“young homeless man, beavis, shooting up in the tenderloin. he picks his scabs to find a good spot; and tries a few locations before he gets a vein. he has the “love” and “hate” tattoos from “night of the hunter” on his fingers. he’s showing “love” with his right hand as he sticks the needle in.” (read more of beavis’ story)
this is a hard picture to look at, and it almost seems fake. is hard reality so difficult for us to take in that our minds give us a mechanistic sense that what we are viewing is not really real? (a defense mechanism perhaps?)
here’s a flickr photoset, from which this picture come, that displays the faces of poverty in america upclose and personal. it’s full of great pics, and a gut check as to the realities of poverty in our own country. it’s amazing how often we overlook these people in our day to day lives as we drive and walk right past. have we become so calloused that we don’t even notice anymore?
Related posts:
- coming together in poverty.
- screech is broke.
- poverty…a well-kept secret in the U.S.
- crash, the oscars & homophobia.
- ‘Make Poverty History’ message banned in Britain
It won’t matter as long as the Christian lives in a house owned by the bank, as long as they drive a car owned by the bank, as long as they wear clothes that are owned by the bank. As long as the Christian does not even anything themselves, how can they take the time to provide for someone else?
So true….it amazes me how Christians tend to be the highest in debt among anyone…I drive two old cars that I keep care of well…they arent the best things in the world to look at…but they run well and they are paid for
It is funny — even when we look at our congregations that can’t pay the bills, so they feel they need to go into MORE debt to get a BIGGER congregation in hopes of paying the bigger bills.
It is also funny to me how Christians support paper and fiat currency (which is a product of the State). During Christ’s time, money was gold and silver — real money that has held its value consistently for over 6000 years. Not only do “we” have great debt, we even use money that is nothing but debt, heh. And we wonder why we suffer through hardships.
Can’t you two guys reply to a post anywhere out in blogland without bashing christians or the church? For crying out loud…look at the picture! And your response for his misery is….the debt of christians? Or patting yourself on the back for driving old cars? Or that christians support paper and flat currency?
The callouses are indeed very thick.
I don’t see it that way, and I don’t see it as bashing. Didn’t Christ come to fulfill the old ways in order to show everyone the new ways? What does a Christian do when the Body keeps trying to return to the old fleshly ways? Sit back and let it be, or open discussions about why the movement if failing in a spiritual sense?
I guess that’s an option — with more people finding happiness outside of the Body, it could just happen on its own. But I believe that we’re here to be good stewards and good examples, I don’t see how it isn’t an attempt to be Christ-like to show others that the way may be narrow, but it isn’t difficult.
Of course Christ came to fulfill the law and has brought in a new way. Thank God! I believe when we realize that our hearts have become calloused and cold to the misery around us, we need to draw all the closer to Him. To pray, ask for forgiveness, and trust that we will follow His Spirit’s leading the next time. And by the way, of course I agree Christians shouldn’t be deep in debt. It’s another yoke of bondage that does not allow us to be free to give as we are led by God.
I don’t understand what you mean when you say more people are finding happiness outside the Body. Do you mean outside the traditional church? I’m glad your happy, but what does that have to do with our calloused hearts and actually doing something for those in poverty or those who are forgotten by society.
Not bashing people, I am bashing ways which are fueled by the modern day church. The modern day church says spend spend spend and pay later. Bigger buildings, nicer equipment, nicer cars, nicer homes, etc, etc.
I dont pat myself on the back for anything. It’s just my opinion of things. I am proud to have little to no debt. While I dont have plasma tv’s, four wheelers, motorcycles, new cars, new house, etc, etc I am content to have very few dollars flying out every month for bills.
The church to me is the biggest fueler of greed and wants on earth. It is evident when you walk through most church doors, and it is evident in a lot of sr pastor’s lives. If we are calling ourselves Christians shouldnt we be living for others as Christ told us to do? Or live so we can be sure to get that one more new thing we dont really need?
I have never been to a church where they teach spend spend spend and pay later.
You say the church is the biggest fueler of greed and wants on earth? What a ridiculous exaggeration. You say it’s evident when you walk through most church doors? What kind of churches are you going to? It’s not evident in the church basement where you hold your meetings and it’s not evident in any of the churches I’ve ever attended. What senior pastors are you talking about? Every one I’ve ever met lives very modest lives and many of them either can not or can barely afford to live in their own home.
