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COLUMN ON FAITH-BASED RESPONSE TO HOMELESSNESS *by John Auer* published in the Reno Gazette journal on February 27, 2005 United Methodists of northern Nevada invited people of faith to rally at the legislature on Presidents Day in behalf of homeless children and families. We were not just doing a good deed for somebody else. We were working out our own health and well-being, parts of one body, one family, each true to our own chosen paths. Christians allegedly follow a Lord with no place to rest his head. We are the homeless. The homeless are us. The work of the state is to provide for the common welfare of all, including the homeless. The work of religions is, in effect, to become “more homeless” ourselves. It is to say, until basic human needs and rights of all are met, none can rest easy, none is exempt; we are all in this together. Too often “faith-based initiatives” distract from the state’s failure to order priorities for the good of all peoples. Religions can not necessarily do the state’s work better. We struggle among all voluntary institutions today to survive. It is easy for us to be “bought off” with ready funds and cheap promises. We must remain free to be prophetic, to speak truth to power. We love the state only as we help to see it as it is, and to ask what it should be -- charity for some, or justice for all? First, let us act to give all hungry people a fish, to meet all immediate need, no matter what. Homelessness does not just happen. It reflects our priorities, individually and together. Second, let us teach all people to fish, to feed all our families, even against great odds. Third and hardest, let us make room at the pond for all people! When the least and last of us get there, may we find there are fish, there is health, there is hope, for us all. ---------------------- reference materials: Fact Sheet on Homeless in Nevada |
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