Helping the Homeless - Is it "the Church's" or the Gov't's responsibility?
 

When it comes to the plight of providing food, shelter, and assistance to those in need (such as the homeless or poor/low income families, etc.), is this something that our government should be doing (since our gov't is currently spending BILLIONS of dollars to fight a war oversea's) or is this something that "The Church" should be focusing on more? Who should bear the greatest responsibility?

What do you think?

Why not both?

Sorry to barge in on your thread, but this is something I feel strongly about - I think GW is totally copping out by trying to create exclusively "faith-based" charities. It is the responsibility of the government to protect ALL of its citizens, including the homeless and low-income citizens. I dont understand how Bush thinks its okay to spend billions of dollars on space exploration, but yet he can forsake his own citizens... completely useless.

I think its wonderful when religious organizations work to give back to the community, but the churches should not have to bear the burden of GW getting into the war in Iraq WAY more then he anticipated. Many churches, locally and globally, are struggling just to stay afloat, including my own. It's not the responsibility of the church to bail the government out of it's own debt.

Re: Helping the Homeless - Is it "the Church's" or the Gov't's responsibility?
 

Nice question HK. This isn't exactly an answer to your question but I would like to say that I think that churches should be putting more money back into our communities instead of largely taking money out. Not all churches do this of course. However, there are a plethora of huge, million dollar churches right across the street from the projects and there is even one church in Atlanta where the pastor drives a Bentley!:eek: Why in the world would you see the need to put a million dollars into a beautiful building when you could put a good deal of the money into homeless shelter program owned by the church OR (here's a radical idea) give some of that money to the poor paupers who are sitting in a house in the dark and the cold b/c they are dirt poor but are still trying to help pay for that million dollar church. It happens all the time.

That's ridiculous and the church ought to be doing more for the community that it's located in.

SC

Bc a lot of churches are tax exempt, they may feel like they dont "need" to do so...

ok, end hijack, back to the topic at hand.

You say its the responsibility of the government to protect all of its citizens...what does that have to do with feeding them?? THe government is supposed to feed us too?? What is welfare, food stamps and gubment cheese?? How is Bush forsaking his own citizens?? Dubya is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't...I admire the fact that he sticks to his guns....cause half of his critics would just pick another issue to critiscize..even if he did acquiesce to their demands.....

In an ideal world it would be nice if we could depend on our churches to give back like they should...but some are so concerned with having the biggest and baddest congregation...that they have forgotten about the little stuff like feeding the homeless...prison ministries..nursing home ministries etc..

I don't believe that the constitution numbers the government feeding and clothing the citizens of this country amongst its set of basic rights. We all have the equal right to try to do those things for ourselves.

I don't think that a lot of churches do enough to reach out to/aid their communities. I have seen any number who are more like social clubs than charitable organizations. I suppose that's fine, as the purpose of many churches is really to teach members about their religion, but since the tenets of the Christian faith include that of helping your fellow man, one would assume churches would feel compelled to do more.

Let's not make this a GW issue, it's an issue of big govt in my opinion. I think that encouraging churches to do more community outreach is a WONDERFUL idea, but I would need to see more about how effective their actual program is before making a judgement. Churches aren't taxed, so it's not like a tax reduction is an incentive. The govt gives tax breaks to charitable orgs, they fund a number of programs in different cities, they provide welfare "relief", what more do we really want them to do? saying "they should do something" really isn't helpful, what specific change or progress would people like to see enacted?

Ditto Pirepresent (and welcome) in most respects. I do believe that churches should give as much as they can to their communities and communities that need it. This doesn't exempt the government, however, from finding ways to help its citizens. When I look at how much money is so quickly flowing into the pockets of Dubya's very wealthy friends who are so heavily "invested" in the reconstruction of Iraq, it makes me very uneasy to hear him say that the burden of helping the people in our own country rests on the backs of our churches. Yes, the churches should do more, but his government's priorities (in helping his own friends to mo' gov't money while cutting programs and incentives that will help the poor and working poor in our country) are reprehensible.

I don't agree with LovelyIvy that we can all help ourselves to a piece of the American pie. The system is not supposed to work that way and it doesn't. If there weren't people whose slice was cut and put onto some fat f**ker's wealthy plate, our economy would not work. We do not all have an equal right to a dang thing. Therefore, yes, the poor in this country need HELP - from the gov't and whomever else can do it.

Our country, with its many churches but lack of true spirituality and its high value on avariscious behavior, breeds criminality, mental illness and dysfunction. People end up needing far more help than churches can give.

Additionally, we are giving enough $$$ to the government already. How can we give more to the church when we are already being heavily taxed so that our money can be funnelled into the pockets of Dubya's wealthy friends and the military? There is no reason that the government cannot continue to support its social programs, and re-institute those it has cut in the past 3 years, in America without raising our taxes; it's all a matter of priorities and ethics.

...it's the church's Christ-led mission; it's the government's responsibility.

Neither. They should help themselves.

I spent the summer working with homeless women in Washington, DC, and I think that in any situation you have to find a combination of supports. In the case of the place I worked (N Street Village for those in the area), it was begun by a church in the area and still received much funding from the area's faith community. The whole Village was definately tinged with that spirituality and it brought a lot of hope to the endeavor. But, we would not have been able to provide nearly the amount of programs we did without government funding. I think a balance has to be struck, but government funding is key to helping the homeless.

WHys ome people are homeless
 

There are a lot of people who have nowhere to turn and no options and they end up on the street. However, there are a great number of homeless people who are that way beacuse of drug addiction, mental illness, and other similar circumstances.

These people need to be helped by government agencies and institutions for their specific problems. There are professionals who are best suited to deal with those ailments and I wouldn't mind my tax dollars going toward that cause. I'd prefer that to having some crazy homeless man attacking some church people who were trying to help him.