this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 125 points 7 months ago (7 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 159 points 7 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 102 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 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

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 85 points 7 months ago (1 children)

criminally charged him for violating zoning rules

Well fuck'em.

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I believe it was Marcus Garvey that said all immoral laws must be disobeyed.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yet another evil created by zoning laws.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (6 children)

I don't know, we don't want a shooting range next to a preschool or something. Zoning does some good.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Since when did we care about children getting shot at school?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Zoning is there to prevent wasting those targets by accident /s

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh come on. This is absolutely a government overreach.. yes, regulations can be good. They were not in this case.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Maybe I’m misunderstanding the situation, but it seems to me the problem here isn’t the zoning laws, but draconian enforcement during an emergency.

Usually in times of hardship, anyone with half a brain knows not to strictly enforce laws like this that were clearly not intended to stop churches, businesses, or private individuals from helping people.

It’s like charging someone for violating zoning by taking in neighbours whose homes were destroyed. In normal times, there are laws against turning yourself into a boarding house without a permit, but nobody reasonable would enforce that after a tornado.

The problem is moronic enforcement.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

The regulation/law could have been written better. That's why I called it overreach. They could have written an emergency clause or wrote an emergency regulation/law that specified overruling certain laws.

That's what I meant by overreach. I'm generally pro regulations when it comes to safety which is what the sleeping and eating one I assume was written about.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You mean like here in maryville, tn, where the new Smith and Wesson factory and test range shares a property line with Middlesettlements Elementary School?

Nothing quite like kids hearing gunshots outside at school.

And it wasn’t just “allowed” by zoning laws. The city basically did backflips to get the plant to move here. They even convinced the city of Alcoa to cede the land to the city of Maryville without telling Alcoa why they wanted it.

Bunch of shady shit all around, but the whole county basically sucks Smith and Wesson’s dick now. They even had a big festival on the day the plant opened to celebrate it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Wouldn't a daycare/private preschool and a gun range both be the same light commercial zones?

There might be regulation keeping you from owning a gun range near a school, but I don't think zoning helps

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Seems like a shooting range next to a school could be a deterrent.

Hmmm, which school to shoot up? This one next to a bunch of folks with weapons and ammo within arms reach practicing marksmanship or any of these other ones without that?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Not this zoning.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

How many of those businesses work people so hard/overnight so they are sleeping in their offices? Its Ohio so probably not many but its probably still happened.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If it's a business, why don't they pay taxes?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Not that I particularly care if churches are or are not taxed but arguing that religion is philosophy just is empirically wrong. Philosophy is rarely passed generation to generation but religion is almost always is. No one would call an 8 year old a Hegellian but they would grasp the idea that the 8 year old is Muslim and should be given hallel food. A Marxist solider who dies in combat isn't going to get a Marxist funeral. A Platoist is not going to request a Platoist leader to provide them comfort in their final moments. No one is bringing their family to weekly Russellian services where they sing about the glory of set theory. No desperate person has begged their local Utilitarian thinker to pray away the Utility Monster.

I am an atheist btw so don't try it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

You're right. The only difference between philosophy and religion is the cult aspect. So why are we rewarding the culty versions that indoctrinate children into being unable to think for themselves rather than actual philosophical movements? Its backwards as fuck. Religon is much of why humanity is so stupid. It requires faith. Faith and critical thinking cannot coexist when the faith involves meaning of life stuff.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I use Arch Linux, btw.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 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:-).