But the way we really feel about the poor and disadvantaged reveals itself (most inconveniently), when we encounter them in person.  We shy away from the homeless person who comes up and asks for money, avoiding their eyes and getting past them as quickly as possible.

    This truth was brought home to me in a very forceful way this past week, when Charles City - the county I live in - kicked out a ministry to the homeless.  

 

    “Vibrant Life Ministries” is a Christian organization which takes in homeless men or women, screens them carefully  (not those who are currently addicted to narcotics or sexual predators), and teaches them the Gospel while preparing them to go back into the workplace so that they can reestablish themselves in society.   This sounds like a great ministry, right?  But last Tuesday, July 24th, the county sent them packing.

 

    Word had gotten around that this ministry had taken over a camp (long unused), and had taken in 10 homeless men, who were being taught the Scriptures and who were fixing up the camp.   When the director of the camp decided to ask for a zoning change so that the camp could expand, the county residents responded by starting a petition to deny zoning.  A special meeting was called by the Board of Supervisors and the County Planning Commission, to resolve the issue.   Our church wrote a letter and sent several of the leaders of our church to speak on behalf of the camp.  

 

    The meeting was packed.  Except for the three men from out church, the people from the camp and one man on the Planning Commission, everyone in the room was against the ministry.   One of the men later described the crowd to me as angry and muttering.  

    Initially a lawyer who lives here in the county got up to talk about zoning in the county.  What no one, or very few, realized was that the Lawyer (a liberal democrat) in vague, legal terms was rigging the whole discussion by calling for the passage of a resolution that would make the camp illegal.  The resolution passed, and suddenly, those who had been waiting to speak on behalf of the camp were told that there could no longer be any discussion on the issue because the camp was illegal.  

    A friend who sent us an account of the meeting described the meeting to us...

 

    “The whole thing was rigged by the council so nobody got a chance to speak (except a local lawyer, and when she was finished one person commented to his friend, "White Power!").  Vibrant Life Ministries was sent packing--the only one on the council who voted for it was Ed Baber, and while he was speaking someone said to his friend, "Hey, do you have your uzi with you?"  

 

    The real issue was one of money, property values to be exact.   Across the street from the camp is river front property and no one wanted their property values to go down.  

 

    Christ came as a homeless person.  The Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head - became poor so that by his poverty we might become rich.   And I know many of the people who were at the meeting are Churchgoing people.   So what does that mean?   Christ was rejected, sent packing by those who profess to have no permanent home in this world, so that property values could be maintained and the possibility of wealth protected.