Paul

President Trump’s call for a pause on U.S. foreign aid has ignited a firestorm of criticism from the usual suspects but has also elicited support from some unlikely allies.

Writing in The Hill just after Christmas, Sean P. Brooks acknowledged that the current system for doling out financial assistance from the United States to foreign countries is hopelessly broken.

“The Trump administration should drastically scale back the agency’s global footprint,” urged Brook, who previously led the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) efforts in Somalia.

“In most cases, American aid does not promote our interests abroad because its strategic purpose is ill-conceived,” he noted. “Furthermore, most U.S.-funded projects — even when well thought out — fail to achieve their intended outcomes because of a broken delivery system. When it comes to USAID, Trump is right: ‘The system is rigged.’ Only deep and significant cuts can force strategic alignment and create the right incentives for the necessary reforms.”

To level set, the U.S. Department of State recently acknowledged America is spending approximately $40 billion a year in foreign aid. For perspective, that’s four out of every ten dollars in global humanitarian assistance.

The United States has a long history of giving aid to foreign countries, but there was strong resistance to it in the early days of our funding. James Madison objected to a proposed $15,000 expenditure to aid Haitian refugees fleeing their island from revolution and resettling in America.

“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of government,” wrote Madison. “It would puzzle any gentleman to lay his finger on any part of the Constitution which would authorize the government to interpose in the relief of … sufferers.”

In a perfect world, churches and charities would provide the needed help.

U.S. sponsored foreign aid really kicked into high gear during and after World War II. Between 1948 and 1951, America allocated $13.3 billion ($150 billion in today’s dollars) for the Marshall Plan. Those funds help rebuild a beleaguered Europe and prevented the Soviet Union from gaining a foothold in the fragile region.

From those designated dollars, the U.S. has poured all kinds of resources into over one-hundred nations, and for all kinds of reasons.

Over the years, Christians have had a special interest in humanitarian aid designated to alleviate suffering and starvation, especially. From preventing disease to digging wells to helping plants crops, America has served as a friend to countless individuals who never even set foot on our soil.

In issuing the 90-day pause on foreign aid, President Trump stated the current “bureaucracy [is] not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.” He added that U.S. funds are serving to “destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”

During an Oval Office exchange with reporters on Monday, President Trump said that he “loves the concept” of humanitarian aid, but that the dollars are too often given to individuals who turn out to be radicals.

In the aftermath of the executive order, officials made clear certain assistance was to continue, including emergency food aid to Israel and Egypt, along with “life-saving humanitarian assistance” around the world that consists of “medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance.”

Incidentally, PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) is still being funded.

Critics of the pause or any reevaluation of the current foreign aid being dispersed by the United States often cite the fact that the dollars spent constitute just one percent of the total United States budget. The insinuation, of course, is that America is a rich nation and can afford every dollar given.

But reducing the exercise to a purely financial proposition and equation ignores the fact that cultivating a dependency on foreign aid can create dangerous conditions that ultimately hurt the very people and countries those dollars are designed to help.

Any outcry over the freeze and potential cuts reflects the consequences of decades of bureaucrats kicking the proverbial can down the road. It was Ronald Reagan who famously quipped, “The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program.” United States foreign aid certainly fits that description.

The apostle Paul urged believers in Greece “to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (1 Thess. 4:11-12).

In the coming months, officials have pledged to carefully study and review current foreign aid allocation. We pray these individuals will be wise and discerning, guided not by politics, but by what is in the best interest of all those involved.

Image from Shutterstock

If anyone wonders why so many mainline Christian denominations have been declining precipitously over the years, all they need to do is consider Tuesday’s National Prayer Service presided over by the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde — the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C.

In many ways, it’s a microcosm of a larger, widespread issue of pastors who abandon the Bible and substitute out God’s truth for an emotionally manufactured theology.

A longtime critic of the 47^th president, Bishop Budde looked directly at President Trump as she began her remarks.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

In reality, there is no such thing as LGBT children. There are those who might very well be confused, those who claim a certain attraction, but it’s inaccurate and reckless to make such sweeping designations when referring to young people. They’re far too immature and emotionally underdeveloped to make such decisions and declarations.

Any sexually confused person who fears for their life has bought, hook, line, and sinker, the propaganda of the radical activists. Perpetuating that lie that they have reason to be fearful is heartless, careless, and manipulative. It only adds to the pain and grief these children are already navigating. It’s tantamount to psychological abuse.

Reverend Budde then turned her attention to illegal immigration.

“I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities — these children fear that their parents will be taken away,” she said. “And that you help those that are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands find compassion and welcome here.”

She then added:

“Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we will all want strangers in this land.”

The bishop is correct that Christians are to welcome immigrants (Deut. 10:19) and be hospitable to strangers (Romans 12:13). But there is big difference to treating people with compassion and respect and flinging wide open the borders and declining to pursue and prosecute those who break the law.

It’s similarly irresponsible to conflate illegal immigration with the issue of refugees from war-torn and abusive situations. But once more, playing and prying on the emotion of the issue ignores the far-reaching consequences of allowing the violent to remain in America.

But Bishop Budde also owes the immigrant community an apology.

“And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation,” she stated.

Why is the bishop assuming immigrants are only in those professions? If you go back far enough, nearly every American has an inspiring immigrant story. Every class and level of American industry, science, sports, entertainment, and education is full of those who arrived with nothing and achieved almost anything and everything their heart desired.

Returning from the National Cathedral on Tuesday, President Trump told reporters, “I didn’t think it was a good service. They can do much better.”

Writing on Truth Social on Wednesday, Mr. Trump was a bit more pointed. Speaking of Bishop Budde, he said:

“She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone …”

The Episcopal Church, which has ties to the Church of England, has been in a steady decline since the 1960s. It was in 2003 when they ordained their first openly homosexual pastor. 

Claiming a membership of 2.4 million in 1950, that dropped to 2 million in 2010, and now sits at approximately1.5 million today. But membership numbers are deceptive, especially as many churches don’t bother to clean or cull their lists. A third of Episcopal churches have 25 or fewer people attending Sunday services. Episcopalians are not alone. Mainline Christian denominations have been in a freefall for decades as they move away from orthodox teachings of Scripture.

The National Cathedral spectacle is dominating headlines today, but most Christians who embrace the authority and teachings of the Bible, as opposed to a radical social agenda based on feelings and popular impulses, have long ago grown weary of self-righteous and smug lectures – and especially from the pulpit.

Image from Getty.

By now you’ve seen the horrific images from Southern California where massive wildfires have devastated the region.

As of Thursday morning, there have been five confirmed fatalities and over two thousand burned structures. Over 180,000 people have been evacuated from the affected areas – and officials are warning they’re nowhere near having the multiple fires under control.

Residents in certain areas are being told to leave immediately and take no time to take anything with them. Irreplaceable items have been lost in the fires – family photos, precious heirlooms, jewelry and all kinds of other things money won’t be able to replace. But in times of crisis, life has a way of reducing itself to the critical and essential.

It’s also obvious that wildfire is no respecter of person, profession, or income. Some of the most valuable real estate in the country has been reduced to ash. In the coming days we’ll undoubtedly be hearing about celebrities who have lost all their worldly possessions.

As Christians, our hearts break over the tragic loss of life, as well as the suffering these blazes have caused. Anyone who has ever lived through a natural disaster can especially empathize with the range of emotions that come with something of this magnitude.

But even before the smoke clears, many are asking pointed questions:

How did the fires start? Why are some fire hydrants running dry? What wasn’t done that could have been done days, weeks, or even years ago that would or could have changed the course of this tragedy? Is there negligence on the part of elected and appointed officials?

There are not necessarily answers to all those questions, at least not yet, but we know that the crisis is making clear that there are consequences to poor leadership and shortsightedness. In fact, repercussions to either the misprioritization or the altogether ignoring of critical concerns can be deadly.

Environmental zealots have long objected to calls to thin forests and create natural breaks that can slow the progression of flames.

Janisse Quinones, chief executive and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, explained why fire hydrants in the completely destroyed Palisades area went dry.

“We had tremendous demand on our systems in the Palisades,” Quiñones explained. “We pushed the system to the extreme. Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure.”  

However, what wasn’t discussed or addressed was why California has repeatedly refused to build additional reservoirs that could have held the water those hydrants draw from. With consecutive years of above-average rainfall, a lot of that water has simply been drained off into the Pacific Ocean.

Since 1979, California’s population has grown by more than 20 million people – and yet not one additional single large-scale water-storage facility has been built.

There’s a December 2024 memo circulating online today from Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley warning Los Angeles Maor Karen Bass that the more than $17 million they’ve cut from the department’s budget has “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.”

Asked about the cuts at a press conference today, Mayor Bass said now is not the time to discuss the budget.

Priorities matter and have consequences.

Scripture makes clear, “When good people run things, everyone is glad, but when the ruler is bad, everyone groans” (Proverbs 29:2, The Message).

One can hope and pray there will be a reckoning and intense scrutiny over what has transpired in California.

Image from Getty.