So, here it is. We, meaning Kelly, me, and a few other Fuller students in our community went to a Community Action Meeting, which involves people that live on our street, as well as the surrounding area. For those of you that don't live in The Pas, (pronounced 'pass') I made that name up for Pasadena, this city is bifurcated into two regions, divided by the 210 Freeway into North Pasadena and South Pasadena. North Pasadena is low income, poorer, and has projects, a lot more crime, basically somewhere that God loves. South Pasadena is rich, upper class, clean, with nice houses, basically somewhere God loves also and wants to see it provide for the needs of the community. (in case you thought I was going to say something else.)
The first time we went to a Community Meeting, three members of the Pasadena Police Department were in attendance in uniform. They spoke at length about how we were such "good" tax paying people, and used the word 'exterminate' in referencing the poorer, homeless, population, who only contributed to drugs, drug dealing, guns, gangs, and crime. I, thought that it was a little harsh summary of the homeless. They backed it up with stories about such incidents, which are true and false at the same time. They are true because they do happen, they are false because we have something greater than ourselves working to annihilate the 'good creation', which God intended. The Powers work to subvert, twist, and destroy humans from the midst of community, which God intended for us to live, to know him and his love, as well as to know and love our neighbors. This is coming from an ex-cop who only focused on narcotic arrests.
We thought that these Meetings were something which we wanted to continually attend and there was another meeting last Saturday. While we want to know our neighbors, I disagreed with some things that were stated and spoke in disagreement, mainly with the Police Departments' stance towards certain situations, i.e. 'the constitutionality of certain practices'.
I want all the people at the meeting to know that we as the Christian community care deeply for them, but we care just as deeply for those whom they term to be the 'bad people' in our society.
4 comments:
Great work being involved in the community, Paul. For a minute there, I thought you were going to say that God didn't love southern Pasadena - I would have been in trouble since I live in the south east, almost in San Marino!
Hey Bernie, sorry I didn't post a response to your comments. The reason that the Community Action started was because the homeless were on the street and one deficated on someone's property, which is fairly disgusting.
I heard about a project called "The Pepper project", which squeezed the poor out of South Pasadena, but I would like to find out more about it, since it came from a secondary source. Word, Peace!
You are in a tough place, Paul. On one hand you represent Fuller and all of Christianity to one group and on the other hand you represent Fuller and all of Christianity to the other group. As you stated in your blog, God loves the poor and God also loves the well off. Is there a way that you can work with the well off to work for the poor? Part of the problem that you are going to come into contact with is that many people in America feel that their tax dollars go to help the poor and that this is where their responsibility ends. Their attitude is almost that they would rather have the government take more of their money in taxes than to have to deal with the poor and homeless. Others would rather have the government take less of their tax dollars so that they could give more out of their pockets and hearts to help the poor. The question you have to ask yourself is, "How did one group of people come to that conclusion and the other group of people come to the opposite conclusion?" I think that the answer lies in the answer to this question, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?"
If Jesus means nothing to someone then the poor mean nothing to them. If Jesus means everything to someone then the poor mean everything to them. Yes, there are times when someone calls themself a Christian but they don't care a bit about the poor. Ask them the question, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" Point out the myriad of verses that talk about the importance of taking care of the poor. Show them Jesus, Paul, and if you have to...use words.
Hey Troy, thanks for the post. Yes, I think that there are many ways that the wealthy can help the poor. The separating of ourselves from those to whom we are called to love is the first problem. The suburbs have created a problem for us to relate to others, because the only people that we may see during the week are family members. To me, in my personal opinion that is a problem.
The St. Francis of Assisi quote that you stated at the end of your post is true.
We went to another Community Action Meeting for the violence in Pasadena last night, for the entire City of Pasadena. The Police Chief, Mayor, Board of Education, etc. were all there. We had small groups involving people living in various parts of the city.
It was disheartening though because the words used were, "those people, them..." in reference to those committing crimes. People want to "fix" these problems, but the way that we "fix" it is to tell those people what to do. Look at us, we are sophisticated, you are animals.
I think we need to understand the meaning of the resurrection of Christ, so that we can once again be the people to connect others with something greater than themselves, which will allow people to see the love of God in this world.
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