Meet Charlie: from homeless to helping others

“I was tired of living under a tree.”

That’s the response you’ll get from Charlie if you ask how he first connected with Interfaith. He’s reluctant to go into details. What comes across is not so much embarrassment as a profound sense of humility; Charlie just doesn’t think his story is anything special.

An Army veteran, Charlie spent most of his adult life addicted to drugs and alcohol after returning from Vietnam, and over the years he weathered more than a few storms on the streets of Escondido. That is, until five years ago when someone told him Interfaith had programs for veterans. On that day, Charlie decided he wanted help.

Like everyone who comes to Interfaith, Charlie’s case workers took the time to find out exactly what his needs and skills were, and used this information to determined what kind of assistance would serve him best. These assessments are a vital part of the case management process because whether the problem is addiction, disability, mental illness, lack of food, or lack of housing, the goal isn’t merely provide relief – the goals is to build sustainability. Unlike many agencies, Interfaith can walk someone through a comprehensive continuum of care services that will enable them to eventually live truly healthy and sustainable lives one day.

Initially, Charlie became a resident of Interfaith’s Veteran’s bunk house where he was provided with the immediate shelter he had been lacking for so long. Eventually, however, he was identified as an excellent candidate for Interfaith’s Fairweather Lodge program. Charlie agreed and he became the third Lodge’s first resident. Now Charlie lives within an intentional community of adults with similar challenges who operate their own business together.

Charlie is quick to point out that this job gives him a sense of purpose and accomplishment that he had been missing in his life for a very long time. Perhaps most significantly, like many people who have come off the streets and learned to live healthier lives, Charlie’s biggest desire is to give back, so he’s eager to start helping out as soon as he’s eligible, saying, “Interfaith has given me so much.” There’s a gratitude in Charlie’s words, driving him to contribute, and a sense of pride that he actually can.

I’m telling Charlie’s story because it isn’t uncommon. Interfaith’s family tree is crowded with people who spent years living on the street, struggling with addiction, or marginalized physically and financially due to physical or mental disabilities, but who have now learned to be healthy, productive, self-sustaining, and even strong enough to give back to the community in some way.  I know the same is true for other social service agencies as well.

Unfortunately, we live in a time when people are hurting more than ever (last year alone Interfaith served 35,800 individuals), yet the political climate in America is again rapidly becoming hostile toward social help under the mantra that helping people is actually hurting our communities.

Balderdash.

People need more help, not less. Granted, it needs to be the right kind of help; the kind that builds capacity, not co-dependence. True help must walk people through a process that leads to healthy sustainability. But that kind of holisitc, capacity-building, wellness-producing work requires more time, more services, and more money – not less. It requires public money and private money. It requires federal and state grants, private foundation support, and individual household contributions. It requires lots and lots of people rolling up their sleeves and helping those who cannot yet help themselves (last year we utilized over 5,000 volunteers).

Like it or not, we all pay one way or another for people who are poor, homeless, mentally ill, or otherwise debilitated in some way. Why not commit, as a nation, to do so ethically? We can build strong systems of care that eventually lead people like Charlie to contribute to their communities, rather than relegate them to the streets – or to jail – where they simply tax our communities.

In short, the creation of a strong and healthy community requires the participation of the whole community; the rich, the poor, everyone.  Everyone has something to give.

Charlie gets that. I look forward to the day when everyone else does too.

Technorati Tags: Charlie, economy, Escondido, Homelessness, Interfaith Community Services, Politics, poverty

Why do homeless people piss us off?

This is a bit of a re-post from an older blog, but news today brought it back to mind: Attacks on homeless will be hate crimes in Florida:

The slaying of the homeless veteran, Daniel Case, on Florida’s west coast is an example of that brutality. Two street gang members were charged with wielding a baseball bat and golf club to beat him while he slept in a lawn chair behind a Bradenton business.

Nearly two years ago I sent out an e-mail to Twoshirts members inviting people to join our efforts to collect food and clothing for homeless teens in Oceanside, Ca, I received this response from a (now former) member:

“they can get jobs like most normal people!! dont send me your bull**** !!!”

Why all the anger?

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, violence against homeless people are on the rise nationally, and this story in the Detroit News from back then covers the murder of a homeless man by two young teenage boys who were allegedly involved. The motive remains a mystery, and in all fairness, we presume their innocence until they’re proven otherwise.

