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Olde Tyme Religion
Authorities in California ask church to stop feeding the homeless
2017-11-10
[CBS] MALIBU, Calif. -- A Malibu church that has helped the homeless for years has been asked to stop feeding people who are down on their luck.
Sends the wrong message in the run-up to the holidays ?
CBS Los Angeles spoke to the people at the United Methodist Church about the request.

Workers at the church say they are able to serve as many as 100 people. They've been serving meals on Wednesdays since 2014.

But now, the food service will come to an end after Thanksgiving at the city's request.

"It's a safe place," said Michah Johnson, who is homeless. "And everyone is welcome. And the food is really good. It's home-cooked. And there's TLC involved."

"The church is very helpful," he added. "They keep my spirits up. They keep me accountable. When you're homeless, it's very easy to slip off and become jaded."
Religion is the opiate of the masses. Your 'help' should come from the central government.
The church says the city sent an email asking members to attend a meeting on Monday, where they were asked to stop feeding the homeless.

"Very succinctly," said Dawn Randall, who works with the United Methodist Church. "They claimed we are performing the work of government at no cost increasing homelessness."

"I think many of them eat out of dumpsters and trash cans when they aren't eating with us," said Kay Gabbard, who also works with the United Methodist Church. "We can't pretend like (homelessness) doesn't exist in our backyard. We can't pretend that it only exists outside Malibu."

CBS Los Angeles reached out to Malibu's mayor for a comment. They have yet to hear back.
Posted by:Besoeker

#21  Could be, though the numbers comport well with what I eyeball around the Capitol Square. Not a lot of youngsters
Posted by: james   2017-11-10 23:04  

#20  James, your number are old because there is a large number of millennial that have chosen a migrant/gypsy/homeless lifestyle. I don't know the percentages but it's greater than 10%.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2017-11-10 22:48  

#19  Numbers I read suggested that 50% of homeless men had mental issues and 50% addiction issues--making 90%, with 10% being down on their luck but otherwise OK. (Overlap)
Dunno. The folks around where I work include a lot who--well, you can tell why their families don't want them around.

What the church is doing, and what a number of other programs for the homeless do, is concentrating them in one place. That's efficient for distribution of services, and a nightmare for providing a good environment. Setting aside the impact on the rest of the community, which isn't negligible(*), think about the feedback a quasi-stable guy gets from being around 20-100 other not-so-stable men. If you have a critical mass of the weird and aggressive, everybody's going to have to take on some of that in self-defense. Large groups of homeless are going to make each other worse.

(*) Madison bought a building to be remodeled as a homeless shelter. About 2 doors down is a day care. No doubt there are a few guys who would benefit from being near normal kids and parents, but if I ran the day care I'd put up razor wire around the place.
Posted by: james   2017-11-10 19:32  

#18  
Posted by: Menhadden Shaling4686   2017-11-10 16:40  

#17  Yep. Thats what the rich man thought of the beggar, too.
Posted by: Threatch Jeamp8135   2017-11-10 15:36  

#16  Would he feed them, exorcise their demons or chase them away with a whip?

Maybe He would separate them into three or more groups. Then He might feed some, exorcise the demons from some and chase the rest of them out of town with a whip. Jesus would know which ones deserve which treatment. I sure don't. I just want them outta here.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2017-11-10 13:20  

#15  If your people of faith are just putting food on the plate and saying see you next week they are not exercising their faith. With the plate of food there must be spiritual food provided at the same time to the recipient.

Many of the people are mentally ill and wouldn't survive outside of a big city where only even one in a hundred may care, but that one gets a homeless person a small amount of food to get through the day.

Others who get spiritual food do find thier way out. Socialism starves people to death both physically and spiritually.

