President Johnson declared war on poverty and set in motion a massive effort to erase poverty. Yet, in spite of massive spending, poverty is greater today than ever. Why have we failed? We are currently offering our course “Modern Welfare” for free at https://www.udemy.com/course/modern-welfare/?couponCode=C7781493E
until 8/18/2026 to the first 100 who sign up. This course is a sequel to “Helping the Needy” and deals with the different kinds of welfare and why it is failing to end poverty.
Movie Night-Few small towns these days have anything to draw them together. Some churches have started having movie night in the church parking lot during the summer. People may be drawn to visit the church by showing family friendly films and films demonstrating the faith, and allowing visitors to blend with members and get to know them, It isn’t as threatening as going inside and those passing who see the movie may stop to watch. Adding popcorn and drinks will increase the draw and provide a time of friendly socializing. The old movies used to show a newsreel or short film before the main film so those coming late wouldn’t miss the start of the film. By showing a short light Gospel film before the main film, such as a Vege-tale film, it provides a draw for families to bring kids and introduces unbelievers to the faith.
Liberals under President Biden passed the $20 billion dollar “Inflation Reduction Act” in 2022 and it was signed into law. They promoted it as a great success. However, you need to be aware of what they have succeeded in doing. They passed out a massive amount of money in the form of free benefits to make people grateful to them and vote for them, but nothing is ever free. They now have to take back all the money they gave out but it will be buried in your tax bill so most people won’t see it, because it will be just a line item on their paystub. People will be grateful for the benefits and not realize how high a price they are paying for them. The rich will shift their funds to non-taxable funds and raise prices on what they sell so the main burden will fall on the middle class. The inflation is usually followed by a recession due to declining sales. The middle class lose again as declining sales reduce work and income, while the rich benefit by writing off their loses as tax deductions. As a result, the middle class lose both ways. Second, the bill included funds for a massive number of new IRS agents who joined the large number of FBI agents that President Obama hired just before leaving office in harassing and threatening conservatives who oppose their liberal policies. They promoted it as a great accomplishment in reducing inflation, however examining the facts will point out certain problems. First, they are responsible for the inflation with the massive spending bills that they have passed. Inflation is caused by a lot of money available with few goods to purchase. Goods are in short supply due to their failed economic policies and adding more money will only accelerate the inflation. To counter that, the bill included massive new taxes on the middle class to reduce the money supply. As a result, the middle class will lose due to both inflation and higher taxes.
They say to find corruption, you have to follow the money. We are seeing where all this money went as President Trump directs investigations into widespread fraud in Minnesota, California, and now New York. Minnesota had widespread daycare systems that never saw a child but billed the government for millions of dollars. Many were using the same addresses so anyone checking would easily realize the deception, but no one checked. Someone should have at least checked to see that the children were well cared for, yet no one did. California had widespread mental health facilities who billed the federal government for millions of dollars but never saw any clients. Now New York is found to have doctors and hospitals who billed Medicare for millions for treatment for patients that they never performed. It is impossible to imagine that such fraud could go unnoticed unless someone was paid to look the other way. That could explain why the politicians in those States became rich on a salary that could not produce such wealth.
Who Is Feeding the Dogs-There is a story of a rich man who owned a dog. He was very busy so he hired a neighbor boy to feed and care for his dog. After a while, he noticed the dog no longer ran to him when he returned home, but he would immediately run to the boy when he arrived to care for him. He was disturbed because he owned the dog and felt it should be grateful to him for providing for his care. However, the dog did not know anything about who owned him or paid for his food and shelter, all he knew was that the boy brought his food and brushed him and took him for walks. Liberals continue to freely spend tax dollars (your money and my money) to bribe people to vote for them. They are pushing student debt relief to encourage young people to vote for them. They tell those on Social Security and welfare that if conservatives get in power, they will cut off welfare and Social Security so the elderly and those on welfare will vote for them. Former President Obama doubled the national debt in just 8 years and President Biden equaled the expenditures of President Obama in just three months. President Biden pushed massive federal spending to buy votes from select groups that sent the national debt through the roof. Only a small amount went for infrastructure and the rest was spent to fulfill the desires (not needs) of a wide range of groups to induce them to vote for liberal candidates. We can not continue spending like this.
Summer kid’s lunches-Kids offer breakfast, however, there is no school in summer. Some parents don’t have from poor families can get free lunches at school and some schools even sufficient funds for meals, though food stamps are usually readily available. Some parents might not want to apply or are not eligible for some reason. More often the reason is due to the parent not being able to plan good meals or is just lazy. The parent may work and children are left alone to fend for themselves and do not know how to prepare adequate meals, or do not want to bother. As a result, the children suffer. School meals provide their only truly nutritious meals. When school is out, they do not get adequate nutrition. The government has money for meal programs in the summer but needs someone to handle the program since the schools are closed. Community organizations can contract for the funds and provide the meals. Churches can and often do contract to provide the meals but cannot include religious training during the meal because it uses government funds. However, there is nothing to stop the church from having the meal at noon and having a Children’s Bible Club at 1 PM and inviting the kids to stay, though they cannot be required to stay. Some churches have Children’s Bible Clubs on Wednesday evenings and provide a meal so parents aren’t rushed getting home and preparing a meal for the kids before the Bible Club.
