In the Name of Love…

I have been watching the robbery, the theft and manipulation of the word Love over the past several decades by the enemies of Truth. Making it a tool for their purposes rather than the holy biblical words stating, God is love. I know that God’s love is a Love that is pure and sacrificial, unconditional, a love I can trust in and it will not fail. So, this idea of Love is something to aspire to. To be able to demonstrate it towards others and actually want to be known for sharing God’s love to the world. But what does that look like?

I have watched the definition of Love change over the last 30 plus years by twisting the idea of it. To change its core, to use this word for different purposes, to use it as an instrument of evil not good. I have seen compassion used as the measure of love. Being used without the balance of common sense, the balance of universal truth and it has led us to using a “love” that rewards all kinds of sin. A love that produces dependency and leads to entitlement.

I take it back to the time Martin Sheen laid down on the metal grate to bring attention to the homeless in 1987. He was bringing compassion to the plight of the homeless. Should we have compassion? Yes, of course. But without the balance of our emotions against the reality of human nature, do we know the difference between compassion and enabling? In regards to the homeless: If there is mental illness, please get help or deliverance, if there is a need for shelter help them get work, get them in an apartment perhaps pay the first and last, schooling? What about vocational training for their capabilities? Private business to hire and apprentice? To help them to help themselves. Root out those who want help from those that choose that lifestyle. Require a commitment from them to be able to access the benefit they want.

I might point out that about 10 years earlier the “do-gooders” of the world closed many of the mental institutions in the U.S. In particular Patton State hospital in S. California. Patton was a successful institution that was almost self-sufficient with a cannery, orchards, gardens, etc. where patients worked. There was a sense of accomplishment among patients housed there. A friend of mine worked there in patient care and was totally dismayed about the closings first of the businesses that now brought the patients inside. She reported that they were medicating the patients to keep them quiet now that they had nothing to do. The failure of this program and the Deinstitutionalizing of these facilities poured the mentally ill out into the community and has been an important factor in the homeless problem we have today. Compassion? Don’t think so.

I’m old enough to remember the Peace Corp. In high school, lots of people considered joining the Peace Corp. in order to help those people around the world to live better, provide for themselves with agriculture, freshwater, medical information, etc. One of their mottoes back then was “Give a man a fish and you’ve fed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you’ve fed him for a lifetime. Did we do that in our culture, with our homeless? And what has been the result…. Tent cities within cities, teeming filth, drugs, needles, crime, and literally full of and smelling like crap.

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