will churches help the homeless??

[Mari333]

The task sounded easy enough: Find 50 churches willing to shelter a dozen homeless women for one week at a time.

That way, the Salvation Army's Center of Hope wouldn't have to put anybody on the street when the recently reopened Emergency Winter Shelter closes on Sept. 1.

But Steve Brumm has been working the phones for three weeks, and he's found only 11 churches willing to do it. He has called 25 so far.









http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/827979.html

[MineralMan]

1. Hmm...some churches have always helped the homeless.

It took 3 weeks to call 25 churches? That seems odd to me, actually. Perhaps he called and visited that many churches to discuss the details in three weeks. That would make sense. The ratio of 11 interested churches to 25 called, though, seems pretty good to me. Lots of churches simply would have not facilities suitable for such a use. Others are not staffed all the time.

More calls are needed.

[stray cat]

2. Many have been doing so for years as well as helping immigrants

[stray cat]

3. How about people opening their own home to one family -

then the responsibility is where it belongs - all of us. Sure it might be inconvenient and you may be ripped off but until I'm willing to do it how can I condemn someone else for not doing it.

[InkAddict]

4. They are happy to pray for them.

[RagAss]

5. and this is a fucking surprise?

[BlooInBloo]

6. Um.... they help homeless folks' ETERNAL SOULS. What's a few measley years of hell on earth...

compared to that?

[Fleshdancer]

7. If the church has the space and resources to do so, then it should

It's not unusual to see McChurches here in TX and knowing that these mega structures cost millions to build makes me sick to my stomach. To be fair, I've never been to one and, for all I know, maybe they all give a ton of resources to the homeless. From the outside looking in though, it all seems so self serving to me. I hope I'm wrong about that.

[Mari333]

8. 85 plus churches in my county

only one has a food pantry.

[MineralMan]

11. Sadly, some churches do not want the unwashed to

visit. Many do have some sort of ministry to the poor, but seldom do such ministries invite those folks to their buildings.

Again, they ignore Matthew, in favor of Paul. If I read Matthew correctly, they risk rejection in the end, if you believe that sort of thing.

[Cleita]

9. How about going back to giving these women welfare so they can rent

a place to live, like it used to be. Herding a bunch of women into a church basement for a week and then back into the streets sounds like a really bad solution to me.

[undeterred]

10. Churches run on contributions

and contributions come from churchgoers, who are also hit by the recession. Many of the liberal churches do something - like host a shelter, or community meals, or a food pantry. But it takes volunteers and money to do everything so I imagine a lot of them are already stretched to the limit.

[BlooInBloo]

12. If that's the issue, then we should expect a different result say 5 years ago?