When a nation ceases feeding its poor, God ceases feeding that nation.
Posted by: Threatch Jeamp8135   2017-11-10 12:26  

#14  A large portion of the homeless are those who previously would have been housed in insane asylums. Get them safely housed, fed, and properly medicated, and taking care of those who are homeless because of a concantenation of events much easier.
Posted by: trailing wife   2017-11-10 12:15  

#13  The homeless issue belongs to all of us. I want to help but not in my neighborhood is a tough one. There are truly very few homeless that choose to live the "Hobo" life. The homeless are a dumping ground for the mentally ill that are not sick enough or have the ability to seek care, they are the addicted who have completely fallen off track, and people that have truly landed in a bad position in life. Pushing them into other communities by not helping is not the answer, and it is completely understandable that the city wants them gone, they don't vote. The issue is certainly a complex one and no one want it in their neighborhood. Just be sure when you walk past them, hear people tell them to get a job, and listen to folks complain to be thankful for the good fortune bestowed on you. We are all one or two events in life from living on the streets.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2017-11-10 12:12  

#12  These privileged arseholes.

Posted by: Dron   2017-11-10 12:06  

#11  Understand, Abu. Plenty of 'Street Homeless' in the upper Midwest cities and larger towns for sure, and there are massive safety/hygiene problems as you describe. The abundance of 'outreach' charities in some areas does seem to attract more of the 'Hobo Lifestyle' types.

Not all homeless folks are the 'perpetually unwashed', though. Many individuals (including teens) and families have had something happen to their lives that forced homelessness and are actually in the process of getting their lives back together. Usually it involves the abstention and recovery from drug/alcohol use.

Too much 'help' can and does stagnate that process for many (see Portland, Or. for example), but a similar number use that to actually step up and return to a positive community-contributing existence.

I still believe the city stopping a once per week meal is a bit callous, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2017-11-10 11:42  

#10  No doubt Malibu authorities influenced the state to apply the pressure as Malibu don't want the riff-raff.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2017-11-10 11:36  

#9  You all seem to think this is a no brainer but I think you've never lived in a community that's been overrun with the homeless.

No, you are entirely correct. I never have and don't plan on it either.
Posted by: Besoeker   2017-11-10 11:26  

#8  You all seem to think this is a no brainer but I think you've never lived in a community that's been overrun with the homeless. Wait until you start getting cases of hepatitis a in your town. See how tolerant you are when you have to step over piles of human feces on downtown sidewalks. We have business people who find the bums sleeping in their shop doorways, peeing on the sidewalk outside the shop. What's gonna happen to that business if people have to step over the bums to get to the door? You feed them and they hang around expecting more. You enable them to continue the way they do without trying to change. They pitch their tents all over the place and leave piles of trash and human waste wherever they go because they've gotten the idea that it's OK.

I've read the Bible but I honestly don't know what Jesus would do if he saw the rot these people cause in communities. Would he feed them, exorcise their demons or chase them away with a whip? If we knew how to exorcise their demons we would but we don't know how.

I consider myself a Christian. I understand that Christians feel called to help the downtrodden. I have participated in my church's food drives for the homeless. But the whole time I did I was conflicted. It's not that simple. Somewhere along the line each one of these homeless people made not one but a whole series of bad decisions and now the rest of us are paying for it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2017-11-10 11:07  

#7  Where's the graft in that?
Posted by: AlanC   2017-11-10 10:30  

#6  Doing the job the government didn't do, till the Lefties decided that government was their 'charity' of choice.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2017-11-10 09:10  

#5  They are making the state look bad.
Posted by: DarthVader   2017-11-10 08:52  

#4  "Yes it's a great outreach service for those less fortunate than we are, but we just don't like seeing poor folks around here. It sends the wrong impression for those looking to invest in our smug hoity-toity community."
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2017-11-10 08:44  

#3  So people are going to leave their domaciles just so they can get one free meal a week? The stupid, it burns.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2017-11-10 07:55  

#2  Nothing but the State, eh?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-11-10 07:47  

#1  Methodism causes homelessness and hunger? Who knew ?

Posted by: Besoeker   2017-11-10 07:10  

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