If we’re honest about the homeless situation in our cities, we have to conclude that whatever it is we’re doing, it’s not working. The numbers and creativity of such people are increasing, and if this is okay with you, then change nothing. There is an enormous cost, on both financial and human terms, associated with the current policies. One city estimates it costs $40,000 per person to accommodate the homeless. If you’re grieved by this, then consider the following points.
1) The poor of the Bible, whom we are enjoined to help, are not like the homeless of today. Even the poor of William Booth’s day in England were nothing like the homeless of today. The poor of yesteryear were usually one of three groups:
- a) Widows or orphans in a patriarchal society where men were the sole means of legal and financial support,
- b) the handicapped in an agrarian, working economy, or
- c) those separated from their ancestral lands through error or mismanagement, the land being the only source of income in an agrarian economy.
The poor of earlier times continued to be participants in society, though they were at an economic disadvantage.
2) According to a recent Pope, we are born members of three groups:
- a) a family,
- b) the state, and
- c) the Church.
The homeless of today have renounced membership in all three groups. They are estranged from family, are at enmity with the state, and do not participate in the Church. As such, they are failures in each domain, completely failed lives.
3) The local police Chief in Monument says that 50% of the homeless in Colorado are here to take advantage of potent and legal marijuana. Their abuse of alcohol is legendary. The are plying their trade as panhandlers in order to enjoy their next drug/alcohol episode.
4) The homeless of today are such by choice; they are on permanent vacation. As one man I interviewed in Monument stated, he has no restrictions, no limits, no responsibilities. He portrayed his life as one of complete and absolute freedom. The reason the homeless resist incorporation into family, state and Church is because they don’t want to be members. All attempts to reincorporate them are viewed as impositions and restrictions.
5) When we give the homeless food or shelter, we are simply helping them to perpetuate their vagabond existence. They will pay lip service to our admonitions about God and family, but their hearts are far from any meaningful change. We are interfering with God’s methods of bringing people into their “right minds” ( Luke 15:17). God has designed this world of scarcity (Genesis 3:17,18) to force us to reform our worship, then our thinking, and finally our behavior (Romans 1.) When we short-circuit the process of pain/repentance, we frustrate God and are actually fighting against his will. Let me quote from my book:
Bill Gillham has said:
Biblical counseling seeks to lead the believer to the end of his strength— regardless of how productive (or nonproductive [sic]) such ‘strength’ may have proven to be—and into the certainty of Christ’s strength through him! The Holy Spirit, often through the school of adversity, always works against the believer’s dependency upon the flesh. Ultimately his flesh becomes nonproductive [sic] by Supernatural design at which time many seek counseling. The counselor who uses techniques generated by lost men to help such a believer cut his losses is interrupting God’s process of bringing that Christian to the end of his personal resources. The more ‘skilled’ and ‘effective’ the counselor, the more he sets God back to square one, having to begin the breaking process all over again.206
206 Acknowledged remarks. This quotation was reprinted by Teen Challenge, France. Bill works with Lifetime Guarantee Ministries, Ft. Worth, Texas.
6) Any lasting solution to the homeless problem will involve the State and Christian groups like the Salvation Army. Homeless people need to be arrested and deprived of their power of choice for a period of time, say six months. Charges can be vagrancy, public intoxication, panhandling, theft, misuse of private facilities, whatever. They need to be sentenced to a period of incarceration involving thorough evaluation: physical, mental and spiritual. After detox, they must be forced to do simple things that give order to their day and benefit others. Those who resist should receive treatment as criminals with minimum comforts. Many violate behavioral standards in shelters to continue their lives on the streets. Those who cooperate should be given increasing freedom and responsibility. The camp or jail they occupy should be self supporting in terms of labor and even foodstuffs. Teach gardening, agriculture, animal husbandry, preparing and cooking food. There is a profound beauty and therapy that comes from working with nature. As Paul says, he who does not work does not eat.
7) Upon the completion of their term, customers can elect to stay on in a supervisory capacity if they wish. Graduates should become staff. Some people are not suited to membership in family, state or Church. These people need a home, and it’s not on the streets. They need the structure, rules and pressure such a facility would provide.
8) Mental health is often proffered as a reason the homeless deserve support. The Bible mentions mental health only in terms of what it calls deluded thinking. The process, as laid out in Romans chapter 1, is this: wrong worship leads to wrong, deluded thinking, and wrong thinking leads to wrong behavior. Thus, to the extent that we read about deluded thinking in the Bible, we’re really talking about people who worship amiss. What the Bible does talk about a great deal, is demon possession. The word in Greek translated as “magic arts” in the NIV or “sorceries” in the KJV is pharmakon, the root from which we get pharmaceutical, in other words, drugs. The pattern we see is that wrong worship, namely disobedience to Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, leads to delusions. These delusions are imposed by demonic forces, make of that what you will. This term demon simply means that evil is both intentional and personal. Just as there are angels who minister to God’s servants, there are demons who do the devil’s bidding in our lives. This is where Christians can help secular authorities dealing with the homeless. Only Christians can deal with the deluded and demonized. As Jesus said to his disciples, “This kind comes out only by prayer.” Christian groups have a role to play by being sophisticated about mental health and demonic activity.
Oswald Chambers writes:
One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, “He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t.” You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, “What is that to you?” Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.
