6 Reasons ALL Activists Should be Talking about Homelessness

I have a number of friends who are activists for various causes.  And I love the causes.  We are in a water crisis when corporations sell water back to those in drought.  Black men are being attacked by U.S. society.  Indigenous peoples have always been oppressed and attacked.  We live in an age of information and openness, and the realities of racism and sexism in our society are finally being revealed and we are speaking out and taking action.

My plea today, however, that no matter how serious and important your key issues are, you should also be talking about homelessness, and standing with the homeless community.  Again, I’m not saying your issue isn’t essential.  It’s just that the homeless are the focus of abuse of today’s American society.

I’m going to keep this short, so let me just give you a few statistics.

1.       The homeless are seen as worse than any other social group

Sociologists have studied the reaction of different social groups to American minds, using an MRI.  They have determined that we have a “disgust” response in our brain to certain social groups, including welfare moms, undocumented immigrants and Arabs.  But the social group with the strongest and most pervasive negative automatic response is the homeless.   Dr. Susan Fiske says that the homeless are considered “inhuman garbage piles”. 

The homeless are constantly feared, distrusted and the cause of anger of the far majority of housed people. Cities criminalize the very existence of the homeless, disallowing them to sleep, receive food or finances, and they arrest them for having bedding.  This is due to the overwhelming response of the housed who, without cause, blame the homeless for the ills of their society.

2.       The homeless are life-threatened than any other group

The average life span of an American is almost 79 years old.  The average lifespan of a homeless American is 48 years old, 36 percent lower than other citizens.  This is a result of stress and trauma, more than anything else.  90 percent of all homeless men suffer from PTSD or other stress disorder.  100 percent of all homeless women suffer from PTSD.

Although most people consider this the fault of the homeless, it is not.  Most of the homeless find themselves on the street through no fault of their own, due to job loss or no cause eviction.  They are thrust into an impossible economic predicament and then treated like criminals, and due to the stress and poor health conditions, they die young.

3.       The homeless are severely attacked

About 64 percent of all women are assaulted in their lifetime.  About 92 percent of all homeless women are assaulted. All kinds of homeless suffer attacks, and the number of attacks have risen 23 percent in the last few years. 

Although the actual numbers seem small, this is because very few attacks on the homeless are reported, because there is such a distrust between the homeless and the police.  If they report a crime, they believe that they will be accused of something.

4.       The homeless can’t hide

The majority of citizens can feel a certain amount of security from the oppression of society if they go into their home and lock the door.  The homeless don’t have that luxury.  Even those who live in cars or tents are just as vulnerable their shelter as they are outside of it.  They are sometimes dragged out of their shelter, only to have it taken from them, because their shelter is not seen to be their possession or to be under the protection of the fifth amendment.

5.       Truth brings freedom

We can change this, if we all work on it together.  The primary source of the suffering of the homeless is the false idea that all the homeless are criminals or immoral.  There are two ways that effectively change this point of view.  The first is spending time working on a project with the homeless, for then the homeless are seen as equals.  The other is if a loud minority continue to speak of the humanity of the homeless.  Not just their pitiable state (like I did here), but about their common humanity with us, the shared citizenship, the joy of life, their hope for the future.

6. Every Tragedy is Made Worse by Homelessness
Black men live in oppression.  That oppression is made worse by homelessness.  Women's rights should be upheld-- but women on the streets have no rights even to survive.  LGBT rights are worse when they have no home to protect them.  Sex slaves are more frequently raped and suffer when they have no safe home to go to. Poor children find it more difficult to make it to school when they are homeless.   For every cause, homelessness is the worse tragedy behind every cause. 

Please, alongside your important issues, please speak about the homeless.  You can help give them the humanity they lack. 

Creating Justice

I just read an interesting discussion between Mark Dever and Jim Wallis about their differing views on justice. You can read it, here: Leadership Interview About Justice

Their perspectives are interesting. Dever, a pastor of an important congregation in D.C. says that though his faith isn't private, yet it doesn't extend to creating justice in society at large. Our responsibility, he says, is to be just in the church. Wallis, long time leader of Sojourners, disagrees. His whole life has been a reflection of Martin Luther King Jr.'s form of spirituality, which is to create justice in the church and society simultaneously by changing the whole political outlook on what justice is.

I would take a third way. I think that we should begin, as Dever says, with creating justice in the church. I don't think that the church can tell society not to be racist as long as we are not firmly confronting the racists in our own church. We cannot tell society to accept the homeless and the mentally ill as long as they are marginalized in our group.

