How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?

[m1a1mg]

Somewhere, somehow, we are totally missing the message:

Uniformed police shut down an effort to provide lunch to scores of homeless in Stranahan Park on Sunday, enforcing a law passed recently that puts new limits on outdoor feeding sites.
At least three people were cited for violating the new ordinance, including two members of the clergy and a 90-year-old advocate who has handed out food to the homeless for more than 20 years.
Arnold Abbott, who heads the group Love Thy Neighbor, said he had served only three or four of about 300 meals he had prepared when police ordered him to stop.
Abbott, the Rev. Mark Sims, of St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Coral Springs, and the Rev. Dwayne Black, pastor of The Sanctuary Church in Fort Lauderdale, were each cited for willfully violating a city ordinance. Police issued them notices to appear in court, where they could be asked to explain their actions.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/b...omeless-feeding-citations-20141102-story.html

 

[poppy]

It's not like they are selling food for profit. They are giving free food to hungry people. The reasoning behind this ordinance is just silly.

 

[Bob Wells]

NIMBY.. Similar things are happening in Panama City. Ordinances preventing homeless shelters. Fort Walton Beach, ordinances making it more difficult to have a cold weather shelter.

 

[Andy A]

It is, indeed, a silly, useless ordinance. What is the reasoning behind it?

 

[poppy]

If I'm reading correctly, they feel the homeless will disappear if people would stop feeding them. It's a brilliant plan to solve the homeless problem.

 

[30A Skunkape]

NIMBY.. Similar things are happening in Panama City. Ordinances preventing homeless shelters. Fort Walton Beach, ordinances making it more difficult to have a cold weather shelter.

While I don't know the whole story, it sounds like the issue here isn't NIMBYism as much as it is the nanny state making sure people don't get food poisoning (based on the prohibition rationale in the article).

Food safety laws sometimes have stupid consequences such as this. In some other states there were people prohibited from selling unpasteurized milk, for example, at farmer's markets. Bobby Jindal signed an executive ordering lifting that sort of silliness in Louisiana, and I imagine Rick Scott could do the same here. Who knows, that may even result in groceries and restaurants giving food that would otherwise be thrown away to shelters and food pantries.

 

[Andy A]

Sorry. I had not read the accompanying piece until just now. Maybe we should all call Ft. Lauderdale City hall and tell Mayor Jack Seiler what we think. Many of those homeless are veterans who obviously suffer PTSD and have not received treatment for one reason or another. What an utterly stupidly designed ordinance! I think I'll now call Ft. Lauderdall City hall!

 

[Andy A]

The response from Ft. Lauderdale City Hall was less than cordial. The Mayor's and Commissioner's Office mail box was full and their phone didn't answer.

 

[CL Dickson]

It is the latest in the nationwide movement to criminalize homelessness, and now helping the homeless and hungry. Not for one minute will the real Church stand down on this; otherwise, there is no Church, the Body of Christ.