Seminarians are on Food Stamps, too
Many men and women training to be pastors, elders, deacons, and leaders in the church — servants of Christ — don’t have the privilege of having family wealth and connections. Many of them were highly encouraged to pursue seminary studies and to step out in faith, especially regarding their finances. They have to experience the dirty looks when they pull out their EBT cards at the grocery store and hear the disgruntled groans of the people behind them in line when the cashier has to spend extra time to make sure that the grocery items they picked for WIC qualify. They have to go into the department of social services multiple times a year and keep up paperwork to make sure that they still qualify for these services. Sure, many of them may have no immediate threat of being out on the street, but at the same time, that fearful reality is just a car accident, health incident, theft, or mistake away.
Many conservative Christians often have wrong assumptions about people on government assistance and in various levels of poverty. There are harmful stereotypes that are spread about “welfare queens” and those who “mooch off the system.” There is false information about “how easy it is” to get Food Stamps and use them for buying cigarettes and alcohol. Moral judgments are made on those who are at or near the poverty line, as though they deserved to be in their predicament or are abusing the system by staying in that station. People flippantly make statements that all people need to go through drug testing to deserve Food Stamps and other services.
Many seminarians and their families are ashamed of receiving these services, and some may even avoid applying because of the stigma that they feel from their families or Christian circles. They see other seminarians who seem to have it all together and have their studies paid in full by a supporting church and a guaranteed placement after graduation, and they can’t help but think they must be the only ones in their predicament. Many almost give up on their studies because of the financial hardship, but keep going because they know that quitting would put them in a worse financial predicament.
Many seminary graduates have no ministerial positions lined up or are left with internships that are just dead ends. They often take low paying jobs in the Christian nonprofit world because that’s the only industry that hires seminary grads — and many of these companies know they can get cheap labor through this demographic. But, they’ve got to feed their families, even though their salaries are severely under the market median for their positions and they are asked to wear too many hats on the job without recognition. Many remain on government assistance for years after graduating with no end in sight, just to make ends meet for their families.
If you find that your heart goes out to these seminarians knowing the level of financial struggle and hardship they endure, reconsider how you think and speak about those on welfare of any sort. They are all people with inherent dignity and honor with different life stories and circumstances. The next time you casually propose cutting these sorts of services or think it’s no big deal that a government shutdown may prevent people from getting the services they need, remember: seminarians are on Food Stamps, too.