But in confronting racism among our own, and in accepting the outcast, we will find ourselves acting. Creating justice is not a matter of speeches or opinions, but a matter of action. This is what Scripture teaches-- that justice is feeding, welcoming, healing and empowering, not just having the right ethical position. As we work for justice, we will find that justice is not found in individual action, but in community. Thus, to create justice, we will have to create just communities that include the outcast. And it is in this arena that we will find ourselves intersecting with politics.

The governmental arena and the religious arena are not and cannot be completely divided. The interests of government and religion intersect in the area of poverty and how to approach it. And, of course, the government is full of religious people whose religion informs them, although doesn't decide for them, in areas of ethics and justice. And democratic government is made up of communities. Thus, as the church creates communities of justice, they will have to interact with the government, if only to survive.

Who Is The Alien?

I had a surreal experience yesterday. I watched District 9.

Well, watching a movie, no matter how insane, is almost never a surreal experience (Eraserhead is an exception, but I don’t necessarily recommend that to anyone, either). District 9 is a good film, using aliens who have faced a disaster who are then moved into refugee camps by people of Johannesburg, South Africa, as a way of speaking of humans inhumanity to other humans, although of different kinds. It is science fiction social commentary at its best—working at the level of a compelling story and a coherent commentary on the myopic nature of our culture.

Just before I plugged the movie in, I received the latest news in a terribly tragic story of one of the homeless community in Gresham. Mike Bighaus is a man who has been schizophrenic for years, with little or no help. Without any housing or nurses, he would go into a clinic to get his medication only as he was mentally stable enough to go through the extra effort. He knew he needed his medication. He would see things no one else could see, and sometimes had self-aggrandizing visions. He would occasionally be so irrational as to be threatening, but the homeless community knew how to deal with him, and there were few problems.

Over this last holiday season, he had failed to get his latest medication before the clinics closed for Christmas, but he already had plans to stay at his parents’ house over the holidays, so he figured all would be well. His mother was a caring nurse practitioner, and his father was retired. They would care for him.

Christmas night, he took the rifle he parents kept in their home and shot his mother to death. The police were called immediately but Mike had wandered about the Oregon community with the rifle. They blocked roads, sent out alerts, sent police cars all over the community. Many hours later Mike comes walking back home with the rifle as if nothing had happened. The police surrounded him and Mike surrendered the rifle with no resistance. He was immediately arrested.

He had his first hearing, where he was strapped down, both head and body, and his mouth gagged. He muttered throughout the arraignment, possibly not even knowing what was going on. In his second arraignment, where he was indicted for murder, he was not even present, being in the hospital for a leg infection.

Last night, I found out that the infection was one of the antibiotic resistant infections. So they amputated his leg, without consulting family. His other leg also has an infection and so they are looking to amputate this leg as well.

This was all running through my mind as I watched District 9, and I thought of the mentally ill. The mentally ill are often placed in homes or camps, apart from the rest of humanity. There are ways to solve some of their issues—granting housing where helpful medication can be offered, or providing employment that would work around their mental weaknesses—but few seem to be thinking of how the mentally ill can actually be helped as individuals. They are seen as a pathetic, stupid, dangerous group. They are rarely dangerous, and in fact, they rarely use the capacity for violence they have—they are statistically less likely to use violence than “normal” groups. But because they need some extra attention and thought, they are rather just ignored, cast aside. Eventually policies will be made against them “for their own good”, which is really for the comfort of society. If this means more end up in prison, or locked up in mental health facilities, even though preventative care could mean a semi-productive life, then so be it.

The mentally ill truly are the aliens in society. And yet the difference is, they didn’t come from a spaceship, hovering over our homes, but they are part of our own families, we grew up with them. But when they become homeless, although they’ve lived in our communities all of our lives, they become “transients.” When they are seen at soup kitchens, they become “bums” although they’ve done all they can do to survive. Even though legal medications didn’t help their ailments, or they couldn’t afford them, when they use illegal drugs to help them feel better they are “addicts.” And when they are unable to fill out the complicated paperwork for assistance from the government because of their social weaknesses or depression, it is considered that they didn’t “ask for help.”

