Does President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” come as good news to evangelical churches and ministries?
Trump signed the gargantuan spending and tax policy package on Friday after it narrowly passed in Congress. The budget reconciliation bill makes most of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent while spending more on the border, interior immigration enforcement and defense. It also cuts funding for health care programs like Medicaid and food benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Christians were quick to weigh in on aspects of the package, with some praising it for pro-family changes to the tax code while others lamented the considerable cuts to social safety-net programs.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill adds $3.4 trillion to federal deficits over a ten-year period, predictions that the White House disputes.
Here are some relevant aspects of the new law:
Withholding Medicaid funds from abortion clinics
One provision in the bill bars clinics and healthcare providers that offer abortions from accepting federal funding through Medicaid.
Planned Parenthood, as per its 2022-2023 annual report, reported receiving $699 million in government grants, contracts and Medicaid reimbursements. That means federal money makes up a little over a third of its overall revenue.
Pro-life evangelicals celebrate the move as a step toward defunding Planned Parenthood.
“Today marks a new milestone for the pro-life movement,” said Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who had called on Congress to defund abortion providers. “Defunding Planned Parenthood and big abortion have long been a priority for millions of Southern Baptists, Christians and pro-life activists. …These heinous organizations profit from death, and, all too often, it is taxpayers who have funded their work. That repugnant scheme is halted beginning with this law.”
The American Principles Project, a politically conservative advocacy group, also celebrated the legislation’s “significant pro-family wins, including defunding Planned Parenthood.”
“I applaud President Trump for his unwavering commitment to putting families first and building a brighter future for our country,” APP president Terry Schilling said in a statement.
Planned Parenthood is challenging the provision in court and currently has a 14-day injunction from a district court judge.
Increasing the Child Tax Credit
The bill makes numerous changes to the tax code, from removing taxes on tips for the first $25,000 of income for tipped workers to permanently increasing the estate tax exemption.
The bill increases the Child Tax Credit from its current $2,000 per child to $2,200 per child and indexes the amount for inflation, extending what was set to expire from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The bill also makes part of the adoption tax credit refundable, adjusted for inflation.
A variety of Christian groups supported the increase to the child tax credit, telling CT ahead of the vote that they hoped lawmakers would pass pro-family policies as part of the package.
The Christian Employers Alliance also celebrated individual tax cuts, which they previously stated would secure “relief for 95% of Christian-owned businesses.” The group voiced its support for other provisions in the bill, saying overall the bill would “unleash the economic power of Christian employers.”
Cutting food assistance through SNAP
The bill slashes SNAP by about 30% over the next decade, which will shift some costs to some states. Some estimates are that 15-25 percent of SNAP program costs and 25 percent of administrative costs will shift to the states. Millions are expected to be impacted, including, according to one liberal think tank, an estimated 2 million children.
SNAP feeds more than 42 million people each month, around 13 percent of the US population, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Children account for 40 percent of those who benefit from SNAP. Senior citizens (those 60 and older) make up 18 percent of SNAP participants.
Christian food banks and food pantries have expressed concerns that the reduced funding and higher requirements for SNAP eligibility under the new bill will create an even greater hunger gap to fill. There are also concerns that states may opt out of the program entirely if they’re unable to shoulder the cost of the program.
“We average anywhere from 150-200 plus families every Tuesday and Thursday,” Florida resident James Showen, a volunteer at a Florida food bank, the Epps Christian Center, told WEAR News. “Those numbers are increasing because the food stamps and other programs are cutting back completely.”
Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy organization focused on hunger, said in a statement the cuts would have harmful impacts: “We need to be clear eyed and honest – this bill’s passage will significantly increase hunger in the United States,” Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO, said. “Bread will not stop until Congress restores full funding for these vital programs.”
Jeremy Everett, executive director of The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, said he was “grieved” and “stunned” by the bill’s significant cuts to food assistance programs like SNAP.
“The decision to gut SNAP, the most effective anti-hunger program in our nation’s history, is not simply misguided policy,” he said. “It is a compromise of values.”
