Ministry and Economics: How Impulsive Politics Hurts my Community

Hi.

I'm Pastor Joseph. I lead a small PC(USA) Congregation about 30 minutes west of Charlotte, NC. Sometimes I wear a kilt to work. I only wear the green hat when we're celebrating St. Patrick's Day, but the kilt is semi-regular.

I love Jesus, I love my family, I love my congregation, I love my community. I'm grateful to be an American.

But the political climate right now is actively interfering with my congregation's ability to do its job. I'd like to break that down. First, a couple of caveats:

1. My criticism is not limited to either major political party. All sin, all fall short of the glory of God. Likewise, God is working to do God's will through both political parties.
2. I'm not interested in blame. I'm interested in people taking responsibility for themselves, and their actions.
3. I have almost no background in economics or political science. My training is in theology (as a huge blanket term) and emotional systems.
4. The Gospel is political. That said, I'm going to try and keep this as non-partisan as possible. Where I fail, please know that I apologize, and I am eager to continue the conversation in respectful ways.

The current political climate is hindering my congregation's ability to share the love of Christ with our community by helping take care of the poor.

Right now, our political leaders are, with a few exceptions, ruled by impulsiveness and reactivity. Which means that those in charge (again, with a few exceptions) are either doing whatever feels or seems right to them at the time, or they are reacting to what's going on (by doing whatever feels or seems right to them at the time). This is bad. It's what we, as a democracy, have chosen for ourselves, but it's bad. It has led to a volatile stock market, and has led to a government shutdown.

My congregation supports local crisis ministries. Like many small churches, we can't do much, but when we pool our resources together we can make a much larger impact on those who need it. Unlike many small churches, we are blessed with a large endowment. This is the generosity of previous generations, invested wisely so that the ministry of our members may outlast them. Most of our financial support of our local crisis ministry comes from the growth of that endowment.

The stock market wasn't good to us in 2018. It wasn't good to a lot of people in 2018. With our investments, we're trying to help people keep their lights on, or not get evicted, or help pay for an unexpected funeral. When the stock market loses money, as it did in 2018, supporting that ministry becomes much more complicated. We cannot write the big check when there's no growth in the fund.

Here's what that looked like. I used https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia/charts

One of the reasons the stock market did poorly in 2018 is that the political climate is so unpredictable right now. Investment is an emotional process, and any economist will tell you that things tighten up when people are scared. Nobody wants to make a bad investment, and when the political climate is all over the place, it's hard to know what is a bad investment, so the stock market goes down.

Impulsive politics leads to poor stock performance. Poor stock performance means the local crisis ministry will not have as many resources. Fewer resources mean than the people in my community who need help will have a harder time finding it. Impulsive politics hurts poor people.

But the stock market is not the economy, right? Unemployment is low, wages are rising, maybe there won't be as much need this year!

Isn't it pretty to think so...

As of this writing, the government is in the midst of the longest shutdown in our history. Not every part of the government is affected, but some VERY important parts are. Federal Workers are either furloughed (on leave without pay, but are limited on travel and other employment options) or are working without pay.

These Federal Workers will need help during the shutdown. Maybe they'll be able to pay it forward once they get back pay, but they need help in the meantime keeping their bills paid, and buying food and stuff that can't be put on hold indefinitely.

These Federal Workers are suffering because of the impulsive and reactive political climate. They want to work. They want to be paid for their work. Their work matters. Don't let anyone tell you, or them, otherwise. They're out of work because the legislative branch and the executive branch have not passed a budget for their department. I have my opinion over whose fault that is, but that's my business.

These Federal Workers are a new group in need. But they're not the biggest need for the crisis ministry my congregation supports. Food stamp programs are also affected by the shutdown. 

A friend of mine shared this flyer on Facebook.

People on food stamps have been given money for a certain time, but they do no know when the next time they will have money for food will be. They are being urged to stretch their food stamp funds by visiting food pantries and crisis assistance ministries first, and then using their food stamps to fill in the gaps.

This means the crisis assistance ministry is about to have INCREASED need, at the same time that they will have DECREASED ability to help.

Impulsive Politics leads to government shutdowns. Government Shutdowns mean greater need from non-profits. Greater need from non-profits means that the Crisis Ministry's limited resources will be exhausted faster. Impulsive Politics makes it harder to help.

I lead a congregation that and has members of both major party affiliations. I love them all. I have voted for candidates from both major parties, and will do so again in the future. But the things that happen politically have real consequences for people in my neighborhood. My congregation will continue to be faithful, but if we could make the political climate more principled, our faith could have a much bigger impact on helping those who need it most.

Pray for them, pray for us. Remember that in this country we have a right to petition our government.