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2017-11-10 Olde Tyme Religion

Authorities in California ask church to stop feeding the homeless

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Posted by Besoeker 2017-11-10 07:06|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 Methodism causes homelessness and hunger? Who knew ?

Posted by Besoeker 2017-11-10 07:10|| 2017-11-10 07:10|| Front Page Top

#2 Nothing but the State, eh?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-11-10 07:47|| 2017-11-10 07:47|| Front Page Top

#3 So people are going to leave their domaciles just so they can get one free meal a week? The stupid, it burns.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2017-11-10 07:55|| 2017-11-10 07:55|| Front Page Top

#4 "Yes it's a great outreach service for those less fortunate than we are, but we just don't like seeing poor folks around here. It sends the wrong impression for those looking to invest in our smug hoity-toity community."

Posted by Mullah Richard 2017-11-10 08:44|| 2017-11-10 08:44|| Front Page Top

#5 They are making the state look bad.

Posted by DarthVader 2017-11-10 08:52|| 2017-11-10 08:52|| Front Page Top

#6 Doing the job the government didn't do, till the Lefties decided that government was their 'charity' of choice.

Posted by Procopius2k 2017-11-10 09:10|| 2017-11-10 09:10|| Front Page Top

#7 Where's the graft in that?

Posted by AlanC 2017-11-10 10:30|| 2017-11-10 10:30|| Front Page Top

#8 You all seem to think this is a no brainer but I think you've never lived in a community that's been overrun with the homeless. Wait until you start getting cases of hepatitis a in your town. See how tolerant you are when you have to step over piles of human feces on downtown sidewalks. We have business people who find the bums sleeping in their shop doorways, peeing on the sidewalk outside the shop. What's gonna happen to that business if people have to step over the bums to get to the door? You feed them and they hang around expecting more. You enable them to continue the way they do without trying to change. They pitch their tents all over the place and leave piles of trash and human waste wherever they go because they've gotten the idea that it's OK.

I've read the Bible but I honestly don't know what Jesus would do if he saw the rot these people cause in communities. Would he feed them, exorcise their demons or chase them away with a whip? If we knew how to exorcise their demons we would but we don't know how.

I consider myself a Christian. I understand that Christians feel called to help the downtrodden. I have participated in my church's food drives for the homeless. But the whole time I did I was conflicted. It's not that simple. Somewhere along the line each one of these homeless people made not one but a whole series of bad decisions and now the rest of us are paying for it.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2017-11-10 11:07|| 2017-11-10 11:07|| Front Page Top

#9 You all seem to think this is a no brainer but I think you've never lived in a community that's been overrun with the homeless.

No, you are entirely correct. I never have and don't plan on it either.

Posted by Besoeker 2017-11-10 11:26|| 2017-11-10 11:26|| Front Page Top

#10 No doubt Malibu authorities influenced the state to apply the pressure as Malibu don't want the riff-raff.

Posted by rjschwarz 2017-11-10 11:36|| 2017-11-10 11:36|| Front Page Top

#11 Understand, Abu. Plenty of 'Street Homeless' in the upper Midwest cities and larger towns for sure, and there are massive safety/hygiene problems as you describe. The abundance of 'outreach' charities in some areas does seem to attract more of the 'Hobo Lifestyle' types.

Not all homeless folks are the 'perpetually unwashed', though. Many individuals (including teens) and families have had something happen to their lives that forced homelessness and are actually in the process of getting their lives back together. Usually it involves the abstention and recovery from drug/alcohol use.

Too much 'help' can and does stagnate that process for many (see Portland, Or. for example), but a similar number use that to actually step up and return to a positive community-contributing existence.

I still believe the city stopping a once per week meal is a bit callous, though.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2017-11-10 11:42|| 2017-11-10 11:42|| Front Page Top

#12 These privileged arseholes.

Posted by Dron 2017-11-10 12:06|| 2017-11-10 12:06|| Front Page Top

#13 The homeless issue belongs to all of us. I want to help but not in my neighborhood is a tough one. There are truly very few homeless that choose to live the "Hobo" life. The homeless are a dumping ground for the mentally ill that are not sick enough or have the ability to seek care, they are the addicted who have completely fallen off track, and people that have truly landed in a bad position in life. Pushing them into other communities by not helping is not the answer, and it is completely understandable that the city wants them gone, they don't vote. The issue is certainly a complex one and no one want it in their neighborhood. Just be sure when you walk past them, hear people tell them to get a job, and listen to folks complain to be thankful for the good fortune bestowed on you. We are all one or two events in life from living on the streets.

Posted by 49 Pan 2017-11-10 12:12|| 2017-11-10 12:12|| Front Page Top

#14 A large portion of the homeless are those who previously would have been housed in insane asylums. Get them safely housed, fed, and properly medicated, and taking care of those who are homeless because of a concantenation of events much easier.

Posted by trailing wife 2017-11-10 12:15|| 2017-11-10 12:15|| Front Page Top

#15 If your people of faith are just putting food on the plate and saying see you next week they are not exercising their faith. With the plate of food there must be spiritual food provided at the same time to the recipient.

Many of the people are mentally ill and wouldn't survive outside of a big city where only even one in a hundred may care, but that one gets a homeless person a small amount of food to get through the day.

Others who get spiritual food do find thier way out. Socialism starves people to death both physically and spiritually.

When a nation ceases feeding its poor, God ceases feeding that nation.

Posted by Threatch Jeamp8135 2017-11-10 12:26|| 2017-11-10 12:26|| Front Page Top

#16 Would he feed them, exorcise their demons or chase them away with a whip?

Maybe He would separate them into three or more groups. Then He might feed some, exorcise the demons from some and chase the rest of them out of town with a whip. Jesus would know which ones deserve which treatment. I sure don't. I just want them outta here.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2017-11-10 13:20|| 2017-11-10 13:20|| Front Page Top

#17 Yep. Thats what the rich man thought of the beggar, too.

Posted by Threatch Jeamp8135 2017-11-10 15:36|| 2017-11-10 15:36|| Front Page Top

#18

Posted by Menhadden Shaling4686 2017-11-10 16:40|| 2017-11-10 16:40|| Front Page Top

#19 Numbers I read suggested that 50% of homeless men had mental issues and 50% addiction issues--making 90%, with 10% being down on their luck but otherwise OK. (Overlap)
Dunno. The folks around where I work include a lot who--well, you can tell why their families don't want them around.

What the church is doing, and what a number of other programs for the homeless do, is concentrating them in one place. That's efficient for distribution of services, and a nightmare for providing a good environment. Setting aside the impact on the rest of the community, which isn't negligible(*), think about the feedback a quasi-stable guy gets from being around 20-100 other not-so-stable men. If you have a critical mass of the weird and aggressive, everybody's going to have to take on some of that in self-defense. Large groups of homeless are going to make each other worse.

(*) Madison bought a building to be remodeled as a homeless shelter. About 2 doors down is a day care. No doubt there are a few guys who would benefit from being near normal kids and parents, but if I ran the day care I'd put up razor wire around the place.

Posted by james 2017-11-10 19:32|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com 2017-11-10 19:32|| Front Page Top

#20 James, your number are old because there is a large number of millennial that have chosen a migrant/gypsy/homeless lifestyle. I don't know the percentages but it's greater than 10%.

Posted by rjschwarz 2017-11-10 22:48|| 2017-11-10 22:48|| Front Page Top

#21 Could be, though the numbers comport well with what I eyeball around the Capitol Square. Not a lot of youngsters

Posted by james 2017-11-10 23:04|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com 2017-11-10 23:04|| Front Page Top

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