Last Sunday the sermon started with the 2 commandments given by Christ as the most important. "Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself." The sermon went on from there asking us to follow these commandments. The sermon you did not hear was love your neighbor that agrees with you and lives at the same social level or higher. Don't worry about those that you don't see or need your help to survive. This is the way most of us live today and cannot see all of the people around us that are poverty stricken or in need of medical care that they cannot afford. We hide from the addicted and those that have little or no education because of where they grew up or the lack of family when they were children. We don't see those that work hard but earn less than they need to buy food, rent and clothing. They may give up food to pay for rent or medicine and have little chance of a better life style.
A few years ago I tried to buy Christmas presents for kids that were homeless and living in a shelter with their Moms. The shelter protected them and would not let me know anything about them other than their shoe size and sex. My wife and I bought 11 pairs of shoes and wrapped them for the kids. When I delivered them I met one of the mothers who told me that her husband was in prison and she had no income. The others were like cases and there seemed to be little hope for these families other than the welfare they could receive. I was told that even if I were to give them an apartment they would be back in the shelter in 6 months or sooner. The mothers were not capable of taking care of their families, It was sad and depressing. I am on the board of a free clinic that offers free health care to individuals that have no insurance. This helps some but the food, clothing and shelter is still a problem for many. There is another tier of poor and that is the families that have a home and jobs but do not have enough skills to work at jobs that pay more than the minimum wage. They get along but without many of the things that most of us call necessities. School lunch programs and food banks assist but trying to live in a well to do society takes its toll and many of the children leave school early and end up as their parents.
We can go on and on about being poor but you should get the gist by now. We have programs to help and some are good but many do no more that to maintain the status quo. Our clinic disperses needles to addicts to prevent them from contracting aids and hepatitis C. It is hoped that we can keep them alive long enough for them to get the help they need for recovery. Some have asked for help and have gone to rehab while most just show up for their needles. A few organizations offer free meals and house the homeless when it is cold but there is nothing beyond to prevent homelessness or find permanent homes for them. The prophet Amos told the Jews that it was their responsibility to help the poor and God would punish them if they did not do this. This prophecy is still with us today and is still relevant if we call ourselves Christians. My Church has taken some positive steps with the founding of a "Celebrate Recovery" action. This group has opened 4 halfway houses to assist those seeking addiction recovery and so far it has been very successful. lt is an attempt to return people to normal lives that they can sustain by themselves. Most of the welfare programs sustain people at the minimum level and stop the help when they try to supplement their income to better themselves.
As the richest society in the world we should be ashamed of ourselves that we can drive by homeless tents and not find ways to stop homelessness and prevent it. We should be rebuilding our mental health facilities that we destroyed a few years ago to help those that are mentally unable to take care of themselves and end up alcoholics and drug addicts living on streets and under bridges. We should be building low cost housing for those unable to pay the high rents that keep climbing higher. We should stop feeling sorry for addicts and require them to work for their needles and enroll in rehab programs or spent some time in jail to sober up. We should require people receiving welfare to supplement it with work to lift them into better economic conditions. We have to do more than preserve the poor's situation and help them to be able enjoy life as we do. We have to stop moving them out of the city to hide them from the streets that might cause a loss of business.
We have the choice of doing a better job of helping those that need it or let God punish us for looking the other way and at our idols rather than God.
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