So depending on which blogs you read, or conspiracy theories you subscribe to; the agenda advanced by some right-wing politicians in America is to eliminate social services provided by the government. One interesting question to come out of this is how do Christians respond to talk of cuts in social services?

Well one response is to claim that all social services should be the churches responsibility:

A hundred years ago, the safety net, the social safety net in the country was provided by the church.

If you didn't have a job, you'd go to your local church and ask the pastor if he know somebody that could hire him. If you were hungry, you went to the local church and told them, "I can't feed my family." And the church would help you. And that's not being done.

But the government took that. And took it away from the church. And they had more money to give and more programs to give, and pretty soon, the churches just backed off.

-Franklin Graham

It appears that Franklin is suggesting that there is a binary relationship for social programs, either the state or church can provide them but not both.

Besides being utter lunacy, it's brilliant in a way. It manages to satisfy the demands of the small-government conservatives while providing fuel for evangelical Christan empire building. Win win for everyone right?

No so much. The church is an excellent vehicle to administer social programs to church-goers, but this argument completely ignores the needs of those from different faiths. Is the Christian church going to provide jobs for Jews, housing for Hindus, and meals for Muslims?

The problem with this strategy is that when Christians do provide social services for non-Christians there tend to be some strings attached. "Sure, we can feed you, but listen to this sermon first." The great thing about governments providing social services is that they rarely have an ulterior motive. Jobs are just jobs, housing is just housing, and meals are just meals.

That having been said, everyone has a moral obligation to help the less fortunate. You can't abdicate your responsibility just because someone else is helping now. Churches need to work to complement the services being offer by the government by finding areas which aren't being addressed and filling in the gaps.