Still, there were a couple of quotes in the article that struck me. One of the boys mothers believes her son is innocent, partly because, in her words:

“We were homeless once,” Hazard said. “We don’t have much, but I raised him and my other children to respect others. I was a working mother and taught them morals and to be honest.”

I’m sure she did, but perhaps her son saw a bit of himself in the homeless man. Often our anger towards others is rooted in self-rejection and shame. When people represent the worst of us, or by their very presence seem to confirm our greatest fears, we can lash out in anger.

Or perhaps the motive is even more banal. At the time, Michael Stoops, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless, said,

“We think crimes against the homeless should be classified as a hate crime…People feel it is safe to hate and attack the homeless.

Michael Stoops touches on a deep-seated human reality: we often repress the evil inside of us until we have a safe, anonymous target. Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have that inside of us. Wherever the anger and hate comes from, the poor and homeless are practically relegated to the category of non-human in cultures of affluence like ours, and are particularly vulnerable to all manner of attacks, abuses, and crimes.

My wife Jenell and I have been particularly challenged by Jesus’ words: ” Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back” (Luke 6:30), and of course, John the Baptist’s words, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same” (Luke 3:11). We’ve tried to live these words out in concrete ways. What are some ways you’ve been challenged on this issue?

If you’re looking for ways to help or get involved, check out the Homelessness Resource Center. Or, check out Interfaith Community Services here in North County San Diego and, better yet, get involved by volunteering or even becoming a facebook fan and helping to spread the word.

Technorati Tags: Hate crimes, homeless, Jesus, John the Baptist, Luke, poverty

Been There, Done That

Today the Ikon folks met at Grape Day Park in Escondido to have a Thanksgiving meal with our friends who live in the Park. For the past six months Cory and Crissy Verner have spent every Saturday having coffee and donuts with these folks, making friendships and immersing themselves in the lives of people who are typically overlooked. Once a month a few of us join them, bring real food, get to know people, offer haircuts, etc. Today they wanted to share the holiday with their new friends in a meaningful way.

Several things surprised me about the gathering, but one thing didn’t.

I was surprised how many people turned out. There were probably over 100 folks there today, and at least 30 of them came to bring food for our friends in the park. Wow.

I was surprised at how peacefully the event unfolded. I’ve done a ton of feeding programs at churches and non-profit centers as a pastor, and it’s not uncommon for a large gathering like this to grow tense (or worse) with people cutting in line, jockeying for position and taking more than their share. There was none of that today. I think this is because our approach all along has been that we’re not feeding the homeless, we’re eating with our friends. Cory and Crissy embody this approach perfectly and did a great job of setting it up like a large family picnic. People chatted in line, piled their plates, and plopped onto blankets in small groups scattered around the area. Kids played football and stormed the playground. It was genuinely fun and restful.

I was surprised we didn’t get a ticket. The Verners have been progressively harassed by the Park Police over the past few months because it’s illegal to feed the homeless there. We do it anyway because we think that’s stupid, immoral, and discriminatory – but we’ve always been discreet about it and it’s always been much smaller than this. Today a Park cop showed up, saw all the people sitting on blankets laughing and eating together and said, “This is a good thing. I’m not going to call it in.” Then he stayed and chatted for awhile. Wow again.

I was surprised how many different churches were involved. As I walked around meeting people I counted 6 different churches from a variety of traditions represented. This wasn’t intentional. As word organically spread over the past few weeks other churches jumped on board, officially and unofficially. It was inspiring and humbling to see.

I wasn’t surprised when someone expressed disappointment that we weren’t sharing the gospel. I’ve come to expect this from Christians. We’ve been telling ourselves for a couple hundred years now that the gospel is an intellectual formula about Jesus and heaven, so it comes as no surprise to me when people expect a speech about that formula.

I was proud of my wife Jenell who replied, “These people already know about that, they don’t need to hear it again from us. Actually, I think most of them have more faith than we do. What they need now is relationships.”

Exactly.

Every Saturday around the time Cory and Crissy go to the park another man shows up with his bible and preaches a message. Every week he says the same thing: “You’re sinners; you’re filthy and depraved; your addictions are keeping you from God and you’re going to Hell; turn to God and be saved.” This means saying the sinners prayer so they’ll go to heaven when they die – because that’s what’s really important. Additionally, the natural, yet deeply superstitious implication is that if they do so, some of their immediate problems might start going away too.

