Churches should not be conduits of government largesse to all comers. They should be providing for the genuine needs of their own members out of their own charity, *and* teaching the congregants to live by Biblical principles.
I'm a trustee at my church, you wouldn't believe the number of calls we get from people who do not attend our church or even live anywhere near it. They ask for food and money for utility bills, rent, house payments, car payments, you name it.
They are told that we don't have the resources to help everyone so we stick to helping our own members. We do have plenty of our own who are truly needy and we help them.
Some people actually get angry at us because we are a church and the church is supposed to "help people".
This. So much this. A couple months back we had to work with our church and the mechanic to help us pay for a shattered wheel bearing on my 15-year-old, 178,000-mile truck. It about KILLED me when I found out that the church paid about half the bill (around $250). I was raised to never take charity, so I don’t know quite how to handle it and actually graciously receive something like that. :)
For this woman to stand in front of a really nice high-def TV and Xbox and complain about the taxpayers of Bibb County not paying her heat bill? She’s got a lot of something the Yiddish call “chutzpah,” but the folks down in Macon probably just call “balls.” You could do without some video games and TV, lady. Sell ‘em, heat your house. Priorities.
}:-)4