to them it’s a “ghetto” and “unsafe” – usually codewords for “there be black or brown people there.”

Well that simply comes from statistics. The more black people in a given neighborhood, the higher the crime rate. Of course, while it’s a very strong correlation, it’s not proportional.

Even Jesse Jackson once remarked he gets nervous when walking alone and notices a group of black men behind him.

I’m kinda disappointed in most of the responses here. I know some people are uncomfortable with talking to drunks, and that’s understandable. But to say that drunks are undeserving of help based *on principle* — well that’s just not charitable at all.

I’m not sure if the folks opposed to helping the bum are doing so based on some “principle.” The gestalt, as I understood it, was that people who behave oddly in public should be avoided in general. It’s just self preservation.

What they can’t deal with is being a minority. They have a great fear when they are the minority in any situation – they feel unsafe, and they feel they don’t have control. I’m a minority in my neighborhood – everybody in my neighborhood is an ethic minority; there is no majority. It’s a pretty safe community but most suburban Christians would never venture here – to them it’s a “ghetto” and “unsafe” – usually codewords for “there be black or brown people there.”

This is often why we never see the suburban churches helping with the urban problems. In my city there are over 5,000 homeless and only around 2,000 beds in shelters on any given night. The suburban churches see no issue in building gymnasiums that sit empty more than half the week. They can spend 30,000 on a new video projection system. When a call goes out to collect 5,000 sets of coats and winter clothes for the homeless nets a half-hearted response of around 1,000 sets.

The churches can usually collect some money because it doesn’t actually involve being around the poor and homeless. I saw photos of a church that recently hosted a “30 Hour famine” event to raise money. The youth group made card board boxes to sleep in on the front lawn of their suburban church, many painting and decorating their boxes. As somebody who has been around the homeless some over the past few years, it is hard for me to even being describing out outrageously out of touch with reality this people are. In fact, I find it rather insulting. It is if they are saying “I understand you and your situation even though I don’t care enough about you to even meet you or spend time with you or get to know you.” Why not spend the night at a homeless shelter or in a park frequented by homeless? Because it isn’t safe? And I thought you believed you had a God watching over you and protecting you? More likely it’s because you’d be so ashamed to be seen with Lazarus, right Rich Man?

“I asked participants who claimed to be “strong followers of Jesus” whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80 percent said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question, I asked this same group of strong followers whether they spent time wit the poor, and less than 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. i had come to see that the great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.” – Shane Claiborne, “The Irresistible Revolution”

http://tinyurl.com/avrzt9

Sometimes alchohol is not the problem. It’s a judgment call in the end but you can’t always just ignore a problem based on some lofty principle.

And if you don’t want to help the poorer and lost members of society -fine, leave it to the churches to do it – but don’t complain when it feels like there are more and more evangelists on the street.

Some church members were [leery], but others offered food and shelter,

What about God…did they offer him God and salvation? Come on! Food and shelter, what good is that without God…and with God why would one worry about food and shelter?

I’d say the congregation has a ways to go when it comes to belief.

I think if the parameters of the test had been changed, you’d still get a few consistent people who are actually sincere. But no doubt the number would be considerably lower than the one in this test.