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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – I’d like to start today’s commentary with a word or two about Jesus Christ. The bible documents many of Christ’s healing mercies. He healed a lepper, a man possessed by evil spirits, a man who was blind, a man who was lame.
Not once did Jesus ask if the person he was helping was a Jew, like Him. In fact, we know that Jesus healed people who were different than him. Not once did he ask. Not once did he withhold his help from someone who needed it.
And today Christ-followers follow that example. They help people in need, no matter who they are.
And that’s why it is outrageous that three Wausau city council members voted against a contract with the Bridge Street Mission to operate the city’s homeless shelter. Gary Gisselman, Terry Kilian, and Carol Lukens object to the city partnering with a religious organization, despite assurances that no one would be turned away from the shelter.
What they really object to is the Mission’s hiring practices. They hire Christians to further their organization’s goals. And there is established law saying it’s permissible. Catholic schools hire practicing Catholics. Lutheran Social Services is run by Lutherans. We don’t force Bridge Street Mission to hire Wiccans or atheists.
What is shocking about the three ‘no’ votes is this: out of all the dozens of charitable groups in town, only one, The Bridge Street Mission, put in a proposal to run the homeless shelter. There was no ‘plan B’. It was the Bridge Street Mission, or no one. And alders Gisselman, Kilian and Lukens voted none-of-the-above. They so object to a faith based organization that they’d rather have no shelter for the homeless. I invite the three “no” votes to explain your plan. Was it really to have the homeless wandering the streets in the dead of winter?
The Bridge Street Mission is offering to run the homeless shelter because it’s what Jesus would want them to do. That a small group is city council members object is morally bankrupt.
Chris Conley
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