It seems lately that I’ve been bumping into some interesting situations out in the streets of St. Catharines Ontario. One evening recently, while taking a photo of a lady after sharing some pizza with her, a man who I’ve always had relatively civil conversations with suddenly demanded that I cease what I was doing, and went so far as to come within a foot of me and threaten to ‘beat me silly’. WTF? Yes, he was standing approximately 30 feet away and possibly was concerned that I might have begun wildly snapping pictures in his general direction, but lets be honest, he was the last guy I wanted to photograph at the time. Even after I had expressly reassured him that I had no intention taking his picture, he still ended up throwing a ‘Hissy Fit’ and threatened me with bodily harm regardless. Yeesh! For the record, two days later, the same guy stopped along the curb where I was standing and apologized for being such a jerk. I gladly forgave him. The earth began to turn once again.
Recent incident number two. Yesterday afternoon as I was speaking to a friend on St. Paul Street, I noticed another gentleman of my acquaintance walking on the opposing sidewalk. As usual, we politely acknowledged each other. He then decided to cross the street and asked me, out of the blue, what my opinion was of people smoking pot. Well, since he plainly asked me, I plainly answered him. I believe that except for situations that are above and beyond the norm, it is not a good thing. Medicinal purposes aside, how can I condone spending every waking minute of your life walking the streets stoned out of your skull begging passerbys for money so you can spend it on who knows what else. Upon answering his question, he promptly went into a ranting monologue listing all the other ungodly indulgences that the scriptures say are sinful in an attempt to excuse why smoking dope really isn’t any worse than all the rest. He then mentioned that a certain ‘Christian Reformed Church’ from Grimsby was going to be in town passing out food for the homeless. Perhaps it was the pained look on my face that betrayed my thoughts, but he suddenly made a sardonic remark regarding previous statements of mine that indicated I’m really not a huge fan of that particular denomination and their practices. Sorry, but I definitely have my reasons. What I found sad is the fact that this man professes to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and really ought to know better than to try to justify substance abuse with me. Not really being able to know what it is totally like to walk a mile in his shoes, I have refrained from judging him and will continue to do so. Heck, I actually like the guy. That being said, I still stand by my statement and always will. Hey, If God says it’s wrong to get stoned, then who the hell are we to argue?
All this leads me to my next set of thoughts. As I had previously mentioned, hearing that a delegation from a certain denomination was going to be passing out food to all that are in need could only be taken as good news, right? To those that are cold and hungry, the