Christ empowered his followers to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and tend to the sick. For some reason American Christians have decided that these explicit dictates should he ignored, much like the reminder that it is not their role to judge, so that they can instead focus on bigotry.
Most American headline
Submitted 3 weeks ago by destructdisc@lemmy.world to aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/cea21c81-7e43-4569-b5fe-0c5ca30837c6.jpeg
Comments
QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
entwine413@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
That’s pretty much the entire history of Christianity.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s really not.
The corrupt nature of the Church as an institution exists to take advantage of the naive humanitarianism of its fellowship.
People, by and large, do want to help their neighbors and provide for the young and the elderly. Modern prosperity gospel Christianity doesn’t change human nature, it only pollutes human prescription.
QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
No, it isn’t. For most of history most Christians were taking care of those around them. It is with industrialism and Calvinism that we see people move away from this.
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Expecting Christianity to base their actions on Jesus is like expecting the Nestle corporation to base their actions on the Quik Bunny.
otterpop@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Every movement in history has hypocrites that follow it, and give the movement a bad name. Lumping “American Christians” together and then judging them based on the worst people who adopt that title is creating a straw man.
All American Christians that I know try and follow what you pointed out in your first sentence.
The statement on judging however is a bit misguided, Jesus didn’t say to never judge, but to be careful to avoid hypocrisy and to judge with love.
QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
At this point a substantial portion of self identified Christians in America are supporting some ideologies and programs that are the opposite if Christ’s teachings. It isn’t a small part. It might even be close to the majority.
alekwithak@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
State doesn’t pay for kids lunch. If parent can’t afford lunch, state takes child and places them in a foster home. State pays foster home to take kid.
Tell me what the goal of this system is so I can call someone else a conspiracy theorist for a change.
ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
May I introduce the Victorian concept of Children in Workhouses.
That’s where you’re heading.
Wilco@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
This is EXACTLY what they want. They sell the cute ones (check the protective services website, they have them listed for placement like a weird dating service or pet adoption site). They will prison to pipeline the rest while working them in “skill camps”.
punkibas@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Well that was a fucked up but very interesting read, thanks.
Spookyghost@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I’m betting it’s a ‘hungry kids yearn for the mines earlier’ sort of thing
arin@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Original goal was probably to send kids to Epstein. Idk what current situation is, probably another hidden island that politicans visit.
alekwithak@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
👉👃
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Kids go to public school during lunchtime. Public school feeds the children lunch (something with real nutritional value that we would all want our kids eating). Kids do not pay for this. That’s it. There should be no further discussion here. If you disagree with this I want to put my thumb into your eye socket in the worst way. It’s so fucked up this is even a topic of discussion.
Subverb@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They’re the future of our country and society, and legally required to be there, but we won’t feed them.
'cause 'merica you fucking commie.
mcv@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
There are other countries where kids bring their own lunch. We always make sandwiches and a snack for our kids to bring to school.
I do think school-provided lunches are a great idea and if done right, would guarantee every kid equal access to healthy nutrition. Unfortunately we don’t have that in NL, and clearly the powers that be don’t want it in the US either.
But punishing kids for lunch debt is nuts. That’s absolutely a symptom of the US wanting everybody to live in debt.
crusa187@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Trump’s new spending bill is providing $2 trillion tax cut for the richest among us. They already pay only 8% on average, but they own the politicians and are demanding to pay even less.
How are we supposed to pay for that if we don’t rob children of their school lunches?!
Spookyghost@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Spending less money bombing children in other places would give us more than enough funds, but that helps funnel money to the aforementioned richest among us, so that’s not going to happen.
CPMSP@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
How dare you invest in the future? Our potential future tax base needs to learn how to starve or go into debt - those are the most important lessons in the good old US of fucking A.
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Invest in the future? But how will that affect today’s profits?
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I want to put my thumb into your eye socket
This is unfair. You should want to put both thumbs into both eye sockets.
Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
I agree with that kids should be fed, but what’s wrong with homemade sandwiches? That’s what is the norm in NL and if kids don’t have them theaters notice it and will work on fixing it while given them food.
The shit we had at most schools I went to was well kinda unhealthy crap.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Nothing wrong. Bring it and eat it. But if you’re kid and you don’t, school should feed you. In the US kids are legally required to attend school. Forcing someone to be somewhere and not providing sustenance is not allowed in war or prison, damn well should not be allowed in schools.
svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
something with real nutritional value that we would all want our kids eating
As long as you don’t go all Jamie Oliver about it.
