Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Last September, vast sections of Appalachia were devastated by Hurricane Helene.

The Category 4 storm brought apocalyptic-level flooding to areas of Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina,

and most destructively, North Carolina.

The final cost is over $200 billion, and much more importantly, 230 lives.

Some places like Chimney Rock, North Carolina, are still unrecognizable today.

Happening so close to the 2024 election and then shortly followed by devastating

wildfires in and around Los Angeles, the hurricane became a kind of political football. While media

coverage in California turned its focus on the incompetence of the state government in North

Carolina, the federal government was accused of withholding help or not showing up at all in some cases.

Somebody did show up to this disaster region, though. Over the last six months, over 2,000 volunteers

showed up, including many members of the Amish community. Known for their ability to build a barn in

a day and even move a barn by hand, these faithful men and women have put their considerable skills to work

on behalf of another community. The Amish volunteers weren't sent by the government, nor did they wait

for government approval. They clearly weren't there to curry political favor, as others have been.

Their response to those in need comes from their way of looking at the world. First, the Amish

believe that when someone's in need, it's actually a calling to them to help. Second, the Amish

believe that a community, not a government, is best positioned to bring that help. What's obvious

in this story and so many others like it through the years is that there must be some kind of

Amish version of the

doctrine of subsidiarity, the Roman Catholic idea that helps most effective when offered by those

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