I have found it necessary, occasionally, to write about
the street ministries in our city. Some of the following letters have been
published in one paper or another, while others have not. It might be
informative to publish these letters here. But first, I will lay down a little
foundation for them.
Recently (February 2013) I discovered an audio book on
the LibriVox site, and because it was
so excellent and so excellently read (by Ruth Golding), I listened to it
carefully all the way through. That book is The
History of London by Walter Besant, published in 1894. Walter Besant
speaks, at the close of this fascinating history, against the sins of idleness
and vagrancy. Because I hate these sins so much myself, and because few people
beside myself seem to be concerned about them, I was encouraged to hear this
man speaking my mind. The sin of vagrancy is long gone from modern
conversation. And idleness is treated as a virtue nowadays. In more moral days
in London , the
practice of these sins could end in punishment, which is not a bad idea. What
is a vagrant? A vagrant is a person who wanders idly about. Do you know who
these people are in the city of Red
Deer ? They are easy to spot—they are very
conspicuous—they are the wandering blots on our boulevards, the leaners upon
walls, and the destroyers of public property. There they are outside the
library bumming cigarettes. There they are outside the stores trying to ‘score’
a few bucks. There they are outside the soup kitchens because they’ve wasted
their government checks on bad habits, some of which are criminal. Many of
these vagrants are on social assistance and refuse to work in spite of their
ability and this province’s innumerable opportunities. The sins of idleness and
vagrancy are not tolerated in a just society. Our society is unjust, and so it
tolerates, and even funds, idle wanderers who are up to no good. You should not
like that if you are a taxpayer paying for the idle ways of these wandering,
lazy vagrants. Here is what Walter Besant has to say about this social plague
called vagrancy:
“No statutes, however, can put down the curse of vagrancy
and idleness. It can only be suppressed by the will and resolution of the
people themselves. If for a single fortnight we should refuse to give a single
penny to beggars: if in every street we should all resolve upon having none but
honest folks among us: then and only then, would the rogue find this island of
Great Britain impossible to be longer inhabited by him and his tribe.”
Yea for Victorian England ! This resolution I
wholeheartedly advocate for the city of Red
Deer . But even if every citizen were to refuse the
monetary appeals of dishonest beggars, these vagrants would still be with us.
They will be with us for as long as we continue to provide government checks
for them to purchase their drugs with. We need to crack down on every addict,
whether drinker or drug user, who is using his check to finance his idle habit.
A person who is using his government check (which money comes from deductions
made from your check) to buy drugs or
drinks deserves to have his support revoked. Then he might appreciate, and be
thankful for, the soup kitchens that he now blasphemes in. Then he might
appreciate, and be thankful for, the kitchen staff that he now disrespects.
Then he might appreciate, and be thankful for, the food that he now gulps down
without thought and reflection. Then he might sober up, repent, and get a job!
But how do you know if a person who asks for money is a
dishonest beggar? I would not want an honest person turned away who has a
momentary need that he feels compelled to ask passersby to help him with. This
lecture is not about that. These common vagrants who are cigarette smokers,
drinkers, or drug addicts, and who want nothing to do but wander about at other
peoples’ expense, they are easily identified through conversation with ‘normal’
people. Learn to identify them. The best way to help vagrants and idlers (who
are usually drug addicts and drinkers) is to refuse to condone and support
their sins and crimes. They might hurt in the short term when withdrawal
symptoms come on. But this is for their good in the long term. Better to suffer
a little now than to continue as an addict indefinitely. The life of an addict
is short, unhappy, and ends in misery. To sober up and repent is better.
Sobriety and responsibility cannot happen with these vagrants until our
downtown societies become intolerant of vagrancy and its associate evils.
