Good morning all; peace to you esp you who work for justice & equality in our world; God bless; Andy @aplsmith5 #peaceonearth
— Andy Smith EcumeDean (@TelfordCC) January 18, 2015
[T]he last days of 2014 indicate that the war against the homeless will continue on into 2015. During the holiday season - the alleged period of caring, love and empathy - the city officials of Roseville, California (located just northeast of Sacramento), threatened to take action against an organization with the seasonally appropriate name of “What Would Jesus Do” for offering food to homeless individuals. According to the December 28 The Sacramento Bee, For the homeless feeding organization called What Would Jesus Do, it is an act of benevolent defiance. After a 31/2-month absence, the group is again serving breakfast pastries, hot chocolate and coffee, canned goods and additional staples to homeless and other disadvantaged people at Roseville’s Saugstad Park on Sunday mornings.
It’s easy to find examples of Christians doing all sorts of decidedly un-Christian things in the name of their faith. Examples of hypocrisy, hatred, discrimination, and all manner of silliness perpetrated in the name of someone’s flavor of God are rife and far too easy to find. It always does my heart some good to learn of people of faith who take concrete steps in an effort to live their beliefs instead of using their faith as a club to bludgeon those they believe to be “less than.” I may not believe in God, but I do recognize that religion, when lived authentically, can be a powerful force for good.
Just don’t plan on doing it in Roseville, California.
The idea of a city cracking down on a group that would feed the homeless is as absurd as it is inhuman. Roseville is but one of a number of municipalities nationwide that have tried to address their homeless problem by criminalizing compassion. It’s what Jesus would do to What Jesus Would Do, don’tchaknow?
Instead of doing the decent, compassionate, and human thing, Roseville has decided to make caring for the least among us a crime. Offering breakfast pastries, hot chocolate, and coffee to those living on the street shouldn’t have to be considered an act of benevolent defiance, yet that’s exactly what it’s come to in Roseville. This isn’t to single out Roseville for ridicule, because they’re hardly alone in their hard-hearted lack of compassion, but the city certainly deserves it. What Roseville is doing is inhuman and just plain wrong.
“City staff and I are extremely disappointed in WWJD’s stated intention to purposely violate the law,” Assistant City Manager Rob Jensen wrote….
“To be clear, the City will not ignore its ordinances. All violations will be enforced.” He added: “As noted in previous correspondence, this activity has proven to be a nuisance and a health and safety issue for the adjacent community.”
And hunger isn’t a “health and safety issue?” I get that Jensen’s primary concern is for the good and decent folks of Roseville who have roofs over their head…and vote. His concern that feeding the homeless represents a “nuisance” is so very typical of government officials who would criminalize or demonize homelessness while refusing to address the root cause (or at the very least the symptoms) of the problem.
People aren’t homeless because they like the “freedom” of of the open range and not having a roof over the head. Well-adjusted people usually don’t opt to be homeless when there are safer and more comfortable options available. Mental illness, alcoholism, and drug abuse are rampant in the homeless population…and without treatment and/or other assistance, the cycle many are trapped in is unlikely to be broken.
Mike Troy, the director of “What Would Jesus Do,” criticized Roseville’s continued opposition to the group’s work, as reported in The Sacramento Bee:
“The city has told us that it is not its responsibility to take care of the disadvantaged.” He said WWJD will continue serving in the park until there is a promise of a sanctioned new location “to show people that people care about them.”
“It’s not our problem….” No, but would it kill you to acquiesce to those who wish to work towards being part of the solution?
We could debate the idea of “responsibility” of caring for the homeless and disadvantaged, but the truth is that it’s not about “responsibility.” Why is the idea of acting compassionately towards those in dire straits so objectionable? And how many of those arguing against compassionately caring for the homeless spend their Sunday mornings in church?
Ultimately, I think Troy is right; it’s not the city’s “responsibility” to take care of the “disadvantaged.” That’s the role of groups like What Would Jesus Do. Roseville need not criminalize compassion in the hopes of pushing the problem off onto another municipality…because this isn’t a “Roseville problem.” It’s a “humanity problem.” Ultimately we’re defined by how we treat the least among us…which doesn’t reflect well on the city fathers of Roseville.
Metaphorically waging war on the homeless only serves to confirm the inhumanity of people like Jensen, who seems to care only about the needs of people with economic means and consider the homeless to be a drain on scarce resources.
Compassion shouldn’t be a crime.
