Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
The Homeless: Violent Liberators

The Homeless: Violent Liberators

Last updated on: August 13, 2010 at 6:10 pm by George Elerick

9,127 Comments

The Homeless: Violent Liberators 2010-08-13T18:10:47+00:00 George Elerick

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jesus at one point on his journey comments on the static state of the homeless population.

He says to his listeners that the homeless will always be here with us. In another place he equates a compassionate act to those in need, as the same as if we had enacted compassion directly on to Him. Essentially, the homeless population* are Jesus in the flesh. They are messengers of the Rabbi from Nazareth.

I think Jesus is doing something incredibly important here, I think he is reminding us all that we are connected to the populations in exile.

Remember, in this culture, if you’re poor, you are on the outside. You’re essentially kicked to the curb. By societies standards you have no influence, you are castrated.

But, for some people, the homeless population makes them feel uncomfortable. They have made me feel uncomfortable and I used to be homeless. There is something about our interaction with them that turns us off. I think it has nothing to do with the invasive smells that befall some of them or even their overly-gregarious demeanor.

I think its because they negate us.
Because they remind us of what we don’t need.

They remind us that we have become too attached to the ‘stuff’ in our lives. We don’t embrace them because it would mean the ‘end of our life’. It would mean we would have to deal with our inherent spirit of entitlement and its destructive after-effects.

They are a symbol of our death.

That’s why we can’t look for too long or it would be like staring back at ourselves as we were meant to be. I am not saying we are meant to be impoverished.

No one should be.

But the homeless population have become a symbol of all the things we could lose if we ended up where they are now. And I think we forget that that line isn’t that far off.

If we truly interact with them as equals, we would have to confess to our greed, preservation and narccisstic spirit that sometimes goes so easily unnoticed. Mutual reciprocity is dangerous territory because than it means we are in a relationship with someone who might take advantage of what you or I have to give, and we may not know how to handle it, so we don’t try at all. Since they negate us by being themselves, we negate them by not being ourselves.

By being self-serving.

In the regard that they are symbols of our death, they than can be referred to as violent liberators. They violently liberate us from the lives we think we have a right to own. They violently liberate us from our inherent spirits of entitlement. They violently liberate us from the fantasises embedded within something like the ‘American Dream’. They force us to look outside of our ourselves.

All of their reminders, behaviors and ‘social impropriety’* remind us that we need them to balance our incessant need to bipolarize our opinions of them. They violently liberate us from the irresponsibility of not seeing them as fellow brothers and sisters. They violently liberate us into a life where we don’t feel a need to sustain our greed and desire for ‘stuff.’ They have the ability to free us. How?

I think we need them to negate us.

We need to be negated to find ourselves. To discover who we are meant to be beyond the death of us.

If anything, these peculiar people could be the best thing we’ve encountered and must continually encounter. We can no longer rest in the comfort of apathy. We have a responsibility to the other if not simply to learn something about ourselves, but even more so to learn something about our humanity. Once we stop caring for someone in need, we stop being human.

*The homeless in this article alludes to anyone who is in need. Anyone.

*I use the word social impropriety in terms of how perverse society tends to like to define what is ‘normal and acceptable’

Previous Post

August 13, 2010

Anxious for Nothing

Next Post

August 16, 2010 Christians in the Movies: A Complex History

Recent Comments

9,127 Comments | Leave a Comment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Author Interviews Battle Over the Body and Blood of Christ Bearing Beauty Book Reviews Christian Education christian spirituallity christianity Christmas Church Church Leadership Contemplation Creation Care Death and Dying Death Penalty Disruptive Change Disruptors Series Easter Education Evolution and Faith Future of Progressive Christianity Gun Violence Health & Wellness Holy Week Interfaith Israel-Palestine Leading Differently Lent LGBTQ Living with Cancer Meditations on the Cross Mental Illness millennials Mimetic Mondays Monday Meditations Movie Reviews New Monasticism Pando Populus Parenting Patheos 10+1 Q&A Series PC(USA) Politics Pop Culture Practical Theology Series Prayer progressive christian Race Relations Reformation religion Religion and Politics Religion in America Rethink Church Social Justice Spirituality Spirituality of the Body Stump a Scholar Technology and Faith Thanksgiving Theodicy Trust Me Church Uncategorized Why I'm Still Christian Youth Ministry

Select a Month December 2025 April 2025 January 2025 September 2023 September 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 November 2021 October 2021 May 2021 February 2021 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 June 2019 March 2019 January 2019 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book prophesies the destruction of Nineveh?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Obadiah Nahum Zephaniah Jonah