A federal judge has ruled that a southern Oregon city can’t limit a local church’s homeless meal services.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke found that an ordinance passed by the small city of Brookings, on the southern Oregon coast, violated the religious freedom rights of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, KGW reported. He issued his opinion on Wednesday.
The 2021 ordinance limited the church’s homeless meal services to two days a week, and required a permit to serve free food in residential areas. It was passed in response to resident complaints.
The church sued the city in 2022, saying the ordinance violated its right to freely practice religion.
I wish more people expressed their faith by caring for people.
If only they had a role model that would have taught them that!
Maybe they could have written it down in a book they could turn to for guidance.
Or if they would hold weekly meetings to discuss it.
🤣
Plenty do. You just don’t associate with that segment of society and it doesn’t make headlines.
I took it as picking on the hypocritical people, not all churchgoers.
I’m actually surprised how pro-church this thread has been compared to most posts. Even some apparent church-haters have given the church credit in this thead.
There’s a number of people who might have stayed religious if their religion actually focused on helping people and wasn’t full of hypocrites.
My 2 best friends are really heartbroken lately and have greatly reduced their participation at their church due to much of the money going to a few select families of higher ups for things not even remotely mission related.
They’ve donated 10% of their income for years and worked on many projects and events, but it makes them feel like crap to see things run inappropriately.
I’m not religious and would generally refer to myself as agnostic, but it sucks to see them get hurt spiritually by their church, as that’s kinda the opposite reason as to why it exists.
They finally woke up, which is great for them. Now they will experience a period of trauma as they re-evaluate their lives and identities. It’s a hard process but they will be happier on the other end than before starting this journey.
It’s because people like seeing people do good things, especially when the bad people get it stuck to them.
I’m actually surprised how pro-church this thread has been compared to most posts. Even some apparent church-haters have given the church credit in this thead.
Huh, it’s almost as if people not indoctrinated to tribalism judge people by their actions instead of their group affiliation.
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I looked up where this ordinance came from.
From AP
The ordinance against serving more than two free meals a week came in response to a petition from people living near the church, who said the church’s programs were creating public safety problems, Jefferson Public Radio reported.
The petition, which refers to the people around St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church as “vagrants” and “undesirables,” was signed by 30 people.
The town has about 7000 residents if you want to get an idea about what I’m percentage of the residents seem to find this to be a problem.
The church website claims they serve 210+ meals a week. Even if we assume everyone comes back for every meal, that’s 35 people.
So if we look to serve the greatest good, it seems helping the homeless helps more people than if they were to help the judgemental NIMBYs.
From the in OPs post:
The city is currently asking the church to stop shower and advocacy services also bringing in homeless people into the neighborhood.
A church not bathing and protecting the poor really does seem to go against what I feel what most would say a church should stand for. I’m going to side with the church here.
Kudos for doing additional research and sharing it with sources!
I find things like this to be a fun exercise of Google Fu.
They’re usually so thinly veiled attempts at prejudice or racism you can let the facts do all the talking just by following back article links a few steps to get great quotes and numbers to show these people for who they are.
You make the bold assumption those advocating for this consider the homeless “people”
I try not to be tooooo judgemental in my reporting.
I’d love to see an AITA post from one of these people though!
On the one hand, I’m happy for this ruling.
On the other hand, the church shouldn’t have to do it in the first place because a government that actually cared about its citizens wouldn’t let any of them go hungry.
This government actively worked to prevent it.
I could give them the benefit of the doubt and say that the government was trying to get religion out of the job of taking care of citizens while setting up a city food bank… but I won’t because it was in response to a petition signed by 30 people (out of 7000).
When will ppl understand…
A government will never care significantly abt jts citizens unless it’s small snd localized. That’s why a smaller government is better.
Weird, because Sweden’s big government seems to do quite well caring significantly about its citizens. Along with the other Scandinavian countries.
Lol no? Have u seen their crime rate increase significantly. It’s acc dangerous mow + expensive.
What’s amazing here is that some Karen/Chad had to complain about it to other Karens and Chads who then enacted this hateful law.
What’s amazing here is that a judge thinks feeding people is a religious belief.
I don’t see that as a stretch. Religions throughout history have held that we must act altruistically and help others, though adherents often don’t respect that part of it all. For reference, I am a strict atheist.
Religions throughout history have held that we must act altruistically and help others, though adherents often don’t respect that part of it all.
Yep. The Fourth Pillar of Islam is to give to the poor. The House of Saud couldn’t give less of a shit about the poor.
Saudi Arabia has crippling poverty and people living in slums.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/12/23/vision-2030-and-poverty-in-saudi-arabia
Certainly makes more sense as a religious belief than not giving employees birth control.
It absolutely is if you follow the word of Christ. Unfortunately, most self-proclaimed Christians reject the word of Christ.
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