Now – never mind for the moment that I don’t think this is the gospel – Jenell and I have taken an informal poll, and as near as we can tell they’ve all been there and done that already…multiple times in most cases. In fact, in 15 years of ministry in 3 different States we’ve never met a homeless person that didn’t profess Christ. They’re so desperate they’ll pray anything if it means getting some relief for their hunger, their illness, their woundedness, and their hopelessness. You would too.

But it doesn’t help.

Praying a sinner’s prayer won’t fill your belly. It doesn’t fix mental illness, it won’t get you a job and it won’t dry your addictions. I don’t even think it will get you into heaven when you die (but that’s another blog post).

Here’s what does help: people. God, yes…but God through people. What helps us is deeply committed, compassionate people who are willing to get to know us, suffer with our dysfunctions, love us in spite of our shit, help us re-build our lives, and include us in the little things. As John says,

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

That’s where God resides. That’s where we “see” him – in the vacuum of human need, which then fills to overflowing with life as the abundance of God flows from person to another. This is a significant implication of the incarnation of Christ, and every time we do it we’re literally “sharing” the gospel.

Sadly, not may Christians I’ve met have been there and done that. It’s way too hard, too messy, and too frightening. But that is where salvation lies, for both the giver and the receiver. In my recent series on the Kingdom and Economy I quoted Bryant Myers, and he’s worth quoting here again:

“Poverty is a result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable.”

There’s an indispensable place for proclaiming the audaciously disruptive news of Christ’s Kingship, but for those who’ve already heard, our urgent task is to demonstrate the gospel as a life of deeply just and harmonious relationships that manifest redeeming love between people.

Technorati Tags: 1 John, Bryant Myers, Gospel, Grape Day Park, homeless, Ikon Community, Jesus Christ, poor, poverty, Salvation, Thanksgiving

Toward a Missional Economy, Part 4

In Part 1 I proposed that the gift-economy in Exodus 16 (and by extension, 2 Cor 8) as the defining economic narrative of the bible. In Part 2 I suggested that Postmodern subcultures are already demonstrating a shift toward these economic “rules of the household,” providing a missional opportunity for the Church in Western Culture. And in Part 3 I said the first of three paradigm shifts required is “from wealth building to gift-giving.” Today, I’ll touch on the second shift.

From Scarcity to Abundance
The second shift we must experience in order to embody the economics of Exodus 16 is from scarcity to abundance. The modern science of Economics relies entirely on the concept of scarcity, assuming that there isn’t enough for everyone. Therefore we must compete in order to build our own wealth and hoard enough to provide for ourselves in an uncertain future. Yet the outrageous proposition of Exodus 16 is that God is able to meet our daily needs. Actually, it’s even more outrageous than that, for God’s intention is clearly that through His provision, and the economy of His people, everyone’s needs will actually be met. This is what biblical “equality” means.

This is what we see occurring in Exodus 16. There is an illusion of scarcity caused by the un-equal gathering of resources. Some families have incidentally gathered more than they actually need, while others have gathered too little. Even though there is enough for everyone, for the time being (that is, for each day), the supply is finite but not scarce. Therefore the temporary limitation on the total amount of provision results in the appearance of scarcity because of unequal gathering. The solution is simple, but requires cooperation; move the ample gift of God around in order to fill the void.

Paul applies this same perspective of limited abundance to the shifting needs of the early Church. There appears to be a scarcity of money to support needs within certain churches, but Paul recognizes that while there isn’t an unlimited supply of resources, there is more than enough to go around if only they will share. This is why Paul assures them that giving away their extra won’t result in hardship:

Our desire is not that others would be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality (2 Cor 8:13).

True scarcity would have resulted in genuine hardship for the givers. Unlimited abundance would mean nobody would ever have to give away their surplus, because everyone will always have more than they need. But, just as with Manna in the desert and also as with the spiritual gifts of the Church (1 Cor 12), God has given a limited abundance of resources in order to ensure communal interdependence – there is just enough to meet everyone’s needs as long as everyone pitches in.

Surprisingly, the sociologist Marcel Mauss claimed that all ancient gift-based cultures apparently had some such form of equality-ethic like this. In his landmark book, The Gift: The Form and Reason For Exchange in Archaic Societies, he observes that in various cultural religious practices,

“Alms are the fruits of a moral notion of the gift and of fortune, on the one hand, and of a notion of sacrifice on the other. Generosity is an obligation, because [God] avenges the poor [...] for the superabundance of happiness and wealth of certain people who should rid themselves of it. This is the ancient morality of the gift, which has become a principle of justice.”

