Apologetics

The Church and The State

by Jeff Drinnan
08/10/23
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The conflict founder of the Biblical Counseling movement Jay E Adams brought up between the worldly psyche industry and church has been silently raging in Bucks County, PA. Mental health hustlers had been aggressively trying to recruit homeless people into their programs. This, however, has abated somewhat in the past couple years.

A few years back, I emailed a county commissioner and presented the idea that the homeless homestead a parcel of land on vacant property and manage it. The reply: "With regard to your specific suggestion on county land. That will not happen because their is too much liability. I also do not think that is helpful to the homeless.

It just creates more space for them to avoid going to Housing Link and getting the referral they need to start getting sober/clean, on medication, in therapy, signed up for assistance or some kind of work, and a solid roof over their head."

I agree that the homeless need to work, which some do, get sober/clean and a roof over the head, but it's counterproductive to use a cookie cutter approach and assume what the homeless need just because they are homeless.

An illustration of the battle between church and state is the visit to a homeless camp in January 2013 by Penndel Mental Health Center and the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission. Penndel Mental Health Center uses legal dope and psychobabble. The Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission gets to know people individually and offers help for spiritual needs as well as physical needs through faith in Christ. On its website, it relates how someone who the mission helped became an Intern Chaplain and helped others.

I like the Salvation Army's practice to give needy people a hand up and prepare them to get out of homelessness by helping them get a job. It's the old story of giving a man a fishing pole and teaching him how to fish rather than keep bringing him fish.
One homeless guy I knew a few years back said he didn't want to be be made too comfortable in his situation so he'd have an incentive to get out of homelessness. He did.

Excessively giving the homeless handouts - more than they really need to survive - is counterproductive. This is analogous to feeding geese, Scientists have found that when geese gobble up bread people feed them they get too fat and can't fly south for the winter. Ecological problems are created as a result of this welfare for wildlife.

People have to be changed from the inside. And laws made for everyone have to be applied to the homeless, such as drug use and trashing out public property. In areas such as San Francisco, where laws are not enforced, there is more homelessness and the homeless become a public nuisance.

Awhile back, before a homeless area was cleared out by local authorities, a guy who brought food for the homeless gave them advice. He told them not to trash the place out, not be loud and not get in fights. Before that, a homeless guy, an unofficial liason for the homeless and local authorities, urged the homeless to act civilly and not do drugs or get drunk or engage in fights. All this added up to the authorities going after the homeless.

The shared meals for the homeless and needy are just that and not for the homeless and greedy. And the behavior of guests reflects on the homeless for good or bad, so they need to act civilly and repectfully. Just because you're poor doesn't mean you have to act up!
"Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy." Proverbs 27:6