Feeding the Lambs

You wouldn’t think an organization like Stew Pot would ever gather much criticism, but in the beginning, it did. What businesses and property owners were left in West Jackson argued that such a setup would threaten their livelihood. Just last year, Ward Five councilman Vernon Hartley complained about more facilities for the homeless moving into his district.

Trustmark had one of their oldest branch banks in the same block as the Stew Pot. As criticism of the church-led effort grew, even before Stew Pot opened, Trustmark made pretty public statements in support of the effort. That branch was across the street from where Bob Hearin went to church. He probably kept it open longer than good business practices warranted. Even after a rash of robbery attempts, he kept it open until eventually, the board, including my dad, convinced him the few old folks cashing their social security check there weren’t worth paying to air condition and staff the old bank.

Businesses in the area made the point that homeless people are like cats. If you feed them, more will come. That turned out to be true. When I was just sixteen, I visited my mother at work and asked her why the number of people showing up for lunch at Stew Pot kept growing. Where were they coming from? “The poor will always be with us.” She said. She got that from Jesus.

When I lived downtown, I got to know the local cops there. They all told me about how police from five counties and as far away as Memphis were sending their homeless to Jackson. Part of that was for humanitarian reasons. There weren’t many (or really any) facilities for the homeless in Madison or Holmes counties, but there were in Jackson. At least here, they would be fed. There were nights when I would have an early supper at the Mayflower or King Edward Grill and watch law enforcement from Madison and Rankin Counties drop the homeless off at Union Station.

Homelessness is almost always the result of disorganized thinking. We like to blame it on drugs and alcohol, but it’s almost always much deeper than that. Matt Devenney followed my mother as manager of Stew Pot. He was universally loved. Matt had great success working with Jackson Youth Groups, which wanted to serve at Stew Pot. He used their willingness to be an instrument of God to minister to the homeless and to them.

Matt would have told you that the man who shot him was his friend, and he loved him. At the murder trial, John Smith claimed he was insane when he pulled the trigger. John was always insane; that’s why he was homeless. At the moment he pulled the trigger, his insanity told him that Matt’s love for him was a threat. Jesus was thirty-three years old when he died. So was Matt Devenny. After Matt died, several of the youth groups that worked with him before began refusing to let their members work at Stewpot anymore.

Jesus said that the poor would always be with us. Two thousand and twenty-five years later, that’s still true. Jesus said we should feed the hungry and clothe the naked. He even shamed us a little by saying that when we do these things to the least of us, we do it to him. Jesus died for us. After he died, he asked Peter if he loved him. Jesus told Peter that if he loved him, then feed his lambs.

Jesus, Moses, and Mohammad all say we have a moral obligation to feed the hungry. If we would each do it in our community, then it would take the pressure off the urban areas that end up feeding the hungry for all the cities around it. I hear people all the time complaining that it’s the Democrats in Jackson that keep it full of homeless people. I’ve lived here all my life; it’s not the Democrats that keep the homeless here; it’s the Christians.

Stew Pot began with one church, then another, then another. Pretty soon, all the major faiths in Mississippi were contributing, even the atheists. Every time I drive down Lakeland Drive, I worry that it won’t be long before one of the homeless that live in that corridor will end up as part of an Amazon Delivery truck’s front bumper. I don’t know how to resolve that. Some cities around the world have designated areas where you can ask for alms and areas where you can’t. Maybe that’s the solution. What we’re doing doesn’t seem safe or sustainable to me.

We’re social animals. We survive as a group, not as individuals. Sometimes, people have disorganized thinking and that prevents them from finding a place to become a part of society. Jesus said, the poor will always be with us. I fear that’s right. That’s why he asked us to feed his lambs.