It really reminds me of the 1980’s and:
Fight AIDS, not people with AIDS.
That such things need even be said …
I’m in a few Facebook groups. In one, people were genuinely praising a park bench design that had the middle of the seat missing ‘so people in wheelchairs did not feel left out’. I pointed out that the design had nothing to do with wheelchairs. It was designed so that the benches could not be slept on. Several members agreed with me (quite vehemently). Others, poor deluded fools, insisted it was about wheelchairs.
Here in Philly, the benches that remain in parks and at bus stops and such have armrests or faux armrests to keep people from sleeping on them. Many historic buildings have spiky ‘ornamental’ fences to keep people from sleeping in convenient nooks.
If we look at the homeless as our brothers and sisters (and I maintain this is the only way to look at them) this is a really crappy way to treat them.
To some extent. The danger of fires (here in SoCal, at least), the refuse issues, raw sewage, etc.
However, we need some sort of solution, and just destroying them is not a solution.
Until we can come up with real homes, how about vacant land where we allow camping? Put in some bathrooms, running water. Tell the homeless they have to police themselves. Get a few veterans to volunteer as constables, with some small pay. A weekly sick call with doctors doing community service or volunteering. Tents available. Safe BBQ stoves, like in some parks. Large dumpsters emptied bi-weekly.
Yes!
Vacant lots in half deserted business districts.
And we need to bring back mental asylums for those who can’t care for themselves. not just those who are a danger. Reagan closed them all down in CA, which caused a lot of homeless issues.
What nation would that be?
No. Even in LA, you can get a cheap studio or small 1 bdrm apt for around $1500 in some areas.
But yes, there are some with solid jobs who are still living in their car.
Right
50,000 radical nutjobs can build a city in the middle of the Nevada desert every year that handles the needs of that many people but the wealthiest country in the hemisphere can’t figure out how to help and support the homeless.
USA! USA!
/s
I certainly take your point, but the folks who attend Burning Man are well aware that they’re going to need to be very independent when they’re out there on ‘the playa.’
And then they tacitly agree to be interdependent should others have unmet needs.
It’s not a matter of “can’t”, it’s a matter of “doesn’t want to”.
“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”
― Stephen Colbert
Also possibly relevant:
- Two hands working can accomplish more than a thousand hands clasped in prayer
- You going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than me parking in my garage makes me a car.
- “Am I my brother’s keeper ?”
- " What you do to the least of your brethren you do unto me"
They present like people who can remember three cute lines from a movie, but are totally unaware of what the movie was actually about.
Amen.
For the homeless problem, I think it’s useful to delineate between those who have no other options versus those who are homeless because, of the options they have, it’s their preferred option. For the first set, these are the people who have severe mental or drug problems which prevent them from making any money or being able to live on their own in any kind of traditional housing. The second set would be people who don’t like to work or don’t like their other living options and prefer to live in an encampment. This set would include people who may make $50 a day begging or doing some kind of hard labor, but prefer to keep that money in their pocket rather than pay for a motel. Or maybe they don’t want to beg or do hard labor, so they just hang around in the encampment. They prefer living homelessly rather than taking the effort to get housing. In terms of support, people want to help the first group much more than the second group. If people in the second group get free housing and free support to just live and hang out, it causes resentment in taxpayers and they won’t fund the programs. So I feel programs should be split between those who truly are truly needy versus those who can get back on their feet with a little bit of help.
I genuinely wonder what Jesus would have advised about opioid and meth addicts.
Probably something along the lines of “you who is free from sin, cast the first stone.”
He didn’t appear to have much of an issue with turning water into an addictive, potentially socially destructive drug of abuse.
I reckon he’d have sat down in the homeless encampment and made friends. Possibly preached a little, too, but in this case, I think we can forgive him for being a do-gooder.
Probably would have done a little loaves & fishes action, cast out a few demons, did some healings, then just chilled.
Then some crazed meth head would beat him to death on the grounds that he “looked at me funny.” They didn’t have meth in ancient Israel, pretty sure if they did we wouldn’t have survived as a species.
Or maybe just do an interview.
Stranger
Isn’t that pretty much the same charge that got him stuck on a cross?
I believe He would tell us to give them the care and help that they need.
That was great! 
“We got heaven, we got hell, and we got heck and limbo…”
What if the care and help they need, first and foremost, above and beyond all else, is to stop taking drugs?
Then he would recognize it as the mental health problem that it is, and use his healing powers to heal them of it.
We don’t have his divine abilities to heal the sick and injured, so all we can do is to help as we can in earthly ways. Maybe one day we will invent a pill that cures addiction(and then probably get addicted to that.), until then blaming them for their illness is pretty un-christlike.
The last thing that he would do would be to look down on them, or to use them as some sort of gotcha or try to score points off of their suffering.