Daily Archives: March 8, 2009

Consider

Being Cristian requires 24/7

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I find myself in a philosophical pondering mood. This is, I suspect, as a result of being driven for the past three weeks to pull the Tao of James together. The Tao being a book of stories, quotes, wisdoms, koans etc for meditating and cogitating upon on a journey for illumination and enlightenment.

The important point is that this pursuit left me in a philosophical frame of mind for viewing the world around me. It is interesting how being in this philosophical point of reference mindset changed some of the questions vis-à-vis the actions of the City and Abbotsford Police Department in their drive to render the homeless more homeless by closing their camps.

Abbotsford and Abbotsford City Council boast of being a Christian city.

However the City attitudes, behaviours and actions towards the homeless and their camps make it clear that while the City may like to claim to be a Christian city it demonstrably is not.

One cannot repeatedly treat the homeless in un-Christian ways and be a Christian city. A community that is a Christian community cannot act in a Christian manner only when it is easy or convenient; it must act in a Christian manner all the time, even when inconvenient or painful.

When a community chooses to repeatedly act in un-Christian ways it not only does not have the right to claim to be a Christian community, it is NOT a Christian community.

The broader question is about the citizens of Abbotsford and the employees of the city that carry out the un-Christian actions of the city.

Citizens and employees do not get to put on their “Christianity” one day a week (Sunday) and take it off and set it aside the other six days a week.

Tearing down and carting off the homes of the homeless is at its core barbaric and un-Christian behaviour. Anyone who engages in, aids or abets this behaviour is by their actions declaring and demonstrating themselves to be not a Christian.

Any city employee who is a Christian, in more than name only, must refuse to engage in the city’s un-Christian behaviour towards the homeless.

“I am just doing as I am told” or “I could lose my job” do not matter.

The question is “Are you or are you not a Christian, or are you one of the Christians-in-name-only?”

If you are a Christian act like it.
The same question applies to all citizens: “Are you or are you not a Christian, or are you one of the Christians-in-name only?”

If you are a Christian in more than name-only why are you allowing the city to act in this un-Christian way – as your representative? As a Christian one must act to put a stop to this unacceptable behaviour.

These behavioural constraints/requirements also apply to our large Sikh community and the other faith communities that have as part of their tenants the Golden Rule.

Being a Christian or a person of any faith is not about your words but about your actions, about living your faith every moment of your life – no matter how inconvenient or uncomfortable

Being spiritual often makes my head ache because of the philosophical, spiritual and behaviour questions it raises to be considered. A very uncomfortable and unsettling state of being. But an interesting and challenging state of being nonetheless.

In beginning to contemplate and meditate on the implications of what effect being a person of faith should have on one’s actions I find myself in agreement with G K Chesterton when he said “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

Issues, Municipal

Snow? Freezing cold? To bad.

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It was good to step out Saturday morning and see that the snow they had been predicting for Friday night/Saturday morning had not arrived, even though it was unseasonably cold for March.

The City of Abbotsford, despite the predictions of snow and subzero temperatures, had just torn down the home (his camp) of an acquaintance of mine: turning him out into weather that had extreme weather shelters opening across the lower mainland to provide protection from the predicted freezing weather.

I spoke to him after his home was hauled away and he assured me he had already found another spot to camp. Still it is a different matter to be headed into freezing cold weather in an camp you are just setting up, rather than a camp that was well established and in which you had already survived the earlier snowfalls in.

The City had been informed that there was no housing suitable to meet the housing needs of this individual (and others like him) and that because there was no place for him to move to, tearing down his camp would render him without shelter from the elements.

The only thing the City’s actions accomplished, other than wasting the limited resources of the City, was to place this person’s health and life at risk by turning him out into the freezing weather.

Abbotsford seems desperate to close down the camps before the image of the Peardonville bridge fire fade from the public’s memory and they lose their excuse to be turning people out of their shelter, their homes.

And it is no more than a deceitful excuse until they start throwing everybody out into the street from apartments, condos and houses to protect them from fires – since far more people die from fire inside than out.

With the City apparently dedicated to continuing their pointless behaviour of tearing down homes and forcing people to relocate to a new camping location, other experienced homeless are asking about my supply of (or access to) blankets. Thus when the City comes by to haul their shelter away they will be able to get replacement bedding to survive the weather and the elements.

With all the money the City has wasted over the years I have been watching and writing about this pointless behaviour of chasing the homeless around the city, the City could have built the needed housing. But no, the City would prefer to cry poverty while pointlessly wasting taxpayer’s money – as opposed to spending it wisely and accomplish something.

Message to City Council: we are in a recession; we cannot afford this continued pointless waste of money; we need thoughtful behaviour for a change.