Whose responsibility is it to protect unhoused when it’s freezing outside? An Ohio pastor opened his church to the homeless and was charged by city.

  • solrize@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Ambiguous title. The pastor didn’t ask for money from the freezing people. He took them in for free. The city then criminally charged him for violating zoning rules:

    Chris Avell, pastor of Dad’s Place in Bryan, Ohio, was arraigned in court last Thursday because he kept his church open 24/7 to provide warmth to the unhoused.

    Ohio law prohibits residential use in first-floor buildings in a business district. Since the church is zoned as a Central Business, the building is restricted from allowing people to eat or sleep on the property.

    • damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I dunno. It seems pretty clear that charged in this case means the government sicced the dogs on him for being a… checks notes… good Christian.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        10 months ago

        No wonder we have so many Bad Christians when the good ones are punished for their deeds.

        This is what the gospel of Jesus meant that the life of a true Christian was the hardest.

        The people who actually follow the gospel are generally vilified by the majority of Christians for making the rest of them look bad or something.

        • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          If these people get angry at someone performing a good deed because that makes then look bad, they’re going to hell.

          If even the least absolutist christian sect, the church of England, teaches that as they did to me during my childhood, then those fuckers aren’t even close to being Christian. They’re just wearing a crucifix.

          Fucking posers.

      • OpenStars@startrek.website
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        10 months ago

        Hey now, since when does being a good Christian mean… checks notes… taking care of the oppressed, hungry & needy? Oh, well shit. :-P

      • mercano@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I wonder if there’s a first amendment defense to be made here. The pastor was following his religious tenets by sheltering the poor in the church in their time of need.

      • badbytes@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        So private sector does gov job, in caring for citizens and gets in trouble. As if the gov wants to criminalize kindness.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      criminally charged him for violating zoning rules

      Well fuck’em.

      If its criminal to do the right thing for your fellow humans, do crime.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      So by this logic church patrons would have to leave the premises to eat a snack, participate in a church meal, or even eat one of those wafers they sometimes hand out.

      • TheLight@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 months ago

        Yup. Serve the body of Christ? Straight to jail. Your sermon is so boring someone dozes off, believe it or not, jail.

        Of course, this doesn’t really happen, through the magic of selective enforcement the only people getting the boot are those preventing the homeless from freezing to death, ruining the plans of the local administration.

        • gaifux@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          A pastor would not be “serving the body of Christ”, since transfiguration is a Roman Catholic heresy

            • gaifux@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              The doctrine of transfiguration is not the same thing as communion. When protestants take communion they are not under the belief they are eating the literal body of Christ. Instead it’s purely symbolic. Catholicism holds that your salvation literally hinges on eating that piece of bread and wine every week since they believe it is literally Christ’s body once it’s blessed. It’s like the literalist opposite of gnostic views

              • Notorious_handholder@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Buddy you’re trying to nitpick something that no one cares about that still has the same result. At the end of the day the people will still be eating the cracker in a business zoned church.

                Whatever beliefs or arbitrary labels are held behind the gesture do not matter at all to what is being talked about

    • maness300@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      he building is restricted from allowing people to eat or sleep on the property.

      Okay… so any business in the ‘business district’ is restricted from allowing people to eat or sleep on their property.

      If I was a lawyer, I’d record people eating in their business district buildings and present that to the court right next to the law that says they’re not allowed to do it.

      I would fight tooth and nail to ensure whatever judicial overreach is screwing over poor people also screws over rich ones.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        10 months ago

        No eating in the business district means no break rooms. And if Christian churches are in the business district, I’d imagine this means no communion wafers either.

      • Substance_P@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yep, and what boundaries constitutes a church, synagogue, mosque or place of worship these days, and why is one religion tax free, yet a philosophical movement is not? To whom is respon$ible for making these institutions exempt of taxation? I for one would be a proud supporter of a church that actually upholds the tenants of biblical teachings, and also follows in the footsteps of those morals, but it’s all just a sad sad part of modern day capitalism. This Pastor is a hero and should be heralded as such.

    • OpenStars@startrek.website
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      10 months ago

      Technically you are correct, but this is far from the first instance of this kind, probably already even in 2024. I knew immediately what it meant b/c of that context… sigh, unfortunately:-(.

      Still, thank you very much for clarifying - Lemmy is shared world-wide, and not everyone may have picked up on that, especially non-native speakers. You are preventing misunderstandings hence promoting Truth, exactly as that pastor would have wanted:-).