I live in the South. More specifically, I live in Newnan, Georgia. Like many Southern Towns, it was built so that it’s downtown business district had many churches. I once heard and have believed that the quaint idea is that we want business dealings to be infused with proper Christian morality. Thinking about this, and how a church is supposed to be the center of a town’s morality, and how everywhere I look I see another church- I am left wondering- why is there so many hungry, lost, and homeless people in my community and in other communities in this “great nation?”
If each of the nation's 384,000 churches would each adopt one homeless family-house, treat for addiction, feed, train for job, help them get job- then our homeless problem could be solved without spending one tax dollar. What strikes me is that this is exactly the Republican Philosophy. Well, at least it is the Libertarian Philosophy from which Modern Economic Conservatism has borrowed so much. Conservative Ideology states that we do not need the Government to be involved in providing a Social Safety Net because private charities can do a much better job. However, if this were true, how is it possible that here, in this deeply Christian, Conservative Bible Belt town, there are more churches that there are homeless people? Why, when the temperature drops, are there people without a warm place to sleep?
I’m not saying government has all the answers when it comes to providing a Safety Net. I am simply asking why am I surrounded by churches and people who believe that The Church, not Government, should be taking care of our most vulnerable (many of whom are veterans), and yet so many people- our brothers and sisters- are not being taken care of?
In a land of 384,000 churches, every person should have a place to stay when it is cold.