Andrew Sullivan points the way to a discussion of whether government welfare spending reduces the church’s impact on culture. One of the old conservative arguments has been that too much government displaces the positive, powerful, private societal institutions. While that may may be true, there is also the reality that the government rarely goes where there is no need – government goes into welfare because there are poor people in great need for instance. Why is that need there? In no small part because churches haven’t practiced the example of the early church that took care of all needs. For those wanting great Christian revival in America, therefore, perhaps the place to start is by radically and passionately serving the poor.