Jesus did not ‘hang out’ with unrepentant sinners like
certain pastors tell you and like certain street workers do. When sinners were
within earshot, he told them to ‘repent, for the kingdom of God
The letters about street ministries follow:
March
2006
Dear
Youth Pastors at Balmoral, Bethany
The letter below was intended for the Advocate. A friend of
mine was concerned that it might discourage the youth. Another reminded me of
the verse that warns against causing one of God’s little ones to stumble. And
so I withheld it. I hope that the good I aimed to achieve will not be lost by
my sending the letter just to you. Beware of spinning your wheels, brothers. Redeem
the time by walking by the commands of Scripture. Help your youth to lay up
treasures in heaven by the practice of God’s holy religion. Amen.
Re:
Meet the Street Program.
Certain of our churches have just gathered their
youth back from a 24 hour walkabout on the street. This Meet the Street program aimed to dredge up sympathy for the
homeless by a 24 hour experience of pretended
homelessness. Now, let me address each youth that took part in this event:
You did well to go out as your church told you to, that you might be better
acquainted with what it feels like to have no home. Do not be sad about what I
have to say to your superiors. Even they need
to be lectured from time to time.
To you superiors that hatched this program, or
borrowed it. You are evangelicals, learned in the Scriptures, trying to live
lives of useful piety. [I was embarrassingly generous in my assumptions in this
place.] You want your church babes to be holy and fruitful too. Do you not use
the Scriptures as your guide? Where in There
do we see anybody being sent out by God or by Christ or by the Spirit or by
the Apostles to pretend to be somebody he is not? Never mind your motives. I do
not question your motives much. Where
do you find the Lord sanctioning pretence? You do not. In the Scriptures we
find men and women going about doing good, not being sent out for an experience.
Is it not a little true that this program tries to
palliate the guilty feelings that one has for being fortunate in the face of
another’s poverty? Is it perhaps done to quell your children’s troublesome
questions about financial and spiritual disparity? Or are you trying to
palliate your own selves vicariously through your children?
Regardless, if you will look away from your programs
long enough to peek at the Bible, you will discover that reality, not pretence, is
the norm for problem solving and blessing in There. If you must send your children out, at least come up with a
biblical formula that will benefit these pampered youngsters and bless those
whose lives are hard. If you were to rear up a responsible youth pastor, for
instance, and send him out with his kids to read the Scriptures and godly books
to the sick, to the dying, and to the lonely, then something substantial might be expected to take place in the
lives of those involved. Why? Because that would approximate the true religion
that James commands us to perform (James 1.27.) And obedience to God begets real fruit. The Holy Bible would have
you know that you will get nowhere with programs packed with pretence. God
desires servants, not actors.
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June
3rd, 2010
Letters
to the Editor
Re: The Financial Strain at Loaves and Fishes.
Dear
Editor:
The recent article on the scramble for funds by
Loaves and Fishes needs a postscript. It says there that “everyone from single
mothers with children to men looking for work access the meal program.” This is
correct. But who else accesses the meal program?
The fact that is continually ignored, for fear of
being judged for bringing it up, is that there are people eating meals there
who shouldn’t. There are lazy freeloaders who don’t cook and don’t buy food
when they could do both. And there are drug addicts who eat there so they can
use their government assistance money to buy drugs instead of food.
As long as these classes of people are catered to,
the need for funds will continue to grow, and those who really need the service
will get less than they require. I can already hear the response this letter
will cause. ‘Mr. Gaboury, we should welcome everyone and judge no one.’ If
that’s the attitude, expect conscientious people to put their money where
discrimination is justly made according to need. To regularly feed a drug
addict who uses his government check to buy drugs is the same as feeding him in
order that he may buy those drugs. That’s the reality of logic. It’s just plain
wrong to overlook the fact that drug addicts are being fed because they buy
drugs with their government money instead of food. Everyone knows this is going
on. It’s wrong. It helps to entrench the drug addicts in their addictions. And
it’s time for the person in charge of the kitchen to put a stop to it. The problem
can’t be easily fixed. But resolutions toward fixing it should begin at once.
Maybe when the drug addicts are faced with a choice between food and drugs,
they will be closer to kicking the habit than they now are.
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June 11th, 2010
Letters
to the Editor
Re: In my Defense.
