[Victims of Court Corruption] Government Ban on Feeding the Homeless

Government Ban on
Feeding of the Homeless

It appears that governments across this nation have taken up assaulting ministries by posing bans upon the feeding of the homeless. Several churches within this nation are finding themselves unwillingly in a warfare with government on this issue.

Below is a article in which this relatively new policy is being brought under constitutional challenge within the courts. This challenge relates to warfare between the First Amendment and public health laws. The politicians have gotten the idea that it is their public duty to intervene against ministries to the homeless. The government's argument is that homelessness people tend to have unhealthy practices.

This results in government stereotyping of an undefined class of people, namely, "homeless people." How does one differentiate between the homeless and men who takes out their wives and children to the park and spreads a blanket and lays out food? Is "homeless" based upon the approving eye of the beholder?

Here just a few of the Scriptures from the Word of God relating to our duty to the less fortunate.

"Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. Ps. 41:1, 2.

"Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked." Ps. 82:3, 4.

"[H]e that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he." Prov. 14:21.

"He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker:" Prov. 14:31

 "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again." Prov. 19:17.

"Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard." Prov. 21:13.

Little do these politicians realize that they themselves will one day cry out for mercy, but they shall be ignored just as they ignored the cries of the homeless.

Ron Branson
VictoryUSA@jail4judges.org


http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-11/news/32633510_1_people-in-city-parks-homeless-people-homeless-advocates

Judge sets arguments on ban on feeding the homeless on Parkway

July 11, 2012
By Joseph A. Slobodzian,
Inquirer Staff Writer

After two days of testimony from witnesses ranging from homeless advocates to Mayor Nutter, a federal judge has set oral arguments for Thursday on the constitutionality of a new city ordinance that bans the public feeding of groups of homeless people in city parks.

"We're ready to go now," said civil rights lawyer Paul M. Messing, who represents four religious groups challenging the feeding ban, after testimony ended Tuesday afternoon.

U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. smiled and told Messing and lawyers for the city to return Thursday. "This may be a little more complex than it seemed before," he said.

The question is arguably one of the thorniest in constitutional law: drawing the line between a government's legitimate authority to regulate public health and gatherings and violating the First Amendment rights of religious organizations to serve society's most needy.

Nutter's ordinance, which bans public feedings of groups of more than three people in any city park, took effect June 1. Its enforcement has been stayed pending Yohn's ruling on its constitutionality. In the meantime, religious groups that have fed homeless people - in groups of up to 250 - for years along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 16th and 20th Streets have continued doing so without penalty.

Four groups - Chosen 300 Ministries, the Welcome Church, the King's Jubilee, and Philly Restart - sued challenging the ordinance, represented by the Philadelphia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and lawyers from the Philadelphia civil rights firm of Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg.

Nutter administration officials have argued that the public feedings along the Parkway - part of the 9,200-acre Fairmount Park - could rob homeless people of dignity, spread food-borne disease, and degrade the park with trash and human waste.

Representatives of the religious groups testified that they had taken the city's free food-sanitation course, follow it in feeding the homeless, and clean the area before and after the homeless get their meals.

What they will not compromise on, however, is what they described as a God-directed mission to minister to the needs of homeless people where they live - on the Parkway.