I don’t think we agree on much until you stated that we should be living for others as Christ told us to do. And that brings us back to the guy with the needle in his arm. Can we work together to help him? Or must one of us always attack, one of us always defend, and nothing still gets done.
i’m a little confused, just like scott on how a post on poverty turn into railing on the church?
i agree that the church doesn’t always spend its money in the best possible way, and could do a lot more with the resources that it has than often times are used for, but the church does a lot for the destitute–it could always do more, and when i say that i point the finger at each and every one of us, because we are a part of the church… but this isn’t about the church as an institution–it’s about us as individuals and how we see, or fail to see those that we want nothing to do with. so what are we as a part of the church doing for “the least of these?”
You dont see it? Hmm come to any one of the “booming” churches in our area and it’s building, building, building…plasma tv’s, nice new features, etc. etc.
And a lot (not all) of pastors I know are in debt up to their eyeballs with a new house, two new cars, etc..now granted a lot of pastors are severely underpaid, I am not arguing that point.
Sorry, when you have a key purpose of building funds, and funds for this and that, and things like poor people in your neighborhood are on the last list of things to do, no wonder there are so many people as pictured above in our own neighborhoods.
I must be in the only area of the country that has churches like this then. I mean do we really need 200 plasma tv’s to entertain Christians? Or do we need to spend that $200,000 dollars on reaching out to people as above?
Red thermometers and bulletin inserts about this much more needed to build or new building, etc are prevalent in our area. And frankly it makes me sick. The church should have little to no debt at all. Don’t we say live by example? Well why is it that one of the fastest growing “industries” in the entire US is church funding? Yet, the church as a whole contributes less than 1% globally to fighting poverty.
I am by no means perfect, but I do stand firm that the church as I grew up in it and as I see in my immediate area has taught it is ok to borrow and pay later mentality. I don’t buy it. It is bondage and it is wrong.
I wonder what it would look like if a church pulled out a $3M loan to feed the poor and give help to the people addicted to drugs etc in their own neighborhood, how that would look instead of taking it out to build yet another unneeded new facility that sits empty 50% out of every week?
I’m with Jason on this one (in terms of church debt and church spending). Too many congregations work too hard on the “get them in!” mentality rather than “send them out.” I’d rather skip a few Sunday services if it meant we can go out to meet the needs of those in need.
As for Scott, I know many more non-Christians who are satisfied with life (finances are fine, their household life is pretty good, they are charitable to others, they’re stable and happy emotionally) than Christians themselves. But I do think that church might be a magnet for those who are broken and lost — which is why I don’t have a problem with non-Christians who prefer their way. Selling “church” as a place to meet one’s needs is pretty unbiblical when we see that Jesus tells us as individuals to go out and meet the needs of other individuals around us who are needy.
How is the guy in the picture needy? Has he asked you for food or shelter or clothing or money? Has he come to you saying “I need help?” If you force help onto him, will he even accept it or care? What do you do when you see or know a drug user? I don’t see any Biblical justification for going out and saying “come to this congregation if you need help.” What I see there is a destined stop-off for scavengers, not the needy. You can’t really reach the needy by just being one big group with freebies. You reach the needy by going out and making one-on-one relationships and asking people if you can help them, and how.
I’m not one for soup kitchens or clothing closets or food pantries (I’m not against them, but I don’t think they are a solution in any way). I’m for going out into your community and loving others by being available. Let them know you’re there to help them, console them, heal them, whatever. When they’re ready to accept that help, they’ll come to you because you’re a shining example of His Love — you’re not another organization looking for volunteers and finances and ways to try to meet some global need. The globe isn’t a world of one, it is a world of billions, each who has different needs.
If I saw that guy, I’d ask him if there’s anything he needs. He might need money — but how many Christians would put a quid-pro-quo on that money? I know a lot who would say “Don’t give him money, he’ll spend it on drugs.” I know many that would say “Don’t give that guy a jacket, he’ll sell it for drugs.” Those (common) statements are not Biblically sound — they’re judgemental and controlling. I happily give money to those who ask — and I don’t ask them what they need it for. I’ll happily give an extra jacket if I meet someone who looks cold — but I’ll ask them what THEY need, not “Do you need a jacket?” Someone cold might need food or money or just a few minutes to talk.
I think the charity-discussion NEEDS to turn against the churches that seem (to me) to fail to really meet individual needs — instead they become a “one sized fits all” group of people who never really “help,” instead they just encourage/enable others to continue with their hardships because they don’t take the time to mentor/disciple to individuals through love and non-judgement.
Most Christians would rather give some 10% (where is that in Jesus’ words) than take 10% of their work time off to spend time with individuals building relationships and following through with non-judgemental love.