Of course I have no sympathy for Mike being arrested. He is clearly dangerous and needs to be restrained. What I am saying is that this tragedy could have been averted, if Mike had been cared for by more than just his family. He needed a community with resources to get behind him, giving him the medications on a regular basis that he did not resist taking, and his mother could be alive today. He wouldn’t be in prison. He wouldn’t have his leg amputated because care would have been given ahead of time. Or, if he hadn’t been in jail at the time of this severe infection, they might have tried alternative treatments—of which there are many—instead of jumping to amputation.

Mike has been dehumanized. And it could be said that he deserves it because he shot his mother, and I could understand that perspective. But he was dehumanized long before this crime, when he had to live with his severe mental illness, with little or no help. When he needed assistance, he was blamed for that which he could not control.

And I think the best lesson I learned in watching District 9 at the same time of hearing of Mike’s amputation is that dehumanization of the poor and needy do not dehumanize the one being treated poorly. It ultimately makes the authorities less than human. In District 9, it is clear that it was not the aliens that were unhuman—they had very human responses to their situation. Rather it is the police, the system, the family that judges that becomes less than human.

In the case of Mike Bighaus, who is less than human? Mike, who has been struggling with his illness and left to his own devises? Or the system who ignored Mike until he had become so ill that he killed his mother? The system that takes away his legs without searching for other treatments? The system who treats Mike as little more than an animal?

I have great sympathy for Mike’s family. They didn’t know what to do with Mike and then they face this tragedy. It was Mike’s cousin, who sent me a message about his amputated leg, horrified at the treatment Mike has been given.

I also pray for this system that treats the poor like semi-human. May God teach the “justice” system how to be fully human.

Widows and Orphans

"You shall not wrong an immigrant or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
"You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
"If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets, for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious.”
Exodus 22:21-27

The widows and orphans are those who have no ability to bring their matter to court because they had no social or legal standing, just as a felon or the very poor do not in our society, because they cannot sue.

To do justice to the widow and orphan is, today, providing justice for those who obtain no justice in the "justice" system. For those who do not receive justice, the final appeal is to God Himself.

Bible Basics on Social Justice

For those who are interested in developing a biblical theology of the poor, here's a good place to start: Look up all these passages!

Basic justice:
Exodus 23:2-3
Leviticus 14:21
Leviticus 19:15
Leviticus 25
Deuteronomy 24:14-15
II Samuel 12:1-6
Psalm 72:12-14
Isaiah 11:1-8

God’s provision to the poor:
Exodus 15:23-16:36
Psalm 145:15-16
Psalm 146
Matthew 6:25-34
Luke 18:2-8

The Plight of the Needy
Proverbs 13:23
Proverbs 14:20
Proverbs 18:23
Proverbs 19:4, 7
Proverbs 22:7
Proverbs 28:15
Proverbs 30:7-9
Ecclesiastes 5:8
Ecclesiastes 9:15-16

Acting with Generosity to the poor:
Genesis 18
Deuteronomy 15
Psalm 41:1-3
Proverbs 14:21, 31
Proverbs 19:17
Proverbs 22:9
Proverbs 28:27
Proverbs 29:7
Daniel 4:27
Isaiah 58:1-12
Matthew 6:19-34
Matthew 25:31-46
Mark 14:3-9
Luke 12:33-34
Luke 14:12-14
Luke 16:1-13
Luke 19:8-9
Acts 2:43-45
Acts 4:32-37
I Corinthians 13:3
II Corinthians 8:1-9:15
Galatians 2:10
I Timothy 6:17-19
Hebrews 13:1-3
James 1:27-2:13

Respect to the poor
Genesis 18:1-
Proverbs 17:5
James 2:1-12

God’s deliverance of the oppressed:
Genesis 19 and Ezekiel 16:49
Exodus 2:23-25
Exodus 5-15
Exodus 22:21-27
Psalm 22
Psalm 34:6
Psalm 37
Psalm 73
Psalm 82
Psalm 107
Psalm 146
Proverbs 21:13
Proverbs 22:16, 22-23
Isaiah 10:1-4
Isaiah 40
Isaiah 52-53
Jeremiah 5:26-29
Ezekiel 22:29-31
Amos 5:11-12
Zechariah 7:9-14
Matthew 6:2-4
Matthew 11:1-5
Mark 3:1ff
Mark 10:46-52
Luke 4:18-21
Luke 6:24-26
Luke 16
Luke 18:2-8
Romans 12:14-21
James 1:9-11
James 5:1-5
Revelation 6:9-11
Revelation 18:1-24

