Someday, all the Christian-run charities and hospitals and homeless shelters and the like will be closed and people will wonder why no one has stepped up to the plate to serve the needy. I say that because of this story: A West Virginia fair-housing inspector, who also happens to be a cross-dressing gay Wiccan, has initiated an investigation into a Christian mission because it displays crosses. The mission is mainly supported by private donations with the addition of some state and federal money.
The inspector has a web site on which he criticizes mainstream religions for condemning homosexuality. But that has nothing to do with his criticism of a charity that has existed since 1939 and provides a place to sleep for thousands of homeless people and serves thousands of meals per day.
The city’s Human Relations Commission (a distinctly liberal invention if I ever heard of one) said it will “scrutinize the mission’s policies, which include barring drugs and alcohol and not allowing unmarried couples to sleep in the same room.” God forbid such a human rights violation such as not allowing fornication in their own building. How dare they?
The accusations include requiring people seeking help to reveal their spiritual beliefs, serving non-Christians in facilities with Christian imagery and making married men spend two nights under “observation” in the men’s dorm before joining their spouse in the family dorm, the Daily Mail said.
For the first accusation, it’s probably a quiet question designed to see if the person would like to partake of the spiritual services of the mission. As for the second accusation, is the sight of Christ on a cross an automatic form of discrimination and affront. Well, the Christ crucified is a “stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23) so we shouldn’t be surprised at the world’s reaction to its sight.
The funny thing is that if these people were to push all Christian charities upholding the corporal works of mercy out of business (all the hospitals, shelters, and soup kitchens), what would be left? Faceless, uncaring government bureaucrats dispensing goods without love or true charity. And then we would hear complaints about hypocritical Christians ignoring their baptismal call.
[Thanks to Jeff Miller for the link.]
The scary thing is that I think most diocesan Catholic Charities would first give up their Catholic identity before giving up the government funding. In many ways, that’s already happened in Boston without the government even pressing too hard.