Sunday, January 13, 2013

What are the structural problems with our economy that cause there to be homelessness, along with an ever growing disparity in income between the poor and those at the highest income levels.  Question raised by the Catholic priest from St. Josephs who spoke at the church today. Made me realize that it has become my habit to just assume there will always be homeless people, including the 3 day old baby who has been staying at WHO lately.  The Catholic church is working on how to develop a daytime homeless shelter or place to go during the day. 

I saw the statement somewhere, ‘the Occupy movement is doing the work of the church.’  I was at the Adult Ed meeting at St. Andrew Lutheran Church Vancouver, WA the other night and what the Catholic priest said who spoke there recently was brought up – the systemic ills of our economy that causes there to be obscenely rich people and homeless people sleeping on gym floors. This year the homeless overflow there has more children including babies, than they have ever had. The pastor commented it is a case of the ‘principalities and powers’ – referring to deeply entrenched systems, which kind of take on a life of their own and though people want to stop them, no one can. There are a couple of books about this by Walter Wink which I’d like to read.