Who Would Jesus Soak? California Church Soaks Homeless People With Water
Despite California’s historic and potentially life-threatening drought, a church in California has taken to spraying homeless people with water if they try to sleep on the property of the church. This reminds me of the part of the Bible where Jesus goes around spraying homeless people with water to get them to go away. Er..
KCBS, a CBS affiliate out of San Francisco has obtained disturbing footage (which can be seen below) of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the principle church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, using an automated watering system that soaks any homeless people that attempt to sleep on the church’s steps or near the doorways. From their report:
“The cathedral, at Geary and Gough, is the home church of the Archbishop. There are four tall side doors, with sheltered alcoves, that attract homeless people at night.
“They actually have signs in there that say, ‘No Trespassing,’” said a homeless man named Robert.
But there are no signs warning the homeless about what happens in these doorways, at various times, all through the night. Water pours from a hole in the ceiling, about 30 feet above, drenching the alcove and anyone in it.
The shower ran for about 75 seconds, every 30 to 60 minutes while we were there, starting before sunset, simultaneously in all four doorways. KCBS witnessed it soak homeless people, and their belongings. “We’re going to be wet there all night, so hypothermia, cold, all that other stuff could set in. Keeping the church clean, but it could make people sick,” Robert said.
The water doesn’t really clean the area. There are syringes, cigarette butts, soggy clothing and cardboard. There is no drainage system. The water pools on the steps and sidewalks.
A neighbor who witnessed the drenching told KCBS, I was just shocked, one because it’s inhumane to treat people that way. The second thing is that we are in this terrible drought.”
It sounds like these people are thinking who would Jesus soak as opposed to what would Jesus do. Maybe instead of soaking the homeless, the obscenely wealthy Catholic church could dedicate some funding to make sure there are no homeless people anymore.
UPDATE:
Due to the massive amount of negative feedback garnished from their cruel method of deterring sleeping homeless people being, the Archdiocese has apologized and announced that the system will be removed “by the end of the day.”
“We are sorry that our intentions have been misunderstood and recognize that the method used was ill-conceived. It actually has had the opposite effect from what it was intended to do, and for this we are very sorry,” the letter states.
Image credit: TFTP
