Kathryn Jean Lopez, a prominent conservative commentator, published a call this week for Americans to stop scrolling through catastrophe and start serving the people in front of them.
Lopez argued that direct service to others—feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, supporting a neighbor—is not charity but a spiritual obligation. She contrasted this with passive consumption of bad news, which she said leaves people paralyzed and ineffective.
Her argument rested on scripture. She cited Matthew 20:28—"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many"—to illustrate that Jesus modeled service as the path to greatness, not power.
She also invoked Galatians 5:13: "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love." Freedom, Lopez argued, means using it to lift others up.
Philippians 2:4 reinforced the point: "Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." That instruction, she wrote, builds community on attention to what others need.
Lopez also quoted 1 Peter 4:10—"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms"—to argue that personal talent is meant for others, not for personal gain.
Matthew 25:40 made her central claim concrete: "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'" Service to the marginalized, she said, is service to God.
