I Can't Believe It

     Yesterday, I was watching a program on PBS called Religion and Ethics News Weekly.  They had a report on that completely shocked me.  Two cities in the southern part of the United States have actually passed  laws that forbid people from giving food to the homeless.  In one of these cities, a pastor went with his congregation every Sunday to give breakfast to the homeless population in the downtown area.  One Sunday, the police were there, and they informed him that if he fed the homeless, he would be in violation of the law and he would be arrested.

    I can't believe that this nation has sunk to this level.  We seem to want to cast the poor aside and not bother with them.  Instead of trying to help the homeless, many communities want to make their lives even more difficult. One person interviewed in the program suggested building a reserve in which to place the homeless that was several miles outside of the city.

    Unfortunately, many conservative Christian people who have extreme religious right political views have helped put people in office who want to promote greed, corruption, big business, environmental destruction and the exploitation of the poor by the rich.  How different this is from the life and ministry of Jesus.  I am thankful that in my area, there are several good ministries that try to help the homeless and those facing poverty.

    In my view, the type of ordinances passed in the towns mentioned in this program come under what was in the sermon passage on Friday.  When Peter and John were told to stop proclaiming the name of Jesus, they said they wouldn't do it.  If communities want churches to stop feeding the poor, the people in the church should say that it is better to obey God than man and do it anyway.