Comment

Comment by fireguy on April 26, 2010 at 9:00pm

Actually homelessness started soon after the New Deal with the introduction of the Nanny State that FDR and his "Progressives" built to enslave the poor and minorities.
All the while making the rich and middle class even more apathetic towards the less fortunate. As the government got more powerful the people quit giving to the churches thinking that their taxes would be helping not hindering the work of caring for the fatherless and the widows. And so it is today, that we can excuse ourselves from any concern about our brothers and sisters and let a man die on the street as we blindly go about our business. We are getting exactly what we deserve.

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Comment by Nikki on April 26, 2010 at 5:42pm

Homelessness serves a purpose. It conditions us to be not only apathetic but to accept the idea that certain people are expendable - training for the future they have in mind for us. Homelessness became a problem during the Reagan year and now we have tent cities across the country.

Comment by fireguy on April 26, 2010 at 2:41pm

I get it Nikki. People want to justify their apathy just as they always have.

Luke 10:25-37

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[c]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[d]"

28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Comment by Nikki on April 26, 2010 at 2:31pm

There has always been a large presence of homeless and mentally ill in New York. While other cities are able to confine them to specific areas (instead of actually solving the problem), they are everywhere in NY. They fall asleep or pass out in doorways and on the sidewalk so this is a common, everyday occurrence. And people are afraid to approach them because they often do become violent. What usually happens is that hours later people return and see the person in the same spot and only then do they get concerned enough to call the police. And I do think if the blood from the wound had been visible that one of these passerby's would have called for help. In NY and other large cities, people tend to blame the homeless for refusing to seek help for their drug abuse, alcoholism or mental problems. Is this perhaps why they are not more concerned with the new homeless tent cities across the country? Have they become so conditioned to ignoring the homeless that they fail to see that the 'new homeless' are not drug users or alcoholics but victims of our economic times - families who have lost their jobs and homes?