Everett added that Christians are called to “speak plainly when justice is at stake.” He cited Matthew 25:45: “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
“When our leaders prioritize politics over people, especially the poor, they may win the day, but they lose the way,” Everett said. “Scripture does not allow us to turn a blind eye to suffering, and neither should our laws.”
Cutting Medicaid
The bill cuts more than $700 billion in federal Medicaid spending over the next decade. Other estimates place the cuts at $863 billion or $1 trillion. Children’s hospitals, rural hospitals and community health centers that serve less populated areas are expected to struggle in light of the cuts.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said in a statement that though the group supported an earlier version of the bill, the final version was a cause for lament.
Archbishop Timothy B. Proglio, president of the USCCB, said the cuts to healthcare and food assistance are “unconscionable.”
“The bill, as passed, will cause the greatest harm to those who are especially vulnerable in our society,” said Proglio. “As its provisions go into effect, people will lose access to healthcare and struggle to buy groceries, family members will be separated and vulnerable communities will be less prepared to cope with environmental impacts of pollution and extreme weather. More must be done to prevent these devastating effects.”
Funding immigration enforcement
The legislation gives more than $46.5 billion for border wall construction, $45 billion for detention facilities and $29.9 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It also puts a new $100 minimum fee for asylum seekers. Asylum applications were previously free. It also adds fees to other immigration applications, including $550 for work permits for asylum seekers and $500 for Temporary Protected Status applications, which were previously only $50.
Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization, had urged members of Congress to vote against the bill, decrying its “massive increase in immigrant detention and deportation funding” and the impact that would have on people fleeing humanitarian crises.
Advocates argued that the shifts stand to affect children in particular. More kids are at risk of family separation as caregivers get deported. Without assistance at the border, unaccompanied children become vulnerable to exploitation. And as Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, writes, the bill’s provisions “permit strip searches of minors at the border and in government care” and “fund the indefinite detention of families.”
Cutting federal student loans
The bill has several implications for higher education. It cuts around $350 billion from higher education programs over the next decade through measures like reducing Pell Grant eligibility, limiting federal aid and cutting a few loan programs. It also introduces a risk-sharing model that puts schools on the hook when students default on their loans by requiring colleges and universities to reimburse the federal government for students’ unpaid loans.
The government ties federal aid to graduate earnings. That means institutions will lose federal loans if undergraduate programs’ alumni earn less than the median salary of a high school graduate in their state.
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), which represents more than 170 Christian higher education institutions, said in a statement, “While we appreciate several of the bill’s positive elements and potential benefits, we are concerned that it ultimately falls short in supporting student access and success. The emphasis on earnings as a measure of value risks penalizing students who pursue lower-paying public service roles—many of whom do so out of a deep sense of faith and calling.”
Kevin Brown, President of Asbury University in Kentucky, argued for Deseret that faith-based institutions could be penalized if graduates prioritize calling over earning potential. “For CCCU schools, as well as other religiously oriented and mission-driven schools, there are better ways to think about value,” he wrote.
Offering federal funds for school vouchers
The bill also includes a national private school voucher program, the first time lawmakers have passed federal legislation to send tax money to private schools. It creates a nonrefundable tax credit that allows taxpayers to donate to scholarship granting organizations, such as private or religious schools, which in turn provide vouchers for students. The tax credit can also apply to homeschooling costs. States can opt out of participating, so it’s likely that the program will be unevenly available to families. The program becomes available January 2027.
Reactions were divided.
A number of Catholic groups celebrated the development, though others noted there were many unknowns about the way it would be implemented.
“There are no explicit protections for religious liberty, which is a problem for us,” John DeJak with the USCCB told the Catholic News Agency. But he noted Catholic Bishops’ longtime support for a similar program and concluded, “We are positive but cautious.”
James Cultrara, co-chairman of the New York State Coalition for Independent and Religious Schools, told the New York Times he hopes states will opt-in. “We are celebrating it, but we have work to do,” he said.
Other groups landed more firmly on the cautious side about the development. The Home School Legal Defense Association wrote earlier this year that it “opposes any kind of government funding for homeschooling” on the grounds that it would allow government officials “a reason to further regulate and oversee homeschooling.”