KAtieTot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
CHICKEN NUGGETS ARE DIRTY AND FOR THE POORS
/s
OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
“You might be giving your kids a terrible childhood, so we’re going to ensure they have a terrible life starting in our first-class foster care system”
rekabis@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Punishing the poor for the crime of poverty.
How typically conservative.
FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not pulling on those bootstraps hard enough
Empricorn@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
And for learning!
mechoman444@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Kids having lunch debt is the most American thing I’ve ever seen.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Do the schools actually have the authority to do that or is it like all those other empty threats I use to get? It’s insane, but not surprising that the schools would threaten that. The sort of family who has to skip on paying lunch debts also doesn’t have means to talk to a lawyer.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
" for neglecting your child’s right to food"
So you agree that right exists? Either you’re not providing food and this doing the neglecting and also they don’t owe you anything, or you are required to provide food regardless of payment because you’re in loco parentis during the school hours. And the $450 could very likely have been used to provide food and other necessities for those kids before and after school.
If you want to charge them with neglect, you have to prove they neglected their child, not just your budget.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Carl’s Jr. will “help”
slingstone@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
So it’s too expensive to provide school lunch, but not too expensive to completely take over the care of the children entirely. More and more, I understand what people mean when they say the cruelty is the point. This makes zero goddamned sense.
Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Orphan grinder…
GoddessGundy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I want to add something because I want to add a glimmer of positivity. I mean, this is all anecdotal but I’m housing one of my daughter’s friends right now.
I’m still learning her history because I have absolutely zero guardianship over her and I don’t pry because she’s been through so much and she shares when she’s ready. Her mother passed about two years ago and her dad is in the wind. Her grandma has guardianship but treated her as a burden.
I play nice with Grandma so my new daughter stays by me. I’m not sure if CPS was ever called on either her mother or grandmother or if it was just because mother passed but ‘daughter’ has weekly therapy and a social worker who got her into a very decent state university.
She’s about to go visit for a tour and I’m so worried but also excited because she has a full ride from the state for a two or four year depending on what she wants. I’ve looked into the school and it’s pretty great. It’s going to be hard for my ex and I to pull off the same for our daughter.
The state of affairs are abysmal these last few decades but there are still good people trying to do good things. The Man isn’t out to get you if you’re lucky enough to get the right government employee. Or maybe you just have to suffer enough.
I know the young lady I’m talking about deserves this chance and I’m ecstatic that she has the opportunity. It makes me feel a little guilty that I’m going to miss her, but in a good way.
I wish every kid and every parent didn’t have to worry so much about getting into trouble because they’re already struggling. The horrors I’m learning this child has gone through shouldn’t be the bar by which we set as deserving of a higher education.
I have barely anything to offer but even just feeding her and teaching her to cook and do laundry and taxes and set up a bank account makes me some sort of goddess in her eyes and I’d love to take credit but it’s just too tragic to me that a child considers this little bit I have to offer as some sort of gift. What I have to offer as a ‘gift’ is not. It’s what any child should be entitled to. I’m happy that she finally feels comfortable enough to add things she wants to the grocery list without worrying too much that she’s putting me out in some way.
slingstone@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It may not seem like much to you, but to her it’s making a world of difference. I’m reminded of a quote I got from an otherwise kind of silly movie:
“Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children.”
It’s a slightly changed version of a quote from William Thackeray, apparently. Whatever the case, I think it applies here. The gods and goddesses of this child’s life let her down, and you may not think much of yourself or what you do, but you’ve chosen to be a good goddess, and that’s a wonderful thing. You’ve blessed not only the child you’ve taken in, but your own, as well, by showing her how to treat others the right way.
ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Starve your kid or lose them. That’s quite a choice for a poor parent to make.
My late father grew up in an orphanage because my grandfather was too poor to care for 5 kids and a sick wife. My grandparents were able to take the kids home on Sundays though, so it wasn’t a situation where they yielded full custody. I’m not saying an orphanage was ideal, but it’s a shame that these days there is not the same kind of middle ground where kids can be cared for but still stay connected to their family. I guess that is too much of a social safety net for conservatives to tolerate.
frezik@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
How the fuck is that supposed to fix anything? It’s easily cheaper for the state to pay for their lunch.
chuckleslord@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Homeless people turn into cheap prison labor super easy. And foster kids become homeless so fast.
Karjalan@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Well… Fast after they’re adults. But if they’re 8 years old, I wouldn’t call a decade fast.
