When God became human, he joined the homeless population and had nowhere to lay his head. He said:
“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Mt 25:31–46)
And he climaxed this act of total self-emptying by “taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Php 2:7–8). As Paul puts it elsewhere in word too profound to plumb, God “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Co 5:21). In a world where the powerful scapegoat the weak in order to maintain and increase their own power, he who was most powerful of all chose to become the scapegoat in order to identify with all scapegoats everywhere and to save even the scapegoaters, if they are willing to repent and accept his mercy. That is what “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do” is all about.
Now compare and contrast that act of humility and love with this monstrous cruelty from one of the leaders of the MAGA antichrist cult:
It is absolutely characteristic of this evil cult that it targets the weakest and most defenseless people in the world, declares them the problem, and sics its depraved pack of beta wolves on them, so that they can feel powerful as they kick the miserable while they are down. The level of prideful delusion necessary to confuse that with Righteousness is the same necessary to crucify the Son of God–which is exactly the point of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
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We need a real solution. San Francisco is a disaster. There are thousands of acres of rural land outside of big cities. Give them little homes and plumbing and medicine. Give them nature and gardens and doctors that specialize in addiction. Give the mentally ill something better than sidewalks and tents. Employ them once they are well enough to hold down a job in the very towns where they are given some hope for the future.
Nothing is working, and huge amounts of money haven’t even put a dent in the sheer amount of tent cities. It’s getting worse.
Children wouldn’t do all kinds of things if we didn’t make them behave responsibly (eat the right foods, take immunizations, brush their teeth, poop in toilets, get up in the morning, go to school, take a shower, comb their hair…). It is love which makes us force them to do what they don’t want. Freedom for some shouldn’t make other people afraid to leave their homes in the evening, or stroll their baby around a corner.
Jesus wasn’t a permissive hippy.
Jesus, like the prophets before him, laid the care of the poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger, in the hands of the rich and mighty of the land as a test of their skills as and dedication to being shepherds.
The consistent instruction was to bring the needy close, to share their lot in life, to admit that having some who have much is the cause of others’ having little.
Neither Jesus nor the prophets suggested the solution was to separate the “undeserving” poor from the protection or resources of the city so they would be out of sight and thus out of mind. Poverty is neither a disease to be quarantined nor a crime to be punished.