BBC NEWS | Vegas puts lid on soup kitchens:
Soup kitchens serving the homeless have been banned in the US city of Las Vegas with fines coming into force for anyone caught giving hand-outs in its parks.Council officials decided to curb the charity practice, with possible fines of $1,000 and six months imprisonment, after complaints from residents.
Well, it’ll make it easy to know how many Christians there are in Vegas. Just check the arrest records.
(Oh, all right: Good Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, and Atheists will also be arrested. Christians don’t have a monopoly on the obligation to feed the hungry. But, in theory, Christians are the greatest part of Las Vegas’s population, so when the jails are filling with people breaking this law, the majority of them should be Christians.)
P.S. Yes, this only makes it a crime to feed homeless people in parks. Yet my Bible is missing the passage where Jesus says, “Feed the homeless in hidden places so tourists won’t have to see them.”
Madison Wisconsin had signs asking people to give handouts to the homeless. They said Madison offered plenty of options for people, so please don’t encourage them with handouts.
I thought it a strange sign.
Sounds like the whole Food Not Bombs thing in San Francisco. Basically a pissing match between the mayor and an anti-war activist, with the homeless people in San Francisco in between.
The easy comeback to the “we’re taking care of them already” statement is “then why are they out on the street?”
The fact is that it’s been a very long time since we’ve really taken care of people on the margins of society. Since before Ronald Reagan, actually. American kids today literally have never seen a society with good social services, unless they’ve been outside of the U.S.
Hm, one other thing. If you engage in acts of charity in public, then you have your reward, according to Jesus. So actually there is a place in the Bible that, you could argue, says exactly what you suggest it does not say. Charity should, indeed, be done in secret.
Bill, I’ve seen those signs. Yep, odd. I think signs do solve some problems, but handouts isn’t one of them.
Ted, ah! It’s time for Dear Reverend Will:
You’re right that Jesus says you should give in private; that’s why philanthropists aren’t Christian. But he didn’t say you should make people come to you for help. He advised going to prisons, after all. Just don’t promote yourself while you’re doing good, because Abba will know what you’re doing.
City Council in Orlando has passed a similar law. It outlaws feedings above a certain number of people in city parks.
Notice the loaded language? Feedings happen at the zoo. Humans get meals.
Mark Wise
vandegraaf@earthlink.net
Oh, for crying out loud.
This reminds me of the movie Soap Dish. The director makes a call for extras to play homeless people in a scene he’s putting together. When he comes to look at the extras who show up, he says, “Can we get some better looking homeless, please? These homeless are disgusting.”
as far as I can tell, these sorts of ordinances are usually created because of Food Not Bombs. It would be fine if it were just christians, but vegans? Anarchists cook that food!
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/fnb_resists.html
anyway, add Venice, CA and Fredericton, Canada, to the lists of places harrassing us.
http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/content/nc/news/the-intersection/single-story/article/god-the-good-shepherd/