Insulting the Creator

The oppressor of the poor insults the Creator,
but he who is kind to the needy honors him.

-- Proverbs 14:31 

Between the two testaments of Jewish and Christian faith, there are about 2000 verses like the one above from Proverbs. Moses described God's heart for the poor and the expectation for people of faith to help. The prophets called neglect of the needy the sins of Sodom and her sister cities. Jesus said he would judge your faith by what you do for those in need. So it stands to reason that we who profess faith damn well better honor God by serving the most vulnerable.

If all that is true and we genuinely believe it as followers of Christ, then why all the verbal attacks on the poor by our political leaders? The poor have been painted as undeserving of help, particularly any assistance derived from taxes. Some cities have gone so far as to criminalize homelessness, even making it illegal for charitable organizations to feed them on public property. Violent crimes against the homeless are also far too common.

The perpetrators are often young, ignorant and shockingly callous. In this year’s report, half of those committing these crimes were under the age of 20. The victims are predominately older, 72% 40 years of age or older.  

At its root, this violence is prompted by a profound lack of empathy for fellow human beings – the same moral failure that allows our society to tolerate the larger tragedy of homelessness. We could not ignore our own brother or sister so carelessly, or grandparent or dear friend living on the streets,yet we pass by all of those individuals when we ignore the humanity of people who are homeless. Their plight is just as desperate as ours would be in that same situation. They are just as legitimately in need of help as anyone we know who might find themselves in such circumstances. 

It is this false anonymity of homelessness that creates the conditions for violence against homeless people. The absence of empathy is a dangerous thing in any society, with repugnant and horrifying consequences as described in this report.

-- Jerry Jones, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless

Violent crimes against the homeless seem to be more common in states like Florida which have many local ordinances criminalizing homelessness. It seems like young people of impressionable age have taken the rhetoric and laws as permission to commit random acts of senseless violence.

For a society supposedly founded on Christian principles and values, we seem to suck at following scriptural guidance to love the poor. You would think that biblical inerrancy crowd would be all over this like white on rice. Mention sexuality and they are full of long-winded opinions using a hand full of verses. Many even take to the street over homosexuality, contraception, and abortion. Given the breadth of verses related to God's expectation for how we are treat the least fortunate and most vulnerable among us, I would expect these same folks to be outraged by the treatment of the poor in our society. Vein-popping, red-faced indignation.  If such an outpouring occurred, I must have missed it and web search engines cannot find it.