THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 26, 1995 TAG: 9506220019
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Struggling families - especially single moms and their kids - know to drop anchor in a nearby church community when they find themselves floating, even isolated, in our very transient Hampton Roads region. Families, like individuals, need spiritual, emotional, physical support systems. Most of us understand the African proverb, ``It takes a whole village to raise a child.'' Many of us have learned that our churches, sometimes more than our own neighborhoods, can be that ``village.''
In ``Churches should pay'' (letter, June 10), James A. Rule Sr. suggests churches should ``pull their load.'' While it's true that some churches have drifted away from addressing the needs of the whole man and focused on spiritual food alone, many realize the inextricable nature of the spiritual and the physical, the inseparable love for God and love for our fellow man, the real faith that manifests itself in deeds of love that James wrote about.
Since 1987, we have witnessed a spiritual-physical revival of love in Virginia Beach and Norfolk churches and synagogues that came when they decided to open their doors to the homeless for winter sheltering. Many have generously and joyfully carried their load and the rest of society's, too. Is there a cost? As with all things nobel and good, yes - a cost in time, labor, love and money. Others who have not been able to open their doors have provided support services. Mr. Rule should remember that churches are not deep pockets of gold reserves. Churches are just communities of people. Some are wealthy. Some are working-class. Some are seniors barely surviving on Social Security. Some are abandoned welfare mothers. Some are newly unemployed or displaced by the military. Some are even homeless themselves. Yet churches must pay rent, mortgages, light bills and government ``fees.'' Many churches are run by an all-volunteer staff. Many pastors work full-time jobs to feed their families while doing their ministry, too.
There is a bigger question that needs to be addressed. It was first raised in February 1981 when the domestic-programs budget ax fell during the Reagan administration's ``trickle down'' approach to economics. Can the churches take care of America's poor while we wait for the economy to trickle down?
It is now 1995. Homelessness, America's most shameful economic barometer, has increased, not decreased. The words ``homeless,'' ``shelter'' and ``bag lady'' are now in our dictionaries. Churches cannot carry this weight by themselves. Even the Salvation Army, with combined government and national support systems in place, struggles to meet the daily needs of the local poor.
What's needed? Stop blaming the poor for being poor. Stop saying it's somebody else's job. Believe me when I say I have met ``somebody else'' and it is us.
BRENDA McCORMICK
Executive director
Mothers Inc.
Virginia Beach, June 10, 1995 by CNB