What
is your first reaction to TV or newspaper reports of homeless people:
"They probably are just too lazy to work"? or "We
ought to do something to help"? Why? (Serendipity Bible
10th Anniversary Edition, page 1042).
When
Kathy was deathly ill, some good intentioned people put tremendous
pressure upon me when they would express their belief that Kathy
would be healed if only we (translated—I) had enough faith. The
inevitable corollary to that belief was that if she did not recover,
it would be the result of a deplorable lack of faith (primarily
mine). In other words, at a time when I was stressed to the point of
desperation because of her critical condition in intensive care, I
was served an additional measure of stress and guilt that was almost
unbearable. I mention this because I find it related to our attitudes
regarding the homeless. We tell the homeless (and unemployed) “If
only you were not lazy you would have a job”—we tell this to
people already under unimaginable stress, especially those with
families to provide for. We tell those already feeling guilty as hell
regarding their situation and struggling with feelings of tattered
self-worth that if only they were not lazy all would be well. Human
insensitivity—even cruelty—at times can be almost unbelievable.
To the homeless and the chronically unemployed I would simply suggest
that the next time someone makes this allegation about you, that you
respond simply "Offer me a living wage job right here, right
now, and see how lazy I am." Why is it that we insist on
heaping pressure and blame upon others, rather than asking how we can
best help? My belief is that it is because we know only too well
the vulnerabilities of our precarious self-righteousness and the
unearned advantages that belie our insufferable pretensions to merit.
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