Monthly Archives: August 2013

What can we do?

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What can we do? What should we do?

Tami Miller asked me this question a couple of days ago. She was referring specifically to our response to homelessness. I promised her a response but it’s been a busy couple of days for me filled with meetings and lengthy conversations with parishioners about all manner of things.

During these past few days, my attention has also been diverted by the growing debate over the same question being asked about a very different situation—the appropriate US response to the ongoing violence in Syria and especially to the claims of the use of chemical weapons against civilians. As I’ve read that debate, I was struck by the same anguish, uncertainty, and helplessness that many of us feel in Madison. “We’ve got to do something!” is a common refrain in the debate over Syria, although the prospect of the situation improving as a result of our actions is doubtful.

We see suffering, either in images on TV of distant conflict or natural disaster, or as we walk down State Street in Madison. We’ve got to do something! The need is great; the suffering profound, our compassion, guilt, generosity, compel us to action.

Those of us who are involved in direct ministry and outreach to homeless people know the complexity of the situation. We know all about the many reasons why people become and remain homeless—illness, mental illness, poor life choices, imprisonment, alcohol and drug abuse. We also know about the systemic issues, a medical system that fails the neediest; racism; lack of education; family systems that have been in cycles of poverty, violence, abuse, etc., for generations; a 2% vacancy rate for rental housing in Madison. There are also all of the ways our local, state, and federal government have pursued policies that contribute to the problems that they are trying to solve. We know that the help we offer is often little more than a bandaid.

The problems are complex. The need is so great. What can we do? What should we do?

We should do what we are doing.

We should be advocates. We should be advocates for those who have no voice and no power. We should call our institutions: government, schools, universities, businesses, communities of faith, to respond to the need in our communities. We should demand that they serve the needs of the powerless, the hungry, the weak. A society is judged not on what it accomplishes, on its wealth or military power, but on how it treats those who are at its margins, the impotent, widows, orphans, the elderly.

We should be compassionate and merciful. As Americans, we claim that all are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights. As a Christian, I believe that all are created in the image of God, that we share with the vilest criminal, the disabled, the mentally ill, a common human nature that reflects the nature of God. The humanity that unites us across race, class, and gender demands that we build a community in which all have access to the basic necessities of life and all are able to flourish as human beings.

When we can do nothing more than offer a sandwich, a sleeping bag, a kind word, perhaps a hug, we are offering what is often called a ministry of presence, a willingness and commitment to be among those who Jesus called “the least of these.” Jesus told us that when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, we are feeding, clothing, visiting Jesus Christ himself.

The problems will remain. The suffering will continue. We cannot solve the world’s problems, whether it’s the homeless in Madison or unimaginable horrors in Syria. The love we share is the love of Christ. When we share that love we are affirming the dignity of every human being and we are bearing witness to the image of God that we all reflect. We are also calling ourselves and our community to our better nature and to a deeper humanity.

We have to be the conscience, the moral compass of our community. Our voices call our community to become better than it is, to be a place and a people that protect the neediest among us. Our actions, as futile as they may be, challenge everyone to reach out beyond themselves to their neighbors in need and join in the effort to help those who cannot help themselves.

So Tami, that’s what we have to do. We have to continue to advocate, to help, and to be present with the weakest members of our society. It’s hard, exhausting, and often demoralizing. In our actions, our presence, and our love, we bear witness to God’s redemptive love and grace. And through it all, we need to pray.

Troubled over events in Syria?

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I am, too.

Once more, the neo-cons, the media, the usual suspects, are beating the drums of war. Our president (remember the Nobel Peace Prize?) seems to be planning “surgical strikes” by way of retaliation and punishment. The consequences of our intervention and the long-term effects on Syria and the wider Middle East, seem not to be taken into consideration.

George Packer summarizes the debate and the futility of it all:

What are you saying?

I don’t know. I had it worked out in my head until we started talking. (Pause.) But we need to do something this time.

Not just to do something.

All right. Not just to do something. But could you do me a favor?

What’s that?

While you’re doing nothing, could you please be unhappy about it?

I am.

Where are the Christian voices speaking out against violence as a solution to violence?

Here’s one:

From Jim Wallis of Sojourners:

It’s natural to feel moral outrage, and there is no doubt that the Assad regime is responsible for more than 100,000 civilian deaths. But a moral compass must guide our moral outrage.

Christians, both who identify as pacifists and those who subscribe to a just war theory, can agree that rigorous criteria and conditions must be applied before there is any decision for military intervention. As part of that process, we must first ask if military strikes are a last resort. Have we exhausted peaceful, multilateral solutions to the conflict? Will military intervention have a reasonable chance of success, and how would we define that success? And does military intervention comply with international and U.S. law.