Dear
Editor:
In consideration for the Advocate, I usually do not answer letters that are written against
my own. But I’d like to get a few words in to defend myself against LK’s
angry response.
I communicated in my letter that it’s wrong to
regularly feed people who are using their government checks to buy drugs
instead of food. I never said, blanket-like, Stop feeding drug addicts. This headline was put in by the paper.
Furthermore, LK misquotes me. Nowhere did I
refer to “freeloading drug addicts.” I mentioned lazy freeloaders and drug
addicts separately. Emotional misrepresentation is the only way some writers
can hope to convince readers of their opinion, I guess.
I’ll quote responsibly. LK says, “I have love,
compassion and kindness in my heart. What does Gaboury have?” Is it loving to
let drug users go headlong into self-destruction by continually enabling them?
Here’s what Gaboury has. I love drug users enough to welcome new measures that
will compel them to use their money for food instead of drugs. This is loving,
for it is better for a person to eat than to shoot up.
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August
25th, 2010
Letters
to the Editor
Re: The Weak Religion in ‘Street Tales.’
Dear
Editor:
I think the public is given to understand that
Potter’s Hands is a Christian service and that Chris Salomons, its kitchen
coordinator, is a Christian. I am not wholeheartedly convinced.
Any gospel-believing Christian organization will
tell you that helping needy people achieve a better life for themselves cannot
be the ultimate end striven for in helping them because a merely moral life
cannot gain anyone an entry into heaven. They need the gospel, not just help,
because the Bible teaches that sinners (the ones not yet saved) stand condemned
before God and will be judged by him unless the obedience and merits of Christ
are credited to them through faith in his name.
The religion of Chris Salomons in Street Tales falls way short of the
gospel. I can show this from at least four of his articles. I’ll just
paraphrase the last paragraph of the one from August 18th, The horrible burden of self-loathing. Don’t
condemn street people, he says. They already condemn themselves. Let’s help
them make some changes and then guilt will no longer keep them down.
I’m not for condemning anyone. But if sinners are on
the road to damnation, as Romans 3 teaches, can it be wrong for a Christian to
warn them of it by the use of words like ‘guilt’ and ‘condemnation’? After all,
it is necessary to do this in order to preach the gospel of salvation from the
punishment guilty sinners will get if they don’t repent.
All sinners, including street people and drug
addicts, face imminent condemnation by God and will be kept down in hell by the
guilt of sin forever unless they are redeemed and released by the salvation
Jesus provides through faith. Do you not agree, Mr. Salomons? Aren’t you a
gospel-believing Christian?
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October
24th, 2012
Letters
to the Editor
Re: The last ‘Street Tales’ article.
Dear
Editor:
What is being accomplished by Potter’s Hands
vis-à-vis the drug/prostitution problem downtown? Chris Salomons thinks it’s a
great victory when a streetwalker condescends to talk to him about her tiresome
occupation! Why such hollow victories reported by the author of ‘Street Tales?’
Does Potter’s Hands have a gospel of deliverance to go along with its deeds of help?
True, Mr. Salomons, you do not ‘pound’ your beliefs
into people. But what is your alternative? “Just let her know that she was an
OK person.” That was the message you had for the streetwalker you spoke of.
This message will do little lasting good. Sinners need to be told they are not OK. That is a negative, offensive
message. But it is the truth. And it is a message that may lead to repentance,
which turn from sin is necessary to being delivered from sin and hell. I’m not
talking about hell on earth (though prostitution must be hellish), but the hell
of everlasting misery that is consequent to death.
Is Potter’s Hands a Christian ministry or not? Does
the gospel of salvation from sin even exist over there? Saving sinners from
hunger and loneliness is a good work. But it is not the gospel. Do not leave
out the most important message: the death of Christ for sin, which saves the
sinner from hell through a confidence in it. Streetwalkers don’t just “need a
chance to talk” (the title of Mr. Salomons’ article.) They need to be told to
repent.
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December
13th 2012
Letters
to the Editor
Re:
The ‘Homeless Report.’
