The church was much better at these things. That's what God designed her to be. 

And yet, most glaringly...(come back tomorrow)