globeandmail.com: Suspect in church assault charged
Apparently, the good grace of this congregant enticed the panhandler – who is not homeless, but panhandles as a career (?) – to assault him for even more money. The parishioner, a 71 year old surgeon, had been giving the panhandler $5 per day for five days previous to this day. When alone with the doctor, he grabbed his wallet and pushed the elderly man down. It was caught on surveillance cameras.
So many things come to my mind about this. The need for and benefit of good security at your church in order to protect your congregation and employees is high. The “professional panhandlers” harden us all to the real needs of the downtrodden.
Mostly, though, I am turned inside by this story. You see, I’ve been in the ministry for 20 years, now. I have seen more “professionals” than I can even remember. In my experience, those downtrodden by their circumstances don’t come to the church and ask for money. They are, more often, ashamed of their circumstance, though they are rarely responsible for it.
The hardening of the church against real criminals is bad thing. Still, I want to protect our resources for those who are in need because the world has hurt them, not because they are there by their own choices – choosing not to work, to waste what little money they have on frivolous things.
I’ve had a couple of “professionals” make their way to me recently. I had a meeting with my Worship/Youth Minister interrupted by my secretary who said she had a man who was on the Board at Falls Creek Camp and wanted to drop in. I invited Jason to stay, since he was the Falls Creek veteran. Turns out he wanted money and knew that saying he was on the Board at Falls Creek would probably get him into a Baptist Pastor’s office right away. Honestly, the false pretenses just made me mad. He said his sister was a diabetic and needed her medicine. She was supposedly stranded at Falls Creek. Jason suggested she go to the nurses station. He said she had been, but they turned her away.
That just didn’t sound right. I asked him to step outside while Jason and I talked. We called Falls Creek’s nurses station and told them the story. Of course, they said they would never turn away a diabetic under any circumstances. Having returned from camp there not long ago, I can say that this place has it together. Anyway, when we told him what we had done and that there was no sign of a stranded diabetic nor anyone with her name at the camp, he beat a hasty retreat. By the way, I am on the Committee on Nominations at the BGCO this year, and we make the slate of recommendations for the Boards and Agencies in the state. There is no Board for Falls Creek – or if there is I don’t know about it and we don’t appoint them. Rather, I think it is simply owned and run by the BGCO.
It’s just that I have to go through so much trouble to protect these resources from those who would gobble them up selfishly and keep them from those who are all but silent, yet in real need. Add to that the violence that the news story reveals and real resentment begins to build.
And yet…
The “professionals” are also hurting. They, too, have been wounded and burdened. They have learned to lie, cheat and steal to get by. They need something from us, too.
Don’t get me wrong. I think just throwing money at them would just reinforce their broken mindsets and misdeeds. I honestly don’t have a solution of how to reach them with what they need, even if it is not that for which they are asking. Maybe you have a suggestion?
My concern here is my skepticism and ill will. They have a need, but I am irritated by their misrepresentation of that need. Do they really understand what their real needs are? Most assuredly not.
They may be dishonest, and I am certainly not going to give them the keys to our benevolence coffers, but I can’t afford to see them at just the surface level. They are more. I must be deeper.
And we need to re-evaluate our security system, to better protect our people.
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Pablo
on Aug 4th, 2007
@ 10:10 am:
We deal with this stuff every day (our church is right off a main highway), and after 20 years of dealing with “professionals,” I am at a loss for knowing what to do. My attitude has shifted from concern to callousness to indifference to repentance and back. My experience is that it is mainly the “professionals” who come in asking for stuff (gas, money, rent, bills paid, night at a hotel, etc), and the folks who are really in circumstantial need don’t come to churches. How can we be good stewards and give the “right” help to hurting (whether they know it or not) people. I hope that this post sparks some serious discussion, and look forward to checking back. Thanks.
Bob Cleveland
on Aug 4th, 2007
@ 10:29 am:
Art: I’d say you did well, both in handling the man and in posting this. I know it’s not comfortable.
The best answer I have is that there isn’t a good answer for it, just as there isn’t a good answer for pregnancy as the result of incest, etc. Jesus is the only answer for sin, and that’s not always “good” in human eyes.
John Fariss
on Aug 4th, 2007
@ 7:54 pm:
A couple of years ago, there was a guy who stood on US 1 almost at the intersection of I-95/495 in Virginia (just outside Washington, DC). His sign read, “Have job and home, just want more money!” And it’s not an urban legend–it was not only featured on local TV, I saw it myself, coming back from a church member’s retirement party in Pentagon City. And believe it or not, people were stopping and giving him money.
John Fariss