Dear
Editor:
Mr. Weber recently commented on information already
provided in the homeless report. Easy job. Homeless people include a certain
percentage of women, immigrants, etc. We need some new information.
Mr. Weber is an investigative reporter, is he not?
Some of us want the following statistics to be gathered. What percentage of
homeless people are on drugs? What percentage of them are on alcohol? What
percentage of them are on government support? What percentage of them use their
government checks to support their addictions? What percentage of them are
unthankful for the soup kitchens that provide free food for people who waste
taxpayer dollars in this way? If these numbers were collected and then
submitted to government authorities, then something might be done to stem these
abuses that cost taxpayers so much hard-earned money.
One might begin by asking Mr. Salomons at Potter’s Hands
for some of these important statistics. But will he even admit that street
people are sinners, that some of them are criminals, and that system abuse
should be curbed? The new building operated by that ministry, down in Fairview , is not that
fair to look upon. Its filthy state is proof that people ‘reformed’ by Potter’s
Hands are not reformed at all. If they were, Convent Park
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The following letter is about the nature of poverty.
Since this subject is intimately related to street ministries, I include it
here. Many street people are on AISH, and are therefore far from being poor. I
know people who work hard for a living but whose paychecks do not exceed what
AISH recipients receive for doing nothing at all. If you are on AISH, don’t
whine, be thankful, and make sure you don’t spend these generous taxpayer
dollars you receive on sinful habits like cigarettes, booze, drugs, and taxi
cabs. The grateful recipient will spend taxpayer dollars responsibly.
December
3rd, 2011
The
Calgary
Letters
to the Editor
Re: Poverty in Canada
Dear
Editor:
On December 2nd, Lorna Crozier became
guest host for a day on CBC radio’s ‘The Current.’ Her piece of journalism was
called: ‘We are the 10%: Poverty in Canada
Most of the persons interviewed by her (in a
hushed tone because of the travesty involved) admit that they did not consider
themselves poor while growing up. In fact, they testify to having pleasant
memories instead. Now, thanks to Lorna Crozier’s keen judgment, they think they
were poor! Thanks for putting such a black mark on all those pleasant memories!
Thanks for making satisfied persons into whiners!
Here are some samples of the poor people
interviewed for this documentary. A man is poor, but smokes a pack a day of
cigarettes. A mother is poor, but able to support her expensive drug habit. One
woman considers herself poor because she has only $1200.00 left after all her
bills are paid. Another woman considers herself poor because she can’t buy a
house.
Of course the numbers of poor people are
‘staggering’ when we assess the matter like this. Lorna Crozier should study
the potato famines of Ireland
or follow the news of famine in Somalia Canada
In the follow-up to this program, Anna Maria
Tremonti and Lorna Crozier teamed up to take some calls from across the nation.
One woman phoned because she could not afford skis and hockey equipment for her
kids. Welcome to the real world, lady. Some privation will do your kids good.
She had heard, to her dismay, the following proverb: ‘Don’t expect anything;
nothing can disappoint you.’ This is not Scripture, but it’s a very good motto.
She should memorize it and then put it into practice. Another woman phoned in
to say that ‘poverty in Canada Canada is largely the same as what we see in Bombay , Haiti ,
and Somalia Canada
There was a lot of talk about rights in this
discussion on poverty, very little on duties. A blind man, for instance, called
in to whine that his check was being handled by the people he lived with. Yes,
but he was sleeping with the daughter of the house! You lose some rights, man,
when you shirk your duty to be an upstanding, dignified citizen! What you reap
by your sin is loss. That’s the way it goes. Maybe the most pathetic element of
this propagandist program on poverty is the tone the hosts used during the
discussion: the hesitant, I-don’t-want-to hurt-you whisper, the sympathetic
I-feel-your-pain outreach. I took in this propagandist effort in toto; I can,
with confidence, conclude, that none of the people who phoned in is truly poor.
1 comment:
Hi mark, I have read some of your letters. They do address the real problems that are in our culture, as well in the churches.
From Patrick.
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