The British once had a concept of the “deserving poor” and that presumes there are undeserving poor but in our effort to homogenize the homeless population we now treat them all the same. Father Joe does give families a hand up and longer stay only if they show progress, but others do not so “discriminate.”
My objection is simply to government taking over a societal dynamic where there is a perfectly good volunteer effort that the “Founder” of the whole huge system ordered HIS followers to provide.
If they did their job, no government assistance would be necessary, but churches have found it easier to let someone else do their job.
When I first published this concept in column form, the largest church in Rancho Bernardo threatened to withdraw its advertising from the newspaper in which it advertised, and a subsequent Letter to the Editor said my suggestion was impractical because the homeless had lice, and there were also insurance problems.
I answered that Jesus ministered to those with leprosy, so lice was a fairly minor problem, and as to insurance I had never read where He directed His followers to help the poor, “unless there were insurance problems.”
One minister in RB took me to lunch just “to see where my head was…” I got the feeling that homeless were a problem for someone else but they were willing to donate money so they and their congregations didn’t have to deal with “those” people.
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