The Reverend Barry Feaker, (what a name....I almost typed Very Freaker or Harry Shrieker) of the Topeka Rescue Mission, has decided to make residents sign a code of conduct in order to stay there. This involves stuff people can and can't do, even if they are NOT at the shelter at the time they do or don't do these things. Fine and dandy, I guess, but Topeka, Kansas, and the entire United States already has a code of conduct: it's called.....the law! Ok; the homeless staying at the Topeka Rescue Mission can't loiter anywhere. But what, exactly, is loitering? If a homeless person has to get a prescription filled, and waits at the pharmacy, because pharmacists are not always able to pull medicines out of their anal passages at the drop of hat, and are obliged to double-check the medicines they sell, the homeless person from the rescue mission has to wait, just like everyone else has to wait. Does this mean that Christian Pastor Freaker can interpret or misinterpret the waiting done by the homeless person as loitering, if he goes to the pharmacy, himself, and is in a bad mood or does not like the particular person? What about a hug, exchanged off-site, between a brother and a sister? Does this give Harry Shrieker a reason to shriek? And throw someone out on the street? If the good pastor really likes the person, probably not. But the person who does not "fit in", or conform properly, will probably be thrown out at two or three in the morning.
This does not look much like "raising the bar" to me. It looks like encouraging and enacting ugly biases against people who are too desperate to protest or stand up for themselves. It looks like a bunch of Christians, who run the shelter, using opportunities to bully others, in the guise of helping them, in order to bolster their own egos. Not that a homeless shelter isn't needed in Topeka; it, sure enough, is, but why go to such lengths to make others feel "less than"? For Christ's sake, what would Jesus do? If Jesus was real, that is.......
The rescue mission gets away with this because it is not funded by the government, but by private donations and the United Way. This is the reason I never donate anything to the United Way. CJOnline, the local rag that passes for a newspaper, ran an article about this. Here is one of the comments I wrote:
This does not look much like "raising the bar" to me. It looks like encouraging and enacting ugly biases against people who are too desperate to protest or stand up for themselves. It looks like a bunch of Christians, who run the shelter, using opportunities to bully others, in the guise of helping them, in order to bolster their own egos. Not that a homeless shelter isn't needed in Topeka; it, sure enough, is, but why go to such lengths to make others feel "less than"? For Christ's sake, what would Jesus do? If Jesus was real, that is.......
The rescue mission gets away with this because it is not funded by the government, but by private donations and the United Way. This is the reason I never donate anything to the United Way. CJOnline, the local rag that passes for a newspaper, ran an article about this. Here is one of the comments I wrote:
"Homeless people are required to wear shoes and other clothing, and sometimes, shoes must be shopped for an bought new. Also, they occasionally pick up medications at the pharmacy, go to the library, apply for jobs, buy stamps at the post office, and patronize businesses that sell products for people on restricted diets. Unless, of course, the homeless person is required to never visit a business that deals in such products because it is too close to the shelter, and the homeless person might get accused of loitering because he or she is physically present in the wrong place at the wrong time.
While it's nice for everyone to have something productive to do, this whole nation is experiencing some negative changes, and the homeless are usually the most vulnerable to stereotyping and least able to defend themselves from people who would pick on them just for being homeless. I have serious food allergies. I cannot even touch most grains, and that includes wheat. I shudder to think of what would happen to me if I ended up at a shelter for some reason, especially a Christian shelter. Shucks......I had a Christian minister who started a born-again church near my house in Maryland tell me that if "God" wanted me in heaven, I would not have food allergies! People who are incapable of conformity for innocent reasons have much rougher lives than most, and having to stay in a church based shelter would be miserable. Why pick on them and make it harder? This looks very much to me like Christians looking for a way to be mean, and like a cash strapped shelter looking for ways to reduce it's clientele without anyone having to feel "non-compassionate" or "unkind".
That comment was given several "thumbs downs", so I think it is safe to say that at least a few of CJOnline's readers have their heads contorted into certain parts of their anatomies. Today's economy has had quite a few of all different kinds of casualties; many people are homeless. Shame on the staff at the rescue mission for encouraging others to judge people who do not happen to be as lucky as most Americans.