ExploreTruth

“They serve a homeless God on Sunday, but legislate against homeless people on Thursday.”

That’s what the host of a Tampa based open mic event, said between acts this past Saturday night.  I sat there, in a miniature theater styled room in the heart of the Historic Ybor City.  The 50 or so plush maroon colored seats, cup-holders and all, were half filled with a variety of people. Some homeless.

I had recently met Jon, who hosts the monthly event, and his wife at The Roosevelt.  They both had my attention, when they told me that they lived in a Christian intentional community.

Hmmm…I’d heard about intentional communities before, even read up on the subject a bit, but still had yet to meet someone who lived in one.  I even voiced my ignorance on the subject in one of my first few posts right here on this blog.

So because of their warm invitation…I sat there..ice tea in hand(courtesy of the free meal they serve before every event)…in the dimly light room, listening to him convey his mixed emotions on the subject of Tampa’s poor, and homeless population.

“This issue points to a deeper problem we have with unemployment and homelessness.” {Rough paraphrase}

He had just visited the local city council a few days prior.  They were voting on a partial or full ban on panhandling in Tampa Bay.  And he wanted to voice his support for those he felt were suffering and deserved a more thought through solution.

Jon was happy that the vote to ban panhandling didn’t pass.  Yet he was dismayed at the attitudes expressed by citizens and city council officials present that day.

I couldn’t help but think…after hearing from many of the homeless who I learned also came to this open mic event, that I’ve lived in a virtual bubble as it pertains to the roughly 85,000 homeless population in the State of Florida.

Yeah…I see them.  And I even give sometimes.  But a part of me has always been comfortably ignorant to any sort of communication beyond a surface hello, or brief conversation.

I really did not want to distinguish between the homeless man who was a Vietnam vet with post traumatic stress disorder.  Or the guy who was really using this money for a beer.  I didn’t even want to consider whether the beer or stress came first.

It’s much simpler to drive to the next stop light, when ignorance, apathy, and indifference are the norm.  When you become consumed by your own story.  I mean…aren’t we all feeling the economic pinch?

It made me think.

It made me ask some questions…

What does a societies position to the poor have to do with maintaining a healthy democracy?

What happens when, as Dr. Cornel West often says, we consider how we’ve become so indifferent to injustice?

So… as a Christ leaning…spiritual freelancing…religion-less prone, and always searching…guy(I’m working it out)…It struck me as ironic that Christianity is a religion based on a man, who did not have a home, money, church, or an elite position in society.  Yet for my entire Christian, religious, and now searching experience, I have been relatively clueless concerning the homeless around me.

I left the open mic thinking…wanting to learn more…wanting to do more….and realizing…that whether or not you sing about Jesus every week, doesn’t say much for whether you’ve ever truly met him.  And maybe the relevance of that, transcends religious, denominational, or spiritual lines.  Maybe slowing down long enough to notice, and learn about the least of these…sits at the heart of true religion.