Yesterday’s New York Times carried a story about the effect of rules changes on the families who use SNAP (aka Food Stamps). Although the story focused on Arizona, it’s clear that changes in the law have created real difficulties for many families. And not just in Arizona, but states as diverse as Alabama and New Jersey.
Just within the past year, more than 50,000 persons have lost access to SNAP benefits, in New Jersey alone, usually because of the increased paperwork and, in many states, reduced staff to process the renewal requests. This, of course, while the income gap continues to grow. The rich decry “waste, fraud, and abuse” as they continue to buy second, even third, homes and do not pay their fair share in taxes.
The so-called Christians in Congress have forgotten what it is they were elected to do, to promote the general welfare. They have their perks while prices continue to increase while we are caught in a senseless war. Don’t you wish they would face judgment in this life? I do.
Prayer for the Day
Coming to you, O God, we confess our failures and our faults,
For we are afraid of the tasks to which we are called;
Leaving the poor in their poverty and the afflicted in their pain,
We are content to leave your demands for others to fill.
Forgive us, O God, and erase the habits of our uncaring,
And transform our words into action as you call us to do.
In the name of the Transformer of our lives,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
In the 19 states with publicly available data or that have shared unpublished data, the harmful Republican reconciliation law has taken SNAP food assistance away from more than 1 million children since it was enacted in July 2025. That accounts for nearly half of the 2.4-million-person decline in SNAP participation among people of all ages in those states.
Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
Now, the money I used to pay for electricity and water has to go for food. This makes surviving more difficult.
Elderly SNAP recipient Shelley Gaither
And the king will answer them, “Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these. You did it to me.”
Matthew 25:40