I remember being a teenager in my (Baptist) church, and asking the pastor why community aid was contingent upon church attendance/membership. They made the case that it was to prevent people from taking advantage of the programs. That didn’t sit well with me. It struck me as transactional and unnecessarily limited the scope of the aid.

As an adult, looking back, I can understand the need to protect systems of aid from those that might abuse them. But is making aid contingent upon church attendance the right way to do it? Or is it better to distribute aid unconditionally and accept some level of fraud(“forgive seven times seventy” etc)? I’m not sure.

In any case, sounds like that book might address issues like that. I certainly will check it out. Great post Luke!