As I take on the call to be the Chaplain to the Homeless in Phoenix, I am very aware of the temptation to focus solely on the "salvation" of the homeless; that is, focus primarily and perhaps only on the spiritual condition of the person in front of me and their relationship with God. This approach fails to address the structural, systemic issues that perpetuate the creation of homelessness in the first place. I want to make sure that I do not engage in one side of the issue alone. We want to seek shalom.
Richard Rohr says it best:
"... Christianity has far too easily called individual, private behaviors sins while usually ignoring or even supporting structural and systemic evils such as war, colonization, corporate greed, slavery, and abuse of the Earth. All of the seven capital sins were admired at the corporate level and shamed at the individual level. This left us utterly split in our morality, dealing with symptoms instead of causes, shaming people while glorifying systems that were themselves selfish, greedy, lustful, ambitious, lazy, prideful, and deceitful. We can’t have it both ways. Evil lurks powerfully in the shadows, in our unconscious complicity with systems that serve us at others’ expense. It has created worldviews of entitlement and privilege that were largely unrecognized until rather recently." - Thank you, Fr. Richard Rohr.
Richard Rohr says it best:
"... Christianity has far too easily called individual, private behaviors sins while usually ignoring or even supporting structural and systemic evils such as war, colonization, corporate greed, slavery, and abuse of the Earth. All of the seven capital sins were admired at the corporate level and shamed at the individual level. This left us utterly split in our morality, dealing with symptoms instead of causes, shaming people while glorifying systems that were themselves selfish, greedy, lustful, ambitious, lazy, prideful, and deceitful. We can’t have it both ways. Evil lurks powerfully in the shadows, in our unconscious complicity with systems that serve us at others’ expense. It has created worldviews of entitlement and privilege that were largely unrecognized until rather recently." - Thank you, Fr. Richard Rohr.
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