More than 200 Spokane churches were asked to open their doors to homeless people during dangerously cold weather — four agreed
A dangerous cold snap is forecast. Hundreds of unhoused people are in danger of freezing to death, and there isn't a clear plan to keep them warm. With the clock ticking, the city scrambles.
The idea of using churches to house homeless people during cold weather has been long in the making. In theory, it makes sense: Hundreds of Spokane churches sit empty every night. With city shelter space consistently below what's needed, why not ask the faith community to help?
But making that vision a reality has been an uphill battle.
Johnny Edmondson, the family ministry director at Shadle Park Presbyterian Church, helped organize this year's efforts to open up churches. Over the course of about three months, Edmondson says the group of volunteers and service providers contacted 227 local churches.
He says almost every church said they were interested in supporting the effort. But many expressed concern about potential liability, damage to their buildings and other things that could go wrong.
The biggest hurdle, Edmondson says, was fear.
By late December, a few churches were considering the idea, but none had officially committed. McKinney with the Low Income Housing Consortium says there were moments when he worried the project would fizzle.
By Thursday, three churches had committed. Several others were on the fence.
Garcia says she's grateful to see the support but disappointed that more churches didn't step up.
"In talking with some of these churches, I think people forget who Jesus was," Garcia says. "We've gotten away from 'What would Jesus do?'"
https://www.inlander.com/news/more-than-...d-27303574
A dangerous cold snap is forecast. Hundreds of unhoused people are in danger of freezing to death, and there isn't a clear plan to keep them warm. With the clock ticking, the city scrambles.
The idea of using churches to house homeless people during cold weather has been long in the making. In theory, it makes sense: Hundreds of Spokane churches sit empty every night. With city shelter space consistently below what's needed, why not ask the faith community to help?
But making that vision a reality has been an uphill battle.
Johnny Edmondson, the family ministry director at Shadle Park Presbyterian Church, helped organize this year's efforts to open up churches. Over the course of about three months, Edmondson says the group of volunteers and service providers contacted 227 local churches.
He says almost every church said they were interested in supporting the effort. But many expressed concern about potential liability, damage to their buildings and other things that could go wrong.
The biggest hurdle, Edmondson says, was fear.
By late December, a few churches were considering the idea, but none had officially committed. McKinney with the Low Income Housing Consortium says there were moments when he worried the project would fizzle.
By Thursday, three churches had committed. Several others were on the fence.
Garcia says she's grateful to see the support but disappointed that more churches didn't step up.
"In talking with some of these churches, I think people forget who Jesus was," Garcia says. "We've gotten away from 'What would Jesus do?'"
https://www.inlander.com/news/more-than-...d-27303574
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