We also need to consider the unintended consequences of U.S. military action in Syria both at home and abroad. Our involvement could add fuel to the fires of violence that are already consuming the region. It could exacerbate anti-American hatred and produce new recruits for terror attacks against the United States and our allies. Military action could also increase refugee displacement, further risking regional destabilization.

From  Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (speaking in Parliament today):

I feel that any intervention must be effective in terms of preventing any further use of chemical weapons. I’ve not yet heard that that has been adequately demonstrated as likely. That it must effectively deal with those who are promoting the use of chemical weapons. And it must have a third aim which is:  somewhere in the strategy, there must be more chance of a Syria and a Middle East in which there are not millions of refugees and these haunting pictures are not the stuff of our evening viewing.

The Archbishop was participating in something that doesn’t happen in Congress anymore: debate over military action. That debate has slowed down the rush to war but it probably hasn’t prevented it.

A piece by Maryann Cusimano Love examines the proposed action in light of Just War Theory.

Homelessness: What should we do?

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Tami Miller is one of my heroes. Singlehandedly, she has helped to start a movement and has helped to change the debate in Madison. For more about her and her efforts, visit Feeding the State Street Family. 

She commented on a previous post of mine. I’m putting it up here to make sure people see it. Her fundamental question is: “What should we do?”

What can we do- as ordinary, “regular” people to help our homeless neighbors- right now in practical and useful ways? Our weekly food run has been hit with bigger crowds than ever-we keep running out of food- I have been told that Savory Sunday has also been running out of food- our Midnight run takes less than 30 minutes to hand out supplies for 100 people living outdoors…I now have 42 remote camping sites that I visit— it feels like the economy and the circumstances here in Madison are causing a swelling in the numbers of those who are homeless… yet growth for services is slow paced, and often argued against and it just can’t keep up… no one wants a 24-7 day center in their neighborhood… and homeless people are dying out here (5 deaths in the past months). It scares me.I am frightened for my homeless family. I know that we are doing God’s work, but the problems seem so overwhelming Father. I pray each day for my homeless brothers and sisters- I pray for God to give us direction, to give me direction- I give it back to Him because this is HIS thing. I wish I could hear an audible response to that prayer…

My heart breaks to see the desperation and the fear. To see people hungry, cold or overheated, sick with little healthcare and no medicine, addicted with no available treatment beds or turned away from detox, mentally ill with no treatment, injured, spat on, raped or beaten because of who they are and how they have to live. I am just a farm kid Father, I feel like I have no answers…I want…so much to make things better, and to have those who control the money, and who have the power those who look down on people with less to see my homeless family through my eyes, or far better- through God’s eyes. What do we do? How do we Pray? How can we be better, do better than we are? Right here, right now??? I ask this earnestly, and with hope… How do we become a city and a people that puts our fellow human being’s basic needs first?

I’ll offer my response when I’ve had more time to think about it.

 

Update on the “criminalization of homelessness”

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The stories  about Columbia, SC and Raleigh, NC to which I linked have generated a lot of press and interest across the country. Barbara Ehrenreich’s piece, which was written The Guardian, has received less attention.

It’s easy for us to criticize those benighted folks in the South for their attitudes toward the homeless. Ehrenreich points out that this movement is national, not regional. Even the mayor of a progressive city like Madison seems to share the opinion that bleeding-heart do-gooders are partly responsible for the presence of homeless people in downtowns.

Some additional material on both stories:

The group that was prohibited from serving breakfast to the homeless in Raleigh, NC is Love Wins Ministries. They provide additional background to the incident and their decision not to be arrested here.

Kudos to Bishop Michael Curry of the Diocese of North Carolina, who has this to say about the situation:

… the Mayor announced that no one would be arrested for feeding the homeless in Moore Square and that the city would work with those doing so. Further she said that neither she nor the City Council were aware of this until yesterday. As a side note many of our clergy and congregations are supporters of Love Wins Ministries and we were making phone calls yesterday about this. Additionally, we were working to make our Diocesan House parking lot available for this minustry, which is also downtown, near Moore Square, if that proved necessary or desirable. It appears that for the moment the matter has been resolved and the city is working with the ministry. (Quoted on Episcopal Cafe)

Bishop Curry’s letter to the Mayor and City Council of Raleigh is now available here.

From my source on the ground (or close to the ground), some additional info on Columbia, SC. The Columbia City Council has mastered the craft of Orwellian doublespeak. Their program to restrict homeless people to a remote shelter is known as “Columbia Cares.”

