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Post by robertcolumbia on Dec 17, 2012 20:12:46 GMT -5
My church has started participating in a local program to help the homeless. One thing I noticed was that there was a tendency to dehumanize "them" - as if they were animals to be corralled and herded here and there to receive services rather than as friends and potential church members who should be treated like family.
Is this the way we should be treating the homeless? Is our sinful nature leading us to treat them as pests? What should we do? What have you or your church done?
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Post by sister J on Dec 18, 2012 3:22:39 GMT -5
My church has started participating in a local program to help the homeless. One thing I noticed was that there was a tendency to dehumanize "them" - as if they were animals to be corralled and herded here and there to receive services rather than as friends and potential church members who should be treated like family. Is this the way we should be treating the homeless? Is our sinful nature leading us to treat them as pests? What should we do? What have you or your church done? Hi Robert. I have to say this is one of the things that really bother me too. The homeless are people made in the image of God and they should be treated as such. They are no more or less than people with a roof over their heads. Jesus said the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist and that tells me we must never dehumanise or despise those in 'lowlier' circumstances than us. To me the homeless are simply people who need our love, practical help and the gospel more than anything. Separate any of these and it all falls apart. They know when people who look down on them, or treat them like a 'problem' or subclass and not like precious souls who need the Lord, and they will think they are hypocrites. The persons testimony to the homeless is then destroyed. I heard about this man recently. To me he is loving the homeless the way Jesus asks us to love others in the scriptures. www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/august-29-2008/homeless-preacher/64/Not that one needs to become homeless to minister to them of course, but my point is, his heart/actions are right and the people then listen to him talk about Jesus. Bless you for bringing up this topic. |
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Post by Guadalupe on Dec 18, 2012 7:17:42 GMT -5
We can only share what we've seen. Living as nomads in our motorhome, we try to volunteer where and when we can. When volunteering with groups who help the homeless the following is what we have experienced. - Government services are the worst at treating the homeless like cattle.
- Some church groups do but most try to be more caring.
The government bodies cite the fact they have to be "careful" because most of the homeless are mentally ill and potentially dangerous. Then they cite that some homeless are looking for lawsuits just to finance their way off the streets. My personal observation is that the government bodies are handling so many homeless now with so few resources that burnout and callousness has become the norm with the workers. It's always been interesting that the church groups can do so much with so little money and much more caring than a government entity. Big government is never the answer. |
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