Recently Ft. Lauderdale Florida arrested a 90 year old man and two pastors for feeding homeless people in public. The Mayor, Jake Seilar, has realized that the city has suffered from well-deserved negative publicity and has stated that they should have done a better job of convincing him of the error of his ways. Even though many chamber of commerce members and businessmen have stated that their real goal is to drive homeless people away from their city, the mayor said that it was a good thing to feed them indoors at approved locations, far from where the homeless people are. Ft. Lauderdale is one of a number of U.S. cities which have tried to return to the days of treating poverty as a crime.
The truth is that many homeless people, especially "street people", cannot effectively be reached with indoor feeding programs, and those need to be located near where the homeless people are found. Some of the anti-feeding scrooges say that feeding homeless people only enables homelessness. I guess death by starvation cures homelessness. Perhaps Ft. Lauderdale and the other cities who have joined in the assault on homeless people should build public showers with cyanide gas and nearby crematories.
Contrast Ft. Lauderdale with Knoxville, TN. Knoxville is one of 20 American cities that is participating in a program to end poverty sponsored by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Knoxville has a number of food programs (several of them world acclaimed, such as the Love Kitchen) located in areas easily accessible to the homeless, as well as a number of programs that feed people in the streets (or under overpasses). One program has a canteen truck that appears about midnight in the historic Old City district, an area that is open all night and attracts young street people.
One of the core teachings of Jesus is found in Matthew 25:31ff. Jesus speaks in a parable of a day when all people are gathered before Him on Judgment day. Some He will welcome to Paradise because they fed Him when he was hungry, others He will send elsewhere because they did not. Both groups will ask "when did we feed/not feed You?" and He will answer "When you did/ did not do this to the least of people". The hungry homeless person, or the sick and dying person with no health insurance is Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 we are told that charity is the greatest spiritual gift.
I am sure that many other spiritual figures such as Buddha taught such concepts. Any followers of other religions are very welcome to add references (in comments below) to their religions as further examples of the value of charity. Mohammed, of course, quoted Jesus as the Messiah on this subject, and many Jews consider Jesus to be a great rabbi. Feel free to add comments. I am sure that there are Atheists who also can add to this discussion. If you feel that charity is an abomination, you may state your views. It will not be MY job to judge you.
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