Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. Last September, vast sections of Appalachia were devastated by Hurricane Helene. The Category 4 storm brought apocalyptic-level flooding to areas of Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina. And most destructively, North Carolina.
The final cost is over $200 billion, and much more importantly, 230 lives.
Some places, like Chimney Rock, North Carolina, are still unrecognizable today. Happening so close to the 2024 election and then shortly followed by devastating wildfires in and around Los Angeles, the hurricane became a kind of political football. While media coverage in California turned its focus on the incompetence of the state government, in North Carolina, the federal government was accused of withholding help or not showing up at all in some cases.
Somebody did show up to this disaster region, though. Over the last six months, over 2,000 volunteers showed up, including many members of the Amish community. Known for their ability to build a barn in a day and even move a barn by hand, these faithful men and women have put their considerable skills to work on behalf of another community. The Amish volunteers weren't sent by the government, nor did they wait for government approval. They clearly weren't there to curry political favor, as others have been.
Their response to those in need comes from their way of looking at the world. First, the Amish believe that when someone's in need, it's actually a calling to them to help. Second, the Amish believe that a community, not a government, is best positioned to bring that help. What's obvious in this story, and so many others like it through the years, is that there must be some kind of Amish version of the doctrine of subsidiarity, the Roman Catholic idea that helps most effective when offered by those closest to the problem, as well as fear sovereignty, the Reformed idea that not all problems belong to the states. to solve.
Conservatives rightly complain that the government is in business that isn't theirs. The best way to push the state out of those spaces is, well, to be there first. Edmund Burke described this as creating little platoons of civil society. beginning with family and then moving to neighbors and churches and communities, et cetera. Of course, the Amish also believe that faith is something to be practiced, not merely something to be held.
That's why their efforts stand in such stark contrast to celebrities who tend to flood social media with their tears and well-wishes at these times of crisis.
Now, some of these contributions are certainly worthy, but most are better dubbed as disaster tourism. And that's to be expected in an age like ours when, as brothers Logan and Jake Paul recently noted in a commercial, attention is the currency. You want someone to have an opinion on you. If they don't, then that's when you're losing. That's an accurate description of the cultural moment, but it's also a terrible strategy for disaster relief.
Rather than practicing righteousness before others in order to be seen by them with carefully curated images posted on social media. Christians do better emulating the Amish, who have not posted their efforts in North Carolina to Instagram. And it's important to note that this type of service is always available. There's no need to wait for the government when local charities and churches and national organizations like Samaritan's Purse are there with ways to give, ways to serve, and ways to help. In their usual style, Samaritan's Purse was among the first on the ground helping victims of Hurricane Helene, this time in their own state.
They've been rebuilding, providing campers for temporary shelters, meeting financial and medical needs, and bringing the gospel of salvation to that region ever since. And there are others there as well, just as there always are. Christians have been known throughout history. as those who run into the plague not away from it. They're usually there first, in fact.
And what their work demonstrates is the extraordinary power of Christ followers operating in their little platoons. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
And for more resources to live like a Christian today, go to breakpoint.org. Here on Breakpoint, you hear us talk a lot about the Colson Fellows Program. That's because we've seen God use it to equip thousands of men and women to live with courageous faith. If you're curious about the program, we want you to hear their stories. Check out the Colson Fellows blog to read testimonies from previous Colson Fellows about their experience in the program.
These are men and women like you who fit the program into their full lives. Like Sherry, a non-profit director, her Colson Fellows experience inspired her to start a program to help parents guide their children toward biblical sexuality. Read her story at colsonfellows.org/slash stories. There, you'll also find other testimonies from Colson Fellows who completed the program and were transformed along the way. Again, that's colsonfellows.org slash stories.