Besides the point though. You’re correct, ruining people’s lives is advantageous to them. Convenient scape goat for everything sucks, free labour
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Chritians also love “adopting”/occasionally “accidentally kidnapping” the children they’ve helped to render desperate. The Mormons are big on this and have a whole complex system built around it. Don’t take my word for it, here’s a highlighted portion from a Mormon bishop’s handbook:
hovercat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
But then someone might get some benefit from their tax dollars!
HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Who made this warning?
I need a name
Because that has nothing to do with debt, putting kids in foster care wound only cost the state even more money
That is only about unbridled power and control
Absolutely delusional
shaggyb@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Agreed. Name and shame. Whatever fucker came up with this deserves to be ostracised.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
www.10tv.com/…/530-1952542e-0f2c-4b3a-b6f0-a32de5…
The Wyoming Valley West School District.
If you want the name of the person standing behind the letter,
Wyoming Valley West’s lawyer, Charles Coslett, said he did not consider the letters to be threatening.
“Hopefully, that gets their attention and it certainly did, didn’t it? I mean, if you think about it, you’re here this morning because some parents cried foul because he or she doesn’t want to pay a debt attributed to feeding their kids. How shameful,” Coslett told WYOU-TV.
I’m having a hard time confirming it, but it looks like an Irvin DeRemer was the super while this occurred, but was replaced in the 2025 election.
It’s also an empty threat,
Luzerne County’s manager and child welfare agency director have written the superintendent, insisting the district stop making what they call false claims.
NatakuNox@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Also. The majority of long term homeless individuals are people that aged out of the foster care system. The moment they turn 18 they are out on their ass with only the clothing on their back and no life skills because foster care in America is little better than prison.
lemmylommy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yes, but kids in foster care are easy to abuse, so your tax dollars might be worth it for some.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yet another reason why I hate every goddamn billionaire with the fire if a thousand suns.
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just the fact that billionaires even exist shows that our system is fucked.
ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
My school held my diploma for 6 months because of $20 worth of lunch debt that turned out to be a computer error.
That was 12 years ago.
Schools using food as a weapon against students is nothing new.
buddascrayon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just a reminder that the same people who are against free school lunches for children are the ones who stand in front of abortion clinics screaming about how abortion is murder.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
There’s no contradiction for these people. All fetuses have a right to life and children should suffer if they don’t have enough money. Shoulda worked harder at the bootstraps factory if they didn’t want to eat shit their entire lives.
They max out at a 4 on Kohlberg’s morality scale, ie the laws are immutable and nothing can change them. The law says that everyone should live and our system is perfect because it’s our system.
bigb@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sprinkle some smug self-satisification on top of this and it’s a real good portrait of the Christian right. Religion is a narotic for these folks who spend their days judging others. They believe in the correct God™ and His prosperity gospel. Anyone who is poor or those who “sin” deserve their lot in life. And how are kids to learn self-reliance when they’re coddled with free food? We’re so weak to let our kids live in such decadent times! What’s next, they won’t have to pay for healthcare after they made the bad decision to get hurt or sick?
They ask how we can be so wasteful as a society while they clutch their imitation pearl necklace. Meanwhile the public’s share of wealth shrinks and everyone is left to fight for the scraps. When the situation is so dire, it’s easy to fight with each other than to question big business, Wall Street or the financial sector.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
But why oh why aren’t people having kids?!
M137@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I highly doubt that image represents the food US kids get in school. It’s too healthy and good looking (not saying it looks good, just better than it actually would be).
TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
This looks like prison food or something. Way better than school lunch
Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Eh, not just America sadly. Half the world seems brainwashed into thinking that feeding children is controversial. The BBC did an article the other day about 500,000 extra kids getting them, and it got 9000 comments, split equally between “fair enough” and “but what about my tax money? 😢”
They should give the Libertarian nutcases a large enclave, and all the people who moan about their taxes being spent on other people should be forced to go and live there.
Oh, there’s a pothole on your road? Hope one of the residents can afford to have it fixed. You were burgled? Can you afford to pay the police company to look into it? No streetlights, sorry. That’s a waste. You carry a torch and light your own way. Pensions? Didn’t you save enough?
Stop worrying about the tax bills of billionaires, for fucks sake. They can get by with less.