I’ve heard nothing from the Diocese of Upper South Carolina nor from Trinity Cathedral, both of which are located smack dab in downtown Columbia.

Jesus’ Healing Touch: A Sermon for Proper 16, Year C

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Proper 16, Year C

August 25, 2013

 

 

You’ve heard this story before. Even if you haven’t heard the particulars of this story before, you’ve heard the general story before. Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. A woman who is bent over, suffering for 18 years from an evil spirit interrupts the service, implores Jesus to help her. Jesus heals her; there’s another controversy with the literalistic Jewish authorities, and Jesus condemns pharisaic legalism. Why even bother listening? Count the rafters, look at the sun coming through the stained glass. We’ve heard it all before.

But wait, that’s not quite the story Luke tells. First of all, the woman. Luke doesn’t tell us why she came to the synagogue. What he doesn’t say is that she came because Jesus was there, that she was hoping Jesus would heal her, that she asked Jesus to heal her. In fact, she doesn’t say anything to Jesus, she doesn’t touch his garment; she doesn’t disrupt the service. It’s Jesus who notices her and stops what he’s doing to heal her. Moreover, Luke says nothing about her faith, that it was faith in Jesus that brought her to the synagogue, or that she came to faith because of the healing. All he says is that after she’s healed, she praises God.

And before we succumb too quickly to the Jesus against Judaism trope, remember where this is taking place, in a synagogue, on the Sabbath. In fact, it’s the third time Luke places Jesus in a synagogue on the Sabbath. More importantly perhaps, all three times Luke tells us that Jesus was teaching in it. In other words, it’s not just that Jesus behaved like a good Jew by going to the synagogue on the Sabbath. He was seen in all three locations as an authority on scripture, on the law, and was asked to teach, or preach, if you’d rather. He was interpreting Torah, interpreting the law to the assembled congregation. So for him to interrupt his teaching and train of thought, to notice a woman coming in, for him to stop everything and heal her is quite a big deal.

Then there’s the woman herself. What brought her to the synagogue that day? Was it her custom? Was it desperation? What was her life like? For eighteen years she had been bent over, more literally the text could read, as the KJV does, “bowed together,” unable to straighten herself out. For eighteen years, her eyes were on the ground as she walked. She could not see the faces of anyone. She hadn’t felt the warmth of the sun on her cheeks; she hadn’t been able to look at the sky, or the horizon. Her world had narrowed to the few square feet directly in front of her.

What did she do when she was healed? She stretches out to her full stature. What must that have felt like? Can you imagine the sudden freedom? The new perspective on the world? What is her immediate response? She praises God—by the way, that was something that was typically done standing up, arms outstretched to the sky. Had the fact that her body forced her almost into a prostrate position kept her soul from glorifying God, from lifting itself up to God in praise?

There’s something else in the story that’s curious. After the healing, the focus shifts to a dialogue between the Synagogue ruler and Jesus. The ruler criticizes Jesus for healing on the Sabbath but his criticism isn’t primarily directed at the question of its legality. Rather, he seems focused on Jesus breaking another rule—people come to the synagogue for healing on the other six days of the week. The ruler wants to keep it that way. Sabbath in the synagogue is not for healing but for other things.

Frankly, I’m somewhat sympathetic to the synagogue ruler on this point. In our context, it’s not healing that people come to Grace five days of the week; it’s for financial assistance. Every day one or two people drop by to tell their stories of need. On Sundays when it happens, I tend to get rather annoyed because often there are lots of other people who want to talk with me, or to whom I want to talk: visitors, newcomers, people with pastoral needs or who want to set up an appointment to see me, and dealing with another homeless person in the midst of all that is time-consuming, distracting, and often heart-wrenching. And sometimes I tell them to come back tomorrow (I also always share with them information about where they can get meals on Sunday afternoons, there are at least three possibilities of free meals, by the way).

So I understand the synagogue ruler when he complains that people can come for healing six days a week but that the Sabbath is set aside for other things, for holy things. At the same time, we don’t know why the woman came in the first place. All we know is that Jesus saw her, touched her, healed her. That should be a lesson to all of us, and especially to me.

We don’t know why people walk through our doors. We don’t know what motivates visitors. Are they seeking healing, physical, emotional, spiritual healing? Are they seeking connection with God, with a community? What brings them up our steps and across our threshold? Do we even notice them? Or if we do notice them, is it only or primarily, because of their strangeness, their otherness?