Here Mauss is correlating the practice of gift-giving to our common human quest for justice. He’s saying that the religious practice of alms giving is a special form of gift that ensures justice for those who have been excluded from the interdependence of the community by the powerful who refused to share their surplus. In this way giving is a form of God’s vengeance. Mercy becomes justice by re-balancing the scales. Miroslav Volf seems to agree, stating in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, that human gifts, like Christ’s,

“…should aim at establishing parity in the midst of drastic and pervasive inequality.”

In other words, communities of faith bring justice to society by redistributing the limited abundance of God, especially in cultures where greed and hoarding have created the illusion of scarcity and the very painful reality of inequality. This is the economic role of the Church in society: to publicly demonstrate a prophetic critique against the unjust power-structures of the world by redistributing the wealth of society with a prejudice toward the poor.

Questions:

1. Why is the shift from scarcity to abundance difficult for us?
2. Why is it that poverty generally isn’t seen as an issue of justice in the United States?

Technorati Tags: 2 Corinthians, economy, Equality, Exodus, Gift-Economy, gifts, justice, Marcel Mauss, Miroslav Volf, poor, poverty, Spiritual Gifts

Church Told to Stop Feeding Hispanics

In an astonishing decision, a local zoning hearing has determined that a Phoenix church can no longer serve a weekly pancake breakfast to Hispanics.

Retired Arizona Supreme Court justice Bobb Crockeran, serving as a hearing officer, ruled Monday that feeding the Hispanics at a place of worship can be banned by city ordinance. The decision affects all Phoenix churches with underlying residential zoning.

Over the summer, city officials maintained that the church violated Phoenix zoning code by feeding the Hispanics on its property, a use that can only occur in commercial or industrial zones. City officials said the decision is effective immediately.

The church argued that it is within it’s constitutional rights to serve people’s needs on its property according to its religious beliefs. But the Crockeran disagreed:

In a 19-page opinion, Crockeran said the city can restrict where Hispanics can be fed and that zoning regulations apply to everyone equally. Additionally, he said that trumping land-use regulations is not a constitutional right.

The controversy over the weekly pancake worship service arose last spring after neighbors complained about an increase of Hispanics sleeping and loitering in alleys, incidents of burglary, aggressive panhandling, vandalism, public intoxication, prostitution and public urination. Parents of preschool students on the church campus complained that their children encountered Hispanics in school hallways.

North-central Phoenix resident Stephen Tozier said he’s pleased with Crockeran’s decision.

“This decision is more about protecting a residential area than anything else,” he said. “The nice part is the church can support the Hispanics elsewhere [...] but we can’t move the residential neighborhood.”

Peter Barres, a Phoenix neighborhood activist who spoke at last month’s zoning-adjustment hearing, said churches must be mindful that zoning rules and restrictions apply to everyone.

“It’s not a Hispanic issue, per se, it’s the fact that you need to have some control, and that’s what the zoning ordinance provides,” he said. “It’s not a problem with Hispanic people in wealthy neighborhoods. That would be a matter of prejudice. This issue would be setting churches up to avoid zoning ordinances.”

Oops, there must be something wrong with my keyboard! Everywhere it says “Hispanics” it’s supposed to say “poor and homeless.” My bad (okay, I changed the names too). The whole news story is here.

Actually, the issues are exactly the same.

These are the very same fear-based arguments that have always been made to rationalize the prejudicial dehumanization of hated groups of people, be they of a different color, a different nationality, or a different socio-economic group. Whether it was mid-century Jim Crow laws, modern immigration vitriol, anti-gay hatred, or intolerance of the poor, marginalized and hated people are always unjustly characterized as disgusting criminals and the laws that promote discrimination are always whitewashed in the benign language of “community concern.” Notice, too, how a local ordinance that actually promotes the dehumanization of an entire group of people is characterized as as protecting equality.

The dehumanization of any person never produces equality, never truly protects anyone, and is never in the best interests of a community. It’s time to stop treating certain people like a sub-species. This is what the gospel is for.

Technorati Tags: charity, Equality, Gospel, homeless, mission, News, poor, poverty