I understand what you're saying and appreciate your reply as well as the zeal of your congregation to fulfill your mission. God bless you :) Imagine though for a moment that your church started a hospital 130 years ago. What would you do with that hospital now that it has to meet unfunded government mandates and other regulations that weren't in place when your church began its ministry to provide health care to the poorest of the poor?
To be entirely free of the government, you'd have to refuse to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients. You wouldn't be able to stay in operation very long because you'd be running afoul of patient discrimination laws. You'd have to shut down your hospital. On the other hand, you could contract with the government as other groups are free to do and continue providing health care services. You could also accept grants that are available to care for the uninsured. Or you could be pure and refuse them, but you'd still have to close down because the law doesn't allow you to stop accepting indigent patients when your finite resources have been exhausted.
If you see Christ in the ill, have you abandoned him if you close your hospital to avoid government intrusion in your ministry? Please understand I am not trying to be argumentative. The only way to avoid government interference is to shut down your hospital and let secularists eventually fill the void. Your conscience may feel pure about not being under the thumb of the govt, but how does it feel about all those sick people in your community who now have fewer hospital beds during flu season? Fewer options for the uninsured? Fewer outreach programs? Fewer surgical suites in the community? The gaping hole you made in the community's safety net? Is it more in keeping with Christian charity to burden the entire system or try to adapt to continue alleviating the burden in the community?
Finally, I wholly respect your efforts to privately fund your food bank. Even without govt funds there are federal and state laws to comply with. The days of having a ministry without "any possibility of government dictation at any time or in any manner" are gone. Forever :( Nonacceptance of federal funds isn't exemption from federal law.
Peace be with you.
As far as health care goes, I think it is fine to raise funds to help people out who have trouble paying their medical bills. Doctors in our community have done an admirable job of serving in our local interfaith clinic
In our region, two religiously affiliated hospital chains— one Baptist, one Catholic—have been taken over by one for profit chain. In both instances, the percentage of services provided without reimbursement has actually stayed about the same. In other words, their disappearance has not created any new holes in the safety net. You don’t have to own hospitals to help the sick. I would go even further and say that compliance with the realities of running a hospital that you mention can, in practice, interfere with true charity. The Baptist chain I mentioned had the reputation of being hyper aggressive in referring unpaid accounts to outside bill collectors.
The food bank we and other churches in our community support is staffed entirely by volunteers and is housed on a rotating basis in various churches. No one tells us who we can serve or how. I suppose the buildings have to comply with the building codes and so forth, but that doesn’t really seem on point.
I confess to being a life long strict separationist. Receipt of tax dollars inevitably corrupts the church. There are plenty of human needs that can be met by churches without building up large institutions that inevitably become commingled with the state.