VerbFlow@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The state wants to own your kids, that way you’re out of the way and they have slaves for life
SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
“The Wyoming Valley West School District Board of Directors sincerely apologises for the tone of the letter that was sent regarding lunch debt. It wasn’t the intention of the district to harm or inconvenience any of the families of our school district,” the school said in an “apology letter” on its website.
The fuck it wasn’t
altphoto@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Sounds like a fly-over shit hole state the me.
GoddessGundy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This is a little different but it sticks out.
My baby brother was born in 91 and when he eventually got into kindergarten one of his teachers flagged him for his speech impediment. He’d pronounce his P’s as B’s.
He was 5 and talked a mile a minute before he was two. He just couldn’t quite get the hang of that one part.
My parents weren’t worried. We were all helping him. My other brother and I were 6 years older than him and we we’re latchkey kids by the time I was 10.
My parents worked second/third jobs and second/third shifts rotating to make everything work for us. We barely saw them both at the same time.
I remember my Ma, and even Pops, being pissed as fuck and our chores and cleaning day was ramped up for a month or two, and all us kids had individual therapy sessions where they grilled us with questions we didn’t understand because the school call CPS on them because they wouldn’t (read: couldn’t) make after school speech therapy work with their schedules and they knew he’d learn on his own eventually anyway. They just made my parents lives that much more stressful in that time.
This was over 30 years ago now and I have my own kids, and bonus kids even! I have my own stories I could tell but this is the absolute worst because I saw how much it stressed out my overworked parents. My brother is a functioning member of society who got over his slight speech impediment within the year, with our help but mostly letting him develop on his own time.
Meanwhile, us kids just considered it a matter of course that we wrap up plates and Tupperware after each meal. One plate for Gertie our nextdoor neighbor and whatever was left went to Jorge’s family two doors down. We also learned how to mow the lawn only so the Grandma and Grandpa Hass, our other next door neighbors wouldn’t have to anymore. They weren’t actual family but they were to us. Jorge’s family got all my and my brothers’ hand-me-down clothes for his younger siblings, too. We didn’t quite understand why at the time. *It’s just what you do. But yeah, make a struggling family’s life that much harder with your performative concern.
Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
Getting school lunches is so foreign to me, but then again people here in NL just bring home made sandwiches, which are generally cheaper to make than food like in the picture.
At least in the schools I went to when the teature noticed somebody didn’t have lunch with them on a consistent basis they would ask what was wrong and give them food.
Some other kids just kept eating unhealthy food every day because the school was still selling that. Heck in my first highscool they sold candy every thursday or so. It was an interesting time.
joel_feila@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Isn’t several years old, or isit happening again?
Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This sounds like a great way to generate a different headline,
“Local man kills 4 in attack of school board meeting after losing his children over school lunch debt”
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
My wife runs a school kitchen, a big school, 2k+ high schoolers and almost 20 staff. Collecting debt is part of her job. They never withhold a basic meal (no extras if they have unpaid debt) but that meal gets added to their debt.
They don’t threaten anything legal like in this story, but they will not give you your diploma or transfer your credits if you haven’t paid your debt in full. We’re in Ohio.
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
If you want to look at this situation from an economic point of view … what’s cheaper?
Pay a kids lunch every day for about 12-14 years … and for a growing kid, the price wouldn’t be that much, especially if you are paying in bulk amounts for hundreds or thousands of kids.
or
Don’t pay their lunch, let the parents go into debt, take the kids into foster care … now you as the government have to pay for legal expenses to take the kid away, expenses to have police and social service workers to do the work, foster expenses to house the kid and care for them (now you are having to pay for every single meal for them for years), give up the kid once they become of age and go out on their own after foster care as a disillusioned, angry and frustrated young man or woman who will more than likely end up on the street dealing drugs, crime or prostitution … who will then grow up causing or contributing to crime and increasing the costs of police, legal, emergency health care, security and penitentiary … and chances are they will have children who will end up at school not being able to pay for their lunch
…
If you pay to help the kid when they are young, there is more of a chance they will grow up to be a contributing healthy member of society. If you don’t they will become a lifelong burden on society and cause endless expenses that will be far more money than any school lunches you could have bought when they were ten years old.
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I don’t think there’s any other country in the world that has such policies.
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
cnn.com/…/pennsylvania-school-lunch-debt-trnd
Unless this is happening again, this story is from 2019. Still bad, just not recent
shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Lunch debt? The fuck outta here with that dystopian nightmare shit
rayyy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s the first stop on the way to slave labor.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Image
turtle@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Wait until you learn about “vanlords” in Los Angeles.