Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 08/02/2026 1:53:49 PM PDT by Morgana
Alvin Christian has fed up to 800 families a day from God's Store House Food Bank in Bluefield, West Virginia. This month, his freezers sat empty. And not from a supply shortage. Instead, apparently, Christian has been turning away food donations himself, after learning some of the suppliers worked with LGBTQ-affiliated groups.
It raises an old religious question wearing new clothes: does feeding the hungry come with a doctrinal test attached, or is mercy supposed to be unconditional? What Happened at God's Store House?
Christian founded God's Store House in 2023, and it grew fast. By early this year, the pantry was serving more than 8,000 families a month across four counties in West Virginia and Virginia, growth that pushed Christian to start raising money for a larger building. "It gives me great pleasure to see a smile on somebody's face," he told a local news station in 2023, describing why he took on the work.
That momentum stalled this week. In a video he later deleted, Christian told followers his freezers were bare, and that donors had offered to restock them. He turned the food down anyway, he said, after doing his own research and finding the donors' ties to LGBTQ-affiliated organizations.
While Christian would later delete that video, it was archived by another Facebook user, Hairston Nes.
In the video, Christian explicitly cites his faith as the motivating factor behind his decision: "As a man-of-God and standing with faith in God, I refuse to receive food from anybody that has anything, is tied into [the gay rights movement]."
Another community member apparently took it upon himself to call Christian and express his feelings about the issue. A recording of that alleged call was also uploaded to Facebook.
For a pantry that had grown into a lifeline across four counties, that meant real families losing a source of groceries they had come to count on. Christian did not respond to a request for comment from Friendly Atheist, who first reported his decision, though he addressed the fallout directly the next morning in a livestream video.
In his response stream, throughout which the camera remains aimed at the floor, Christian seemed to suggest that much of the controversy could be attributed to a misunderstanding. He said that it was not his intention to refuse to accept donated food from groups affiliated with LGBTQ+ groups, and instead clarified that he was refusing to purchase food from vendors who were affiliated with LGBTQ+ groups or causes for fear that some portion of the purchase price could go toward supporting those groups.
That account is difficult to square with his own earlier statement.
He further indicated that he did not maintain a practice of refusing to provide food to individuals who entered his food bank as a result of their characteristics. This pledge that he would not refuse to provide food to particular individuals was repeated across both of the videos.
The response video has received hundreds of comments, and while there are some statements of support for Christian, many of the comments indicate that there is ongoing concern and anger over his practices. Is This Kind of Rejection Common?
It is more common than it should be. A widely cited 2022 analysis found more than six in ten food pantries across a dozen states are run by churches or other faith-based groups, and a Williams Institute study found 14 percent of LGBTQ+ adults have avoided a faith-based pantry altogether, worried about the reception waiting for them at the door.
The USDA's own nutrition agency has noted that food insufficiency runs roughly three times higher among transgender people than the general population, meaning the group most likely to hesitate at a church food pantry's door is also among the hungriest.
But faith-based charity is not one thing. In Oklahoma City, a pantry at the Church of the Open Arms serves the neighborhood around the city's gay district, led by Laura Choate, who was pushed out of her own family's home at 11 for coming out. Her pantry makes welcome the starting point for every visitor, not a condition to be earned.
"We're very aware that some places aren't as open to everyone," said Lorrie Clevenger, a program director at the hunger-relief group WhyHunger, describing the broader landscape her organization tracks. Feeding America, the country's largest hunger-relief network, works across that same landscape without screening partners by politics or faith.
Although it is unclear, it appears from his initial video that Feeding America is the food supplier that Christian has taken issue with this week.
Christian's decision fits a pattern this blog has tracked before, institutions treating LGBTQ affiliation as disqualifying even at real cost to their own stated mission. Only 2 percent of the churches contacted during one recent cold-snap survey agreed to open their doors to homeless neighbors overnight, most citing liability fears rather than theology. A Christian radio host was fired last year for voicing support for LGBTQ+ weddings, over the objections of his own listeners.
