“Church Zone”
March 10, 2024
New Orleans, LA

“Church Zone”
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“Church Zone”
March 10, 2024
New Orleans, LA
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@OzarkHillbilly: My first response was hmm, shoes of a homeless person, the church demanding silence about the problem. Thanks for reminding me there can be kind responses.
@Mr. Prosser: Interesting interpretation. I wouldn’t have gotten to it without your suggesting it (the shoes being in too good of condition for a homeless person’s shoes being one of my disconnects). My reaction was that in the area where I live, sneakers or running/basketball shoes thrown over a phone line are (in the annals of our urban legends) a marker for a place you can make a drug deal. I was thinking that shoes over a street sign might be a similar indicator in another place/urban legend.
ETA: While I’m here, I’ve decided to note that while I appreciate the suggestion you make (unkind though it may be), my experience is not as much that churches demand silence on the reality of homelessness as that they maintain a relatively strict silence on notions that Christian (and particularly Calvinist) doctrinal biases toward poverty==lack of favor with God play a role in how society addresses homelessness. My inner Manichaean (mentioned in another post) takes no sides on that question, seeing plenty of blame for everyone.