Imagine if a bank robber were to hold up a bank and then, in a strange twist, takes himself as his own hostage threatening to take his life if all his demands on behalf of someone else aren’t met. It might not make the script of the next big action movie, but it serves as a good metaphor for the homeless crisis in our community over the last 5 years.
In our story the city parks are the bank, and the homeless are both robbers and hostages. “We won’t leave your parks until you give the government a piece of land to manage for us to camp on, that we may or may not actually use… oh yeah, and you can’t ask us to be sober either! And if you don’t then we’ll all die!” Of course everyone is left looking at each other asking why a homeless person is making demands to favor possibly the single biggest creator of this problem in the first place, but there it is. Let’s review for a minute and see how we got here.
In November of 2018, UCAN (a tax funded organization) funded a class action complaint through the Oregon Law Center (who also receives a substantial portion of their revenue from tax dollars) against the City of Grants Pass (also taxpayer funded). By 2019, the lawsuit made its way through the courts (entirely taxpayer funded) all the way to the 9th Circuit, where an injunction was filed against the city. UCAN all the while proceeded to give out camping gear, purchased with tax dollars, for people to camp in our parks, also purchased with tax dollars. The injunction prohibited the rules that the taxpayers approved from being implemented regarding the use of the parks that they paid for. The result is that the good, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens of Grants Pass were unable to take their children to the parks that they paid for, for the next several years. When they complained about it to their city officials, they were told that what was needed was a large tent camp with no requirement for sobriety, paid for and run by tax funded organizations. Hmmm… seems legitimate…
Finally, a sweet victory for a long-fought battle, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 in favor of the City of Grants Pass on Friday, June 28th. After 5 years of hearing blame shifting and back pedaling, the taxpaying citizens of Grants Pass no longer need fear the wrath of the 9th Circuit Court and can pursue getting our parks and public spaces back. Our hope is that those who are able to leave our streets and parks will have increased motivation to do so, and that many will choose the Mission. Our hope is also that those with access to public funds would stop “fixing” the problem of homelessness, since at every turn in our story, apart from the SCOTUS decision, they have made matters worse.
Our civil government desperately wants to govern without the oversight of Almighty God and without mentioning the name of Jesus. Ultimately it is for this reason that they are committed to the invention of a secular space that is “neutral ground.” But there is no such space whether real or imagined. It is in the tax funded spaces where the forced celebration of practices that God calls sin are made mandatory, thus proving their bias. What is needed is for us, the citizenry, to repent and turn away from electing politicians who refuse to acknowledge Gods authority over all things. We should express our gratitude to God for the reprieve handed to us by Him through the high court and pray for further opportunity to appoint leaders who will honor Him in their governance.
There is still lots of work to be done and I’ll share some potential ideas in future newsletters. Let’s all remember to give God our thanks for this victory in favor of our communities under the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit Court, and please pray that He will continue to provide the Gospel Rescue Mission with the wisdom and support needed to see lives changed!
Brian Bouteller – Executive Director