Supporters of Christian's stance would point to Scripture's warning against being "unequally yoked," a passage some conservative Christians read as barring partnership with groups whose values conflict with their own, even indirectly. A ministry, on that reading, answers to God's standards first, and no law requires Christian to accept help from groups he disagrees with.
But conviction has a cost. Every box of food he refuses is a family that goes without, in a corner of Appalachia already stretched thin by hunger.
Where should the line sit between guarding a ministry's beliefs and feeding the people already standing in front of it? And if you ran a charity forced to choose between the two, which one would you pick?
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Btw why is it the only source of help was the alphabet community? Where are other christians?
What say you about this pastor
How does that sanctimony taste, Rev?
In my opinion 99 percent of the people who go to food shelves.
Don’t need it but go because it is free.
This comes up with other issues, such as abortion and euthanasia advocacy. One solution is instead of offering support for individuals, to offer support for churches that respect and uphold the beliefs of the provider organization.
If individuals or families “in good standing” from these churches are in need, no problem.
“vendors who were affiliated with LGBTQ+ groups or causes for fear that some portion of the purchase price could go toward supporting those groups.”
We will require lowest cost pricing plus a donation to us not less than the percentage of your total revenue you give to LGBTQ+ groups or causes.
I think your estimate is too low.
“food insufficiency runs roughly three times higher among transgender people than the general population”
How much did your transition cost?
How much does 30 days of related drugs cost?
This part of West Virginia is very poor.
“How much did your transition cost?
How much does 30 days of related drugs cost?”
Don’t they get that free at taxpayers expenses?
At some point, it always becomes a narcissist control type of thing. They always lose the concept of “grace” due to ego.
After reading the tone of the opinion piece, I am likely to side with the Pastor. This piece sounded like a falsely pious piece with an agenda and a slant.
He should be able to run it as he sees fit, and people not affiliated with him are already telling him what to do. If he accepts donations from these same kind of people, is he then beholden to them?
He willingly serves anyone, no matter their moral state. If he doesn’t want to take donations from pro-LGBTQ agencies, that’s his prerogative. Of course, that includes United Way.
The market for “free” is infinite.
Used to work next door to a Thursday afternoon foodbank. People started lining up at about noon for the 2pm giveaway. I guess they weren’t working that day? Most of them were very overweight, spoke Spanish, and drove a nicer car than I did.
Agree?
Agree?
What?
If the ministry believes that God has an opinion on it,
it is unclear why any human sinners’ opinions would matter.
You framed the question with the unspoken assumption that God does not matter, or that He is not real, or that He has not revealed anything on this.
When I read your post, I thought it was on of mine...!
Acts 10:9
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
1 Corinthians chapter 10
25 Eat anything sold in the market, without raising questions on grounds of conscience, 26 for “the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.” 27 If an unbeliever invites you and you want to go, eat whatever is placed before you, without raising questions on grounds of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This was offered in sacrifice,” do not eat it on account of the one who called attention to it and on account of conscience;
Is this similar enough to use as advise? I don't know. And verse 28 tosses Paul's earlier allowance on its head where if someone questions the source of the sacrificed meat you have to stop eating it to not weaken the questioner's faith.
Have you ever known anyone who had to go to a food bank? Or get free meals at a senior center? Or Meals on Wheels? Or get temporary EBT?
I have. Bad things and financial catastrophes can happen to good people: the death of a spouse, loss of a job, an injury or disability or sudden illness, a fire or flood...
Maybe some of you so called Christians need to read the words of your Lord and Savior:
Matthew 25:35-40 ESV (English Standard Version 2025)
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
I would also note Jesus didn’t include a means test to determine if they deserved it or not, or state you may only feed the poor and hungry if that food comes from people who you have deemed righteous in your own eyes. I think He had a few things to say about that also.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.