The New 800 Pound Gorilla

When Corey Stewart attended the V.O.I.C.E. (Virginians Organized  for Interfaith Community Engagement)   symposium on October 5, 2008, he refused to work with V.O.I.C.E. on  housing and county dental care and was quite up-front about it.   He did say he would help set up meetings.  He then stepped outside of the agenda of V.O.I.C.E.’s meeting and said that there was an 800 pound ‘moral’ Gorilla in the room and implored that V.O.I.C.E. help him end the scourge of abortion.

Stewart received more than a few boo’s and hisses that day for saying no to the goals  of VOICE and for trying to push his own agenda on a group who were clearly meeting over a totally different set of objectives.  There were church representatives from all over the county and Northern Virginia who were meeting over the housing crisis.  Corey’s attempt at deflection was not met with good humor. 

His refusal to address the issue of homelessness today  is as apparent as it was on 10/5/08.   Is Stewart one of those people who only cares about life prenatally and chooses to ignore what happens from cradle to grave as someone else’s problem?

I have heard much snickering,  tittering  and denegration about the work that V.O.I.C.E. and other church organizations do about feeding and clothing those in need.  What a shame.  Isn’t that what churches are supposed to do?  Some of our politicians seem to think meetings like the one shown above are silly and liberal, until there is a disaster.  Then they are all too willing to send folks to churches for food, clothing and shelter or whatever else the needs are. 

It looks like the new 800 pound ‘moral’ gorilla is 140 or so families who have no place to live and who will be thrown out of temporary emergency shelter on Friday.  Once again, the churches are being asked to help.  I expect they will because that’s just what churches do.