It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, all the little twerps in the neighborhood will:
Rob and kill and maim and burn and extort in the neighborhood
Won’t you be my crummy neighbor?
Friends, the days of Mr. Roberts in America are over. The whole idea today is to not even know your neighbor at all. Most of us in urban settings are relegated to enjoying daily drive-by shootings, drugs and any other vile achievement modern neighborhoods produce.
And the church…where is the church in all of this?
For the large part the church is hidden,out of view from the every day milieu separated by gated communities, extensive expressways and zoning laws with detailed deed restrictions.
What that means, folks is that you and I are NOT welcomed there. We are kept out and for all practical purposes, this spills over to the churches as well.
No, we don’t want those stinky, scummed-bagged drifters and homeless and low-down, no-account people contaminating our ‘beautiful’ communities. We have programs for that, projects that contain this pestilence. AND SO THEN WE DON’T SAY ANYMORE…
Want you be my neighbor?
Obviously the answer is, no. And the lack of neighbors also means the lack of Jesus for Jesus is not allowed to go into the neighborhoods nor the churches sponsored by the neighborhoods.
To fellowship with Jesus we have to move over to, “Let’s Make a Deal.”
And with our avarice and riches, Jesus is permitted to enter only at His own risk and only if He intends to bless them more with even more American Deals that increase more things of which Americans don’t really want.
In the meanwhile can we still be friends, be neighbors? To this the reply is obivously.
No, no and hell, no for we have no neighbors.
Hard Times Ministries 
James 2:2, brother! If you are a successful politician, banker, entrepreneur, especially someone with good marketing skills and an upbeat attitude too, then we want you! IF not, we MIGHT tolerate you, but if you are poor, smell bad, have a lot of needs of the riff raff variety, then we have a mission church for you across town!
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Got a real nice trendy coffee shop 100 yards away from our church building that sends proceeds from every latte to that church to “help” those bums too. So why bother going over there to check out what Jesus is up to, just get a great coffee drink and support what he is up to from over here… a SAFE distance from such neighbors…
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Sure, we can send Jesus away with only a $1.85 cup of coffee that benefits everyone. Good to the last drop.
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“Good to the last drop.”
I reckon you gotta be an old guy like us to know that old sales pitch, but I gotta say your placement of it here is beautiful!
I should get bumperstickers made up. Seriously. They don’t have to use the real name of the real place to get the idea across to those in the know.
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You said that exactly right. I am welcome someplace else.
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You know… I’m worried my remarks here sound as if I am ungrateful for all the good things that come out of the ministries supported by my church. That is not actually the case.
I thank God for every crumb that falls from the table – practically daily. And there are a number of things these ministers and ministries do well – to an extent. And I am thankful for those and would not want to discourage them at all.
But after having been thrown out myself for the offense of asking the wrong questions no less, AND since we are the greatest nation on earth, among the wealthiest people in history, offering crumbs from our table to the King of kings is already cause for suspicion.
Seriously, get the big picture on this.
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Agent X I agree the churches perform some wonderful ministries, engaging the ‘undesirables’ is simply not one of them.. No, i don’t claim the status of a prophet, but if I did, I would charge the church with neglect in tending to those who are outside the walls of the church building. This might be a small point, but it affects hundreds of thousands of people in this country alone. And yes, we are to present the presence of Jesus everywhere. at least that is what I pick up on the great commission.
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We have free community soup every Tuesday and a free BBQ in the park for transients every Thursday. My other church has some pretty rough characters come through a few times a week, mostly recovering addicts. I love that church the most, it’s real and authentic. But yes, what you describe is very common, and this neighborhood I live in sure ain’t Mr Roger’s neighborhood.
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