All across the United States homeless advocates are busily working to prepare for their most hectic season. You might call it the holiday season, the time of cheer -- or as Charles Dickens explained in his epic "A Christmas Carol" -- "a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."
While many homeless advocates would never compare themselves to Charles Dickens they would agree that because people "open their shut-up hearts freely" their work loads get a whole lot heavier. You likely don't know this because you've never heard them complain. And they never will. Many agencies make six or seven months of their budget on what kindness comes their way between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
But proof that otherwise uncaring folks suddenly give a damn at Christmas isn't just found in anecdotal accounts by relief workers. A British study conducted by City University London in 2009 shows that charitable giving increases by 19 percent in the month of December and not because the same people who donate the whole year through give more, but because more people give.
This swelling in the donor ranks among those who customarily aren't benefactors necessitates that case workers and those who do outreach to the poor dedicate part of nearly every Christmas season work day to coordinating gift giving by those who want to make the holidays special for the needy. While appreciated, it is unfortunate that these same folks can't be convinced to contribute all year long seeing as the people they help have pretty dreary lives 12 months of the year.
And it's not just an added compassion for the down and out that this time inspires, this too is an occasion when children in particular matter more. Good people -- especially good parents -- make an example to others by reaching out to the children of the poor regardless of whether or not the politics they support have actually made these kids' lives worse over time. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Book, "Since 2000 the child poverty rate has increased by 18 percent meaning the economic recession of the past few years effectively wiped out all the gains we made in cutting child poverty in the late 1990s."
There's a disconnect between the intellectual embrace of this time of giving and the knowledge that it was politics and political action that plopped millions more kids at the doors of our nation's welfare programs and charities. And there's a good chance it's going to get worse. Just this week a story in International Business Times highlighted concerns that because of the Congressional Super Committee's budget cutting initiatives, "funding for the Women, Infants and Children Program, Head Start and low-income housing are at risk."
Ironically at this time of year and in the name of Jesus Christ, folks who otherwise point fingers seem to drop the accusations and pick up their check books. For one month, political affiliation and subjective dogma seem to matter little when considering if a child in a homeless shelter is a victim of generational poverty, has parents who are just "lazy" or if their TANF recipient parent uses drugs or alcohol. Nah, this time of year a lot of the same folks that called for drug testing for welfare beneficiaries will still buy a toy for The Salvation Army's angel tree or the Marines' Toys for Tots program.
Facts are facts, and the one thing the spirit of the holiday season taught everyone from before Dickens time until long after the congressional super committee finishes it's work: nowhere in all the celebrations of Christmas did Jesus ever get bogged down in whether the least among us was deserving or not. No, at Christmas time -- when so many seek to act like Jesus -- loving your neighbor isn't about whether or not your neighbor has it coming.
Too bad the change of heart that makes homeless shelter providers so busy in December couldn't last all year and effect the way we vote. If it did, people might continue thinking "of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." Or better yet, not think of the poor as below them at all.
Beverley Golden: Broke... Hungry... Please Help... Peace
I guess that means that HE isn't a Republican, even if THEY claim to have adopted him?
The more publicly religious a person is, the more likely he is to be selling you something you wouldn't ordinarily buy. Whether or not you believe in the divinity of Jesus, what he said wasn't true simply because he said so. Jesus said so because it was true. Yet every single day, Republican legislators and administrators break Jesus' rules, because they are trying to sell you a bag of goods you really, really, don't want. Don't buy it.
If Jesus was simply a charismatic & unusually kind person - why knock him? He was obviously loved by many. He was kind & caring. No one like that is on the scene currently.
Actually, it would be GREAT if Jesus came back, helped ALL OF US OUT, fixed our problems & enabled us to love one another.
God is both the Good Shepherd and, at the same time, a consuming fire!
since when are libs trying to get jesus closer to government rather than bashing him and completely removing him from the public square?
1. how to help the poor woman who was grappling with the enormity of having an abortion.
2. Suggestions on how to include prayer in schools without offending those who chose not to pray.
3. Advice to encourage everyone to treat gay people with dignity/respect/equality, just like any other human being. People who love one another & want to get married should be able to do so - why should gay people be excluded from this Sacrament? Marriage is a Freaking Sacrament! What HUMAN gets to tell another Human they can't participate in a Sacrament?!?
If God/Jesus hate Gays, I suppose They'll send them to Hell (if there is such a place); but I'm inclined to think God/Jesus loves ALL of us. Because God & Jesus are BETTER & MORE LOVING than Humans - we're FLAWED & can be terribly HATEFUL (who knows why? we just are....)
Hey, I'm no expert - not 'Born Again' - raised Catholic/non-practising.....BUT C'mon....wasn't the KEY message Jesus brought: "Love one another"?
....this is what's SO D#.M.N offensive about zealots & extremists who think they INVENTED Christianity!
I'd be P#s.s#d if I were the Son of God (assuming any of this is real) & someone decided I was a 'Tool' to be used to make Human Beings feel marginalized or judged.
I would think he could buy a few votes with fishes and loaves, too.
I'm sick of all the CR#P that is shoveled out by our Pols, 'Leaders', CEOs, Pundits, Experts, Judges, Law Enforcement, Etc., ad nausem.......
Jesus, I'm SURE, would be a welcome relief!
Christians don't follow the teachings of Jesus.
They follow the teachings of Ayn Rand and Libertarians.
You're On Your Own.
I think so many so called "Christians" would do all those things... Or condition receiving aid on hearing a "Christian" message...
Access to charity or social services shouldn't be made dependent on religious values or beliefs...
Can Christians work for social justice and try to lesson the effects of poverty? YES! Jesus commanded people to reach out of the poor... I'm one of those Christians... But I don't go around shoving Jesus down everyone's throats as a condition for assistance. That's just wrong...