35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 25:35-40 NIV
We are weeks into a government shutdown.
Millions of vulnerable citizens brace for what happens when the system supposedly designed to serve them starves them. SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, a critical lifeline for nearly 40 million Americans, are set to expire at the end of this month.
But what’s more troubling than the crisis itself is the indifference that surrounds it.
Somewhere along the way, we started believing that hardship is personal, not communal, viewing poverty through a lens of distance and suspicion.
We tell ourselves that “those people” should’ve just worked harder.
We believe that hunger is a result of irresponsibility, not inequality.
We adopt the dangerous logic that says: if it doesn’t affect me, it’s not my problem.
And before you check out on me, this isn’t just a political issue. It’s a moral one.
Currently, On My Shelf (pun intended) is the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ book, Morality.
He writes:
“A free society is a moral achievement, and it is made by us and our habits of thought, speech, and deed. Morality cannot be outsourced because it depends on each of us. Without self-restraint, without the capacity to defer the gratification of instinct, and without the habits of heart and deed that we call virtues, we will eventually lose our freedom.”
Yes, we live in a democracy (at least for now), but our freedom only survives on the back of mutual responsibility. You can’t have liberty without virtue. You can’t have community without compassion.
So what can we do?
We can resist the impulse to scroll past suffering.
We can support organizations that feed the vulnerable.
We can raise our voices to demand better from our civic leaders.
A shutdown may seem like a temporary inconvenience to some, but it’s life-altering for others. And if we continue to outsource our moral responsibility, waiting on institutions to act while we look the other way, we’ll not only fail the vulnerable, we’ll fail ourselves.
Because suffering never stays in its lane, it always spills over.
If we’re going to follow Jesus in a culture of indifference, we must swim upstream, remembering his words:
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these…you did for me.”
Against The Grain
Against the Grain is the second newsletter from the “with Sean Dreher” Substack. It focuses on culture, conscience, and curiosity. As a missional thinker, I remind myself that Paul said not to be conformed, he didn’t say not to be informed. In these writings, I’ll wrestle with the cultural realities (and assumptions) of our day and how we can process them as followers of Jesus. It’s my best attempt at imagining what Paul would say if he were writing a letter to America.