Give up your churches. It’s time for lent, right? I am asking for everyone who believes that the correct way of life would be to follow Jesus Christ and his teachings to give up something extremely valuable to them. I’m saying that if you really want to live in the way of Christ, then you have to give your churches. There is no other way.
I walk around the city of Chicago and I see churches that people attend every Sunday morning, afternoon and Saturday night. I see churches with people dressing in their finest, and I see them throwing money into a wicker basket passed along for contributions. I also walk around the city of Chicago every morning and see people that live on the street, morning, afternoon and every night. I see people asking others for change, for a little help. I see them asking for acknowledgement.
Give up your churches because you can. Keep the same belief, the same faith. Do something for humanity with that faith. Give them up for people who don’t have the luxury of paying for a building only used on Sundays and a few religious holidays, a building such as your church. I’m reaching out to all Christians because they have the capacity to do something about this problem. There are hundreds of Christian churches in Chicago, if you count all the denominations.
There are also thousands of people who are homeless in Chicago. They sleep on the sidewalks, between the buildings where you work, in the trains that you take to work, and on the benches in the parks where you walk your dog. You have seen them, they have nowhere to go and no one to go to. You need to realize what is happening and ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?”
So what would Jesus do? Based on the stories I have read, from what people say he was like, I have a pretty good idea of exactly what he would do. He would see that there are people living on the streets who take the fact that it’s raining outside more seriously than forgetting their umbrella at home. These people don’t have a home to leave an umbrella in!
He would do something to shelter them. He would not look through them on the corner of a downtown intersection. He would not pretend he was looking at his cell phone, or changing the song on his I-pod, while passing a suffering palm turned up to him. He would see those people and he would see all those churches, and he would lead the homeless to desperately needed shelter.
You have churches; there are many of them in Chicago. Instead of giving money to the people who tell you to be good, be good people and give up your apathy for people who could truly use your help. I know many churches in the city reach out and have dinners for the homeless. To those churches I say thank you. Yet I, and presumably Jesus, would also say that it is not enough.
Many churches have gyms with fifty foam mats for people to sleep on a couple of nights a week. We are stuffing human beings into church gyms. I say give them everything; all the space you have. Rip out the wooden pews and instead assemble beds on your Sunday mornings. You can still go to church any day you want, but instead of singing from a book and shaking each other’s hands, saying “peace be with you”, bring peace to other humans by lending your hand to help someone in need.
It will get messy. Sometimes problems will arise, but if you think Jesus is looking down at you and judging the way you are treating one another, then giving up the churches to house your fellow man will look better to him than any weekly hymnals or prayers. If you believe Jesus is watching you, then what do you think he would say about your indifference? He would want you to show others your love. You love and believe in Jesus, and He loves all human beings. Therefore you must love all human beings with him. Show Jesus how much you love him and give up your churches. Simply worshipping him is no longer enough. You have to act.
Everyone can help. I’m not asking for compassion from just the Christians. I will be there when the decision is made for this change. I will help along with everyone else. Email me at: R-storck@neiu.edu and let me know when we can begin.