Warning against stinginess/greed:
Deuteronomy 15
Deuteronomy 24:14-15
Matthew 25:41-46
Mark 10:17-30
Luke 12:15-21
Luke 16:19-31
Acts 5:1-11
I Timothy 6:9-11
Revelation 3:14-22

God’s call to the outcast and lowly:
Genesis 50:15-21
Proverbs 19:1
Proverbs 19:22
Proverbs 20:13
Proverbs 21:17
Proverbs 28:3
Proverbs 28:6
Ecclesiastes 4:13
Isaiah 40
Matthew 5:3-12
Matthew 10:7-8
Matthew 21:28-32
Mark 2:13-17
Mark 4:17
Mark 12:42-44
Luke 4: 18-19 (Isaiah 61:1-4)
Luke 14:16-24
Luke 15:1-7
Luke 18:9-14
Luke 19:1-10

Calling to be poor:
Genesis 12:1-9
Genesis 22
Judges 7
Matt 6:19-34/Luke 12:22-34
Matthew 10:5-42/Luke 9
Luke 6:20-24
Luke 14:26-33

The Exaltation of the Outcast/needy:
I Samuel 2:6-8
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 113:5-8
Luke 1:46-55
Luke 14:8-11
Philippians 2:1-11
James 1:9-11

Meditations on Righteous Indegnation

When working with the homeless it is easy to be angry. It is easy to look at those who have and say, "Why are you so selfish!" It is easy to look at the poor who take advantage of each other and to yell at them for the fact that they are dragging their own brother down. It is easy to be angry at oneself for not doing enough. There is so much stress and sorrow all around, it is easy to despair, to give up, to give in to the cultural pressures of greed and an easy life.

This is why I found this meditation by Richard Dahlstrom so helpful:
http://burnsidewriterscollective.blogspot.com/2009/03/meditation-fyodor-speaks.html

He reflects on one of my favorite books, The Brother's Karamozov, and my very favorite character, Father Z. But he pulls something out of the book I had never considered myself.

Also, in this theme, we should always remember Psalm 73. See my commentary on this here:
http://livingpsalms.blogspot.com/2008/03/anatomy-of-doubt-psalm-73.html

Meditation: Fyodor speaks...

Watch a little 60 minutes, or read a little news these days and there's a good chance you'll become angry at someone, or some political party, or some bank CEO, or maybe someone named Bernie. The anger and fear that are coursing through our culture right now are dangerous at many levels. Give in to these fleeting emotions (and it is remarkably easy to do so these days), and they become the soil for bitterness, greed, and isolation. These emotions, and the actions that stem from them, end up spilling into the world with the result that we become part of the problem rather than part of the solution, losing our saltiness; hiding our lights.

That's why the words of Father Zossima from The Brothers Karamazov, are so timely. I offer them, italicized, with my own prayers after each word.

If the evil doings of men move you to indignation and overwhelming disrress, even to a desire for vengeance on the evildoers, shun above all things that feeling.

Grant, O Lord, that I might see with Your eyes when my heart is moving toward the dark spaces of bitterness, anger, and judgment. And seeing these things that are destructive, bring conviction, that I might be quick to turn away.

Fear not the great nor the mighty, but be wise and serene.

It's easy, O Lord, to feel as if we're victims, tossed about by the whims of those in power. Thank you for the truth that we are, in spite of the stormy seas and whims of men, safest when we are in your arms. May we learn to dwell there with ever increasing steadfastness, and in so dwelling, know your peace and rest.

Love all men. Love everything. Water the earth with the tears of your joy and love those tears.

Yes Lord. Zossima was right. Open my eyes to see your glory, resplendent as always, even in these trying times. The new blossoms arise from the earth, testimony of your sustenance and hints of greater beauty yet to come. The cat is at rest, oblivious to the strivings of humanity. The days grow longer. The sunlight and shadows on the firs testify that you continue to uphold the earth, that beauty still exists, that provision still comes from you, that all shall be well. Give me eyes to see what is so easily seen when I but look - the beauty of the earth. Thank you for tears of joy that come when your beauty, seen in your creation, pierces my heart. Amen

It's all a matter, it seems, of where we choose to fix our gaze. Ah yes, it's wise to read the news, prudent to take action. But we would do well to see the light and shadows, the cat, the blossom, the hints of life bursting forth, for these are the shoutings of our good God intended to bless and fortify our souls.