The Ohio legislature passed a bill to safeguard and protect the parent’s rights and to address the growing tyranny of the educational establishment. The bill just came into effect in April, 2025. It reestablishes the parent’s right to make decisions about the child’s upbringing, care, and education and requires schools to enact policies allowing parents more say in their child’s education. It would guarantee parent’s right to know what is being taught in the school and to be heard when they voice opposition to it. It also requires schools to accept religious education in the schools when parents request it, under certain conditions, allowing release time religious classes. Nineteen other States have already passed similar legislation. It would also require schools to notify parents ahead of time when the school was going to provide instruction involving sexual material and would protect students from being pressured by school staff to transition to the opposite sex without the parent’s knowledge. It would also require the school to notify the parents if a student requests a change in gender recognition at school. It would also protect the child’s privacy and require schools to inform parents of violent activity in the school. Finally, it would protect parent’s right to view school budgets. In 2021, the FBI created a task force to investigate threats against school board members. Under Congressional investigation by conservative representatives, the FBI stated that they would no longer use it to infringe on parent’s rights to voice their opinions.
The schools have increasingly been pushing parents out of the decision making process over the education of their children. The schools have become increasingly secretive about what is being taught because they don’t want parents to know what is being taught School boards were set up in each school district and were supported by funds from local taxes. Our schools were founded on the principle that parents would oversee the schools and Board members were elected by voters in the district. Members were known in the school district and elected based on the values of the voters. The boards held regular board meetings where parents could voice concerns and inform board members about their concerns. In addition, school districts usually had Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) where parents and teachers worked together to support the schools. However, the federal department of education has increasingly been funneling money to school districts under the pretense of helping poorer districts. However money has been distributed to both rich and poor districts making them increasingly dependent on those funds. The federal department of education then began blackmailing school districts to include liberal moral and ethical teaching, by threatening to cut off funds if they did not comply and hiding it from parents. Many of the programs were instituted without notifying parents. The Covid crisis forced schools to go online and children were forced to work from home. opened the door to parents to see what is being taught in the schools. As parents learned about programs that they had not been many aware of, they were shocked to learn what the schools have been hiding from them. As a result, many of them began speaking out against them. When parents objected they were ignored or even ridiculed. Liberal politicians began labeling the parents who objected to what is being taught as terrorists and began pushing the FBI to begin investigating them. They even opened a number of investigations on parents who have voiced opposition to their school’s liberal agenda, under the pretense that they pose a threat to school board members, in order to intimidate the parents so they will remain silent. Parents who only want what is best for their kids are being threatened and intimidated to silence their opposition to the liberal agenda.
Boys are increasingly tuning out school. Boys like a challenge and want to find out how things work. They also thrive on competition. In addition, they need to get out and move around regularly. They don’t like long sessions sitting down. Schools in the past were ideal for boys. They involved hands on learning, stressed grading which was based on achievement, and had regular recesses to break up the day. Unfortunately, this placed girls at a disadvantage because girls like reading more than doing hands on projects, are more interested in going along with the crowd, than competing, and don’t mind long periods of sitting. Since the 1960’s, schools have increasingly gravitated towards learning facts and figures rather than how things work because multiple choice questions can be graded by machine where essay questions can’t, saving time. Grades and competitions are being eliminated in an attempt to make all students winners and avoid leaving anyone behind. In addition, recesses are being eliminated to make more time for learning. While these changes benefit girls, they leave boys frustrated. As a result, boys are turning to sports to excel and leaving academics behind. If fact, boys are dropping out of school at an alarming rate. More girls graduate from high school then boys. The same is true for college and master’s level schools. While teachers formerly tailored learning to individual learning styles within co-ed classrooms, more recently teachers seem unable or unwilling to do so and have assumed a one style fits all approach which benefits girls but turns boys off. An increasing number of public schools, as well as private schools are finding that boys and girls actually learn better when separated by gender and learning is tailored to their different learning styles. In elementary schools, it also helps by enabling students to focus on school. While our society pressures boys and girls to spend time together, boys and girls of elementary school age prefer to separate by gender. It is a time when they are recognizing their differences and seeking to discover who they are and mixing genders creates conflict between them. By separating them, it reduces the distraction and allows them to concentrate on their studies. Many churches have known that for years and when Sunday School classes are large enough, they have found dividing boys and girls is more important to class stability than separating each class by grade level, as long as there aren’t too many grades together.