In America's never ending quest to criminalize being poor, the city of Rockford, Illinois, this week informed one of its churches, the Apostolic Pentecostals of Rockford, that they must stop providing temporary shelter to the homeless because the church isn't zoned for it. In fairness, they city didn't say whether the church would have a fine or a penalty levied against it should the church give the city of Rockford an extended middle finger, but seriously, what's the point of a threat if punishment isn't involved?
There's a subset of religious fanatics who seem to think every time there's a natural disaster in America that God is punishing us for gays or abortion. While I have a hard time imagining a loving God wreaking havoc to score political points, for the life of me I don't remember Jesus spending much time talking about gays or abortion. But he spends a shitload of time talking about looking out for the poor, which seems to be less and less a priority--kind of makes me wonder.
We have very fucked up priorities these days as a nation. Corporate America is free to dump chemicals in our rivers, make faulty automobiles that kill people, buy our government, or cheat its workers out of pay and we let it walk away with little more than a slap on the wrist, But cities and towns are more than happy to set up roadblocks for those helping people down on their luck in order to improve their cities' images.
Because nothing says "That's a good place for me and my family to live" like knowing if you fall upon hard economic times the city you live in is going to stick your family in some Hooverville in B.F.E, food and shelter be damned.
Peace,
emaycee
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