First Reformed Church of Hackensack, N.J., does not like homeless people who put food before faith. The Church reportedly shutdown the FAITH Foundation homeless shelter after the director, Robin Reilly, allowed homeless people on Christmas Day to eat before the families were required to listen to a sermon and prayer. FAITH was concerned that many people had not eaten in twenty-four hours and that it was difficult for the families to wait to eat under the circumstances.
Here’s a possible Sermon for next year: “If you give some of your own food to [feed] those who are hungry and to satisfy [the needs of] those who are humble, then your light will rise in the dark, and your darkness will become as bright as the noonday sun.”
Jesus appears to have been sympathetic to those who were hungry and did not like the idea of sending away people who were hungry:
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
“Bring them here to me,” he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. — Matthew 14:15-21
For the story, click here.
On the other hand, if one of the conditions set forth by the church is that people need to listen to the sermon then people need to respect that. If all you do is feed the body but not the soul then all you do is send people to hell with full stomachs. Christ fed the poor to be sure but the poor that he fed was the ones that had been following him and listening to his teachings. The most loving thing that Christians can do is to preach the gospel.
Kathy, to say the pastor wanted all eyes on him is wrong. He wanted all eyes on Christ and that is what preaching is designed to do, place people’s attention on Christ. To assume that this was merely an ego trip by the pastor is no good.
The Bible says that if a man will not work he should not eat. The fact that these churches are trying to reach out help people, many of whom will not work (I know this as I had some contact with street people over the years and our church even tried a soup kitchen but stopped because homeless people were bragging about not working and how much they made off of pan handling) is going beyond what scripture requires of them.
It isn’t a Christian shelter. It is a church that offered FAITH foundation space on a part-time basis to do advocacy work for homeless people who fall through the cracks (read, mentally ill and have a hard time understanding the welfare system), and allowed her to have a Christmas dinmer. She was fine with them saying Grace. She was fine with a sermon. She wasn’t fine with being bullied into prayer (with threats of having the police called) nor with having plates of food taken from starving people and thrown into the garbage. Pastor could have said Grace, given his sermon while they ate. But he wanted all eyes on him.
andie:
“When my mother took over the job she got rid of that requirement.”
***************
That’s why women are the superior gender. I say that as an inferior one.
My dad who ran a city rescue mission used to require that the homeless had to attend a service (his) or they couldn’t get food & sleep in the mission. He maintained that rule all year round. When my mother took over the job she got rid of that requirement.
Not being a member of the First Reformed Church, I have no idea what they believe, but it would seem that there isn’t much point to coerced prayers.
Looks like the Soup Nazi is doing volunteer work.
How horrible!
Just an example of why no government money should flow to a religious organization, even for good works. This is coming from a person who’s family works for Loaves and Fishes, a religious based kitchen operated five days a week at a church. I could not think of “shoving the dove” or proselytizing to people who only get one meal a day.
Live the life, your example speaks louder than words.
Candy,
“and the rest of the story is…”
They closed the place, idiot.
The death of common sense continues.
Bob,Esq.,
Happy New Year to you too.
Just doin’ my part rafflaw.
Happy New Year!
candy, it is you who seems to have the problem.
The only story is that a so-called christian church shut down a program to feed the jungry because the people did not want to listen to the sermons of these very religious christians.
Sort of like some so-called christian evangelicans now operating in Iraq who refuse to give clean water to needy Iraq people whose lives and country have been destroyed by the so-called christian George W. Bush.
Typical.
Bob,Esq.,
You are exactly correct when you informed Candy(only a Republican neocon could have a name like Candy)of the hypocritical arguement(s) that her and her fellow trolls waste our time with. I still think that they are all the same one of two people who are paid by the RNC to “visit” websites like Prof. Turley’s to spin their yarns.
“candy 1, December 31, 2008 at 1:38 pm
and the rest of the story is…..
Oh wait, this is left winger turley’s blog, the rest of the story doesn’t matter.”
Oh Candy, is there no limit to the amount of bandwidth you can waste?
When I glance through your posts, and I ponder about that 25-28% contingent of complete idiots fleshing out our population; you know, the ones that never seem to think that morals and criminal laws apply to their ‘heroes’ like G.W. Bush et al.
In fact, you and your ilk remind me of the wisdom of Ralph Cramden in ‘The Honeymooners’
Norton: “Hey Ralph, mind if I smoke?”
Ralph: “I don’t care if ya burn.”
You take care now, ya hear?
real ” christ -like” . so sad.
Now that, Seamus, makes sense!! Do you do voices as well?
I always make pan-handlers listen to an entire reading if “The Cat in the Hat” before giving then change.
“”What father among you, if his son asks for bread, would give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, would give him a snake instead of the fish?”
–Luke 11:11 (ISV)
I guess we have now finally been able to answer Jesus’ age-old question definitively. Why it’s the First Reformed Church of Hackensack, N.J.!
and the rest of the story is…..
Oh wait, this is left winger turley’s blog, the rest of the story doesn’t matter.
And this is supposed to be a Christian homeless shelter?
Hmmm……..
Doesn’t really sound like one to me!
I’m with you Jill!
Wow, this shows a complete lack of understanding either of Jesus’s message and more importantly, what it means to be hungry. How do the ideological “rules” rise above the whole point of feeding the hungry? This is fascism, not compassion.