And the rest of us who come week to week—why do we do it? For what are we searching for? What physical, emotional, spiritual burdens have bent us over, bowed us together, so that our vision is limited to the few feet on the path in front of us? What healing touch do we need? Can we even open ourselves to the possibility that Jesus’ touch might heal us? Are we like that woman, so bent over in pain, that we can’t imagine the possibility that the grace of Jesus Christ might come upon us, heal us, help us stand upright? What boundaries and limitations have we placed on God that we lack the capacity to imagine God’s healing of us, our loved ones, or even God’s healing and redemption of the world around us?

A random, chance encounter. A woman bent over in pain, suffering for eighteen years, happens to come to synagogue the day Jesus is teaching. He happens to notice her, stops what he’s doing, touches her and heals her. In so doing, Jesus breaks through the social and religious conventions and rules of his day. He frees her body from its painful bondage and limitations; he frees her to rise up and praise God. He frees her to look around, to look up and see the beauty and glory of the world.

The challenge for us is simply this. First and foremost to allow God’s love and grace to come upon us in such a way that we too can stand upright and offer praise, to rejoice and give thanks for God’s goodness. That’s no easy task in this cynical age. But that’s not all. We also have to make sure that the limitations and boundaries that we place around God’s grace do not limit God’s freedom of action. How are we like that synagogue ruler who wants to make sure that healing takes place only on six days of the week. How do we prevent people bent over in pain, whether that pain is physical, emotional or spiritual, from experiencing God’s healing touch? And when should we extend our hands with God’s healing touch to those who come to us?

The criminalization of poverty and homelessness

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Mayor Soglin is in very good company. The criminalization of homelessness is taking place all over the country.

Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed in America) writes about it:

the criminalisation of poverty has actually intensified as the weakened economy generates ever more poverty. So concludes a recent study from the National Law Centre on Poverty and Homelessness, which finds that the number of ordinances against the publicly poor has been rising since 2006, along with the harassment of the poor for more “neutral” infractions like jaywalking, littering, or carrying an open container.

The report lists America’s 10 “meanest” cities – the largest of which include Los Angeles, Atlanta and Orlando – but new contestants are springing up every day. In Colorado, Grand Junction’s city council is considering a ban on begging; Tempe, Arizona, carried out a four-day crackdown on the indigent at the end of June. And how do you know when someone is indigent? As a Las Vegas statute puts it, “an indigent person is a person whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive” public assistance.

Some other examples:

It’s apparently illegal in Raleigh, NC to feed the homeless.

Columbia, SC is setting up a concentration camp for the homeless:

Concerned that Columbia has become a “magnet for homeless people,” and that businesses and the area’s safety are suffering as a result, council members agreed on Aug. 14 to give people on the streets the option to either relocate, or get arrested, according to the city’s “Emergency Homeless Response” report.

Cooperative homeless people will be given the option to go to a remote 240-person bed emergency shelter, which will be open from September to March. The shelter will also be used as a drop-off for people recently released from prison and jail, too.

Some statistics on homelessness in Dane County

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The City of Madison has released its annual report on “The Homeless Served in Dane County.” The full report is here: 2012 Annual Report Final print . The Executive Summary is here: 2012 Annual Report Executive Summary Final

Providers report that they offered shelter to nearly 3400 individuals in 2012, a 10% increase over 2011. Of those individuals, around 42% were families with children; the next largest group was single men, around 40%.

I’ll quote from the summary:

Two-thirds of all individuals who stayed in shelters reported they had lived in Dane County for longer than a year. Only a few percent reported living here for less than a month. These numbers reflect a dramatic change from data collected in the 1990’s when nearly two-thirds of homeless persons reported living in Dane County for less than a month.

And:

The reported data make clear the imbalance between the need for shelter and local capacity to accommodate that need. There are currently nine shelter programs, each serving distinct populations – families, single men, persons fleeing domestic violence, etc. The total capacity among reporting providers is about 310 beds, plus 65 seasonal and overflow beds. Few, if any new beds have been added to the system in the past year. There is also some ability to use motel vouchers for short term stays when necessary, though that is a more costly proposition.
Limited shelter capacity has led to rationing.

There: an admission of fact: “Limited shelter capacity has led to rationing.” Whether or not shelter providers, social service agencies, and local politicians want to admit it, rationing of space is long-standing policy.

One important thing to note about these numbers. They only reflect what is reported to the shelters at intake, and by the shelters to the city. In other words, this report doesn’t account for people who don’t try to access the shelter system. Thus the report doesn’t reflect the true scope of the need nor the true total numbers of homeless people. The only report that attempts to do this is the semi-annual Point-In-Time survey (conducted on January 30 and July 30).

In other news related to the homeless, Brenda Konkel points out that 5 homeless people have died in Madison in recent months.

Homelessness, Prison, and Probation

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I’ve blogged a lot about the relationship between our medical system and homelessness. Another societal institution with deep and perverse ties to homelessness is our criminal justice system.  Chris Hedges writes about his experience working with a prison support group in New Jersey:

Big Frankie, Little Frankie and Al, three black men who spent a lot of time in prison and have put their lives back together in the face of joblessness, crushing poverty and the violence of city streets, abruptly stopped appearing at the prison support group I help run at the Second Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, N.J. This happens in poor neighborhoods. You see people. You make plans to see them again. And then without explanation they vanish. They get arrested for something, often trivial, after the police randomly stop them, run a check and find they owe fines, missed a court date or a meeting with a probation officer, owe child support, violated probation or have a couple of ounces of pot. The big mechanical jaw of the legal system gulps them down. And since they are poor and cannot afford bail they stay locked up. And that appears to be what happened to Big Frankie, Little Frankie and Al.

In fact, just that happened this morning on Capitol Square. We had asked a couple of guys to help us with some work at Grace. Overnight, after someone else on the square was picked up for marijuana possession, the police ran the ids of everyone else in the area, and the guy who was going to help us got picked up for a probation violation.

Noah Phillips wrote a wonderful, and heartbreaking story about the criminal justice system and homelessness from in Madison just last week. It points out some of the struggles people have in negotiating the system after they’ve done their time:

But in this shelter system, Brooks ultimately ran afoul of his probation conditions — twice. The first time was for using his truck, without his parole officer’s permission, to ferry people and food back and forth to the night and day shelters. For that, he ended up in jail for another 66 days. When he got out, he was placed in a halfway house and found a full-time job at Home Depot.

But he lost that job when he got sent back to jail after clashing with his case manager. Miller is not surprised that Brooks has had a tough time meeting the conditions of his probation in the shelter system. Those being paroled simply need more help readjusting and getting their lives back together.

Richard Beck puts some additional background behind these stories. The US incarcerates a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country on earth (including Cuba, North Korea, China, and Russia).

Madison Area Urban Ministry does remarkable work in this area.

Stressed-Out Jesus: A Sermon for Proper 15, Year C

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What glorious summer weather we’ve been having the last few weeks! Corrie and I have been taking advantage of it, with gardening, long summer evenings on our screened-in porch. We’ve enjoyed the Union Terrace on a couple of Friday evenings. And I’ve written most of my sermons in my Amish rocking chair on the porch with its view of a riotous garden growing out of control. The weather and the fact that summer brings with it a somewhat slower pace, seems to lower stress levels and anxiety. But the arrival of August 15, and move-in day means that school, and the fall, and all its busy-ness are just around the corner. I hope the weather stays cool so I can continue to enjoy my evenings on the porch. Continue reading →

So, Mr. Mayor, where do you want homeless people to hang out?

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An article in today’s Madison State Journal interviews Mayor Soglin, local business owners, and others about the “problem” of homeless people hanging out on State St. at Capitol Square. According to the mayor they are “nurtured by well-intended people with clothing, bedding and food, making the area even more of an attraction.” Well, we know who he’s talking about, don’t we?

And don’t get me wrong. I know how uncomfortable it can be to walk through that area. For all the hellos and kind words I receive from those I know, I’ve also had many unpleasant encounters.

But here’s the deal. Where are homeless people supposed to spend the day? The shelters close first thing in the morning and then they’re on their own. When a newly-homeless person comes to Grace, I direct them to the benches along Capitol Square, or to the Capitol, or yes, to “Philosopher’s Grove.” If they’ve missed the free van to Hospitality House, they’ve got no way to get to the only place that’s open for them during the week. Those benches and “Philosopher’s Grove” are very poorly suited as locations for the provision of services that might help the people there improve their situation.

In a few weeks, the renovated Central Library will again be an option. And no doubt the Library entrance will become what it was before the renovations, a place where homeless people hang out. On weekends, there’s nowhere to go and if the weather’s bad, and someone comes looking for shelter, I’m likely to invite them into Grace, at least for as long as we’re open. And I direct them to the various feeding programs where they might at least get something to eat before the shelter reopens in the evening.

The point is, in the absence of a central location like a day resource center, where people can find shelter and also get connected with services, most homeless people have little choice but to hang out on the streets in boredom with the only escape being alcohol or drugs. Until that happens, homeless people will hang out on State St. and Capitol Square. And if they’re forced out from these places, they’ll find somewhere else to gather.