You'll know they are Christians by their love

[chrishansenhome]

From the Ottawa Citizen

Headline: "Church closes food bank because it attracts poor people"

"Winnipeg: A busy church food bank, known for offering warm drinks and snacks to its regulars, has announced it's closing because it is attracting too many poor people.

"'It's attracting a lot of street people that make it uncomfortable,' said Charlotte Prossen, Unity Truth Centre minister Thursday, 'It's creating social unrest in the church'

"'A food bank is a social service and that is not who we are'

"Ms. Prossen said the program is being cancelled to focus on more church-specific activities. The church's board of trustees made the decision to cancel the bimonthly food bank after receiving an e-mail from a sister church in Victoria.

"'Most clients of food banks have not yet come to a sense of personal responsibility in life. They are still in denial, blame or seeing the world as owing them,' wrote Rev. David Durksen of the Unity Church of Victoria.

"Ms. Prossen praised the work done by food banks, and said the church will still collect food for baskets but focus more on people's spiritual hunger."

Now, if your jaw drops at this news item, consider this statement of their beliefs from their website:

What do we Believe?

Unity is positive, practical Christianity, teaching effective daily application of the principles of truth taught and exemplified by Jesus Christ.

Unity promotes a way of life that leads to health, prosperity, happiness and peace of mind.

All people are created with sacred worth, and Unity strives to reach out to all who seek support and spiritual growth.

Unity teaches that the Spirit of God lived in Jesus, just as it lives in every person

Not the religion about Jesus Christ – but the religion OF Jesus Christ.

Now I don't know about you, but I think that whatever Jesus died for it was not to expressly found a religion. And I always thought that if Jesus Christ had a religion, it was Judaism.

I am appalled. These people seem to think that religion is all about spirituality alone. Perhaps they recall that the Pharisees and Sadducees weren't too happy about the people with whom Jesus associated. They were the street people of their time: prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers. Perhaps they don't remember the parable of the wedding banquet: when those originally invited didn't turn up, the bridegroom went out and gathered up all those on the streets to participate in the feast. Perhaps they think that the feeding of the five thousand was the feeding of five thousand Pharisees, or five thousand merchants.

When I was volunteering for the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in Manhattan's Chelsea neighbourhood, I associated with street people of every kind. Some were not too presentable physically and could have used a bit of a cleanup. Some were the detritus of society: prostitutes, the unemployed and unemployable, transvestites and transexuals who lived rough because no one would house them. When I worked in the counselling office I saw 5 guests a day, and I didn't throw them out if they weren't my kind of person. As a Christian EVERY person is my kind of person. And they required not only spiritual food but also physical nourishment that their life circumstances couldn't always provide for them. And we provided it for them. Not to say that I got any time off from Purgatory for this, or that anyone else did, for that matter. That's not why this particular Christian church provided food for hungry people. It's because that is exactly what Jesus expects of us.

My thanks (I think) to Criggo for pointing out this interesting article. And if you're down-and-out in Winnipeg, you'll have to go somewhere else for physical nourishment, as all you'll get from the Unity Truth Center is a sermon, it seems.

Note: Do see trawnapanda's second comment below to discover the date of this story and the fact that it is, actually, true.

Comments

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

appalling as this is, I can't find that article on the Ottawa
Citizen website

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

I did some due diligence. I established that they exist, and looked at their website. It's not up to date (the last events listed on the website were last Christmas). I Googled them and nothing like this came up. However, as there was no date on the article and the website is seriously out of date, I suspect this may be an elderly article and may have fallen into the Citizen's archive or bit bucket.

And looking at their statement of beliefs from the website, an action like this seems to be in perfect congruence with it.

All that being said, if anyone demonstrates that the article is a hoax, I will gladly delete the Facebook references, the tweet, and make this entry private. I am easy that way.

on further investigation...

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

.
Ah, here we are. The story is over eleven years old. The decision was made in February 2000.

The "church"(*) was allowing Winnipeg Harvest, the local food bank organisation, to use their church as a distribution venue. The decision was made by Ms Prossen, quoted in the Ottawa Citizen article as well, who was the new/incoming minister, who had joined only two months before the decision. Given the sparse nature of the "current" website, she may well have long since left, too.

My opinions of the Winnipeg decision may be imagined, and are remarkably similar to yours. But then, the church I attend serves breakfast and lunch to anywhere between 75 and 100 people every weekday, 11 months a year. That's a parish initiative, staffed by parish volunteers and employees, not space donated /rented to either Daily Bread or Second Harvest, our local Trawna food charities.

While I am distressed/ annoyed that this ministry is even necessary, I'm glad that my parish takes it upon itself to provide it. Some biblical exhortations about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked come to mind.

(*)why yes, those ARE sneer quotes. why do you ask?

Re: on further investigation...

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

O ailuropod mine, thank you very much for your diligence, which is much more due than mine was.

The church in which I was received in Manhattan nearly 23 years ago serves 1200 lunches each weekday. This is not a "my church is better than yours" thang; it's an acknowledgement that in these Republican/Tory times (as well as most other times) such assistance is necessary.

The Unity movement is quite interesting in that it is so personal that I suspect the last person on earth could practice it and feel totally satisfied within him or herself.

I note that the minister cites safety and protection issues. At Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, the safety and protection issues were handled by Jimmy, who was the nearest thing to a secular saint I have ever met. He was formerly in the military (I want to say the Navy) and while he was short and squat, no one ever crossed him, as he carried an authority that no advantage of height or brawn could match. He died around 20 years ago, and I am sure is keeping order in the queue for St. Peter's Gate.

I am delighted to see that Winnipeg Harvest seems to be going from strength to strength; while it's sad that they're needed, I'm very happy to see that they have survived Unity.

Well, I'm glad that this snipped of news, while old, has sparked some interest and has been demonstrated to be true.

[randomcub.livejournal.com]

This is very similar to a congregation in Minneapolis with Unity in the name:

http://www.unitychristchurch.org/about/faq#Q2

and also very similar to one in Toronto:

http://www.unitytoronto.ca/index.php?primary=3

I think at least some of these are part of the Unity movement, which emphasizes prosperity in its teaching; it is "a positive path" to use their words. (I think it's largely bunk, but color me pessimistic, eh?)

http://unity.org/aboutunity/index.html

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

When I was living in New York, from 1970-1991, WNCN-FM (RIP, very sadly) used to have a 5 minute prayer and spoken word slot from the then pastor of Unity in New York, Eric Butterworth (http://ericbutterworth.wwwhubs.com/). If you look at his bio from the link, you will note that he's a proponent of the "Prosperity Gospel" melded with an American Unitarianism and even to a certain extent, pantheism. There's even a bit of Norman Vincent Peale and the power of positive thinking in there. Oh well, the prosperity gospel never did very well as the only people who seem to prosper are the preachers.