USAID Dismantling Impacts Religious Groups Directly

Podcast with Alex Morse

When people think about saving money in the federal budget, they might think of big savings in foreign aid. However, foreign aid isn’t a big part of the budget, so cutting it will not result in big savings.

But even if it’s a small part of the budget, it can make a big impact in the lives of vulnerable people around the world.

The dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development or USAID by President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE has brought shrugs to outright glee among some diehard MAGA supporters believing the agency supported primarily “socialist” or “woke” projects. While there might have been some questionable spending by USAID, there were also a lot of good projects making a difference in places around the world. The New York Times listed several projects such as preventing polio, malaria and HIV/AIDS that have ended because of the disruption from DOGE.

The work of USAID wasn’t done just by the federal government. In many cases it was contracted out to nonprofits, the majority of which are religious groups. Orgainizations like World Relief, World Vision and Catholic Relief Services partner with USAID to deliver needed food and programs to the world’s poor and as this Associated Press story notes, the sudden ending of federal support puts these programs and the organizations themselves in jeopardy.

One of those organizations is Church World Service, an agency representing a number of mainline Protestant, Orthodox and Black Protestant denominations. In this latest episode, I talk to Alex Morse who is the Deputy Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at Church World Service. We talk about the partnership between religious organizations and the federal government and the danger that dismantling USAID brings to people around the world. In this quote and clip below, Alex explains how this can damage the reputation of America:

I think it significantly tarnishes our reputation. I think it significantly harms, especially the reputation of the U.S. government.

America isn’t a Christian nation, as some want us to believe, but it is guided by Christian values, even when those values are considered secular. From President Carter's start of a federal refugee program to President Bush's start of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, there was a push that was, at its core, a commitment to helping the “least of these.” President Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to “Make America Great Again.” Part of our greatness is our generosity. That is what has made us great. Losing that means we aren’t great, at least in the eyes of everyone who isn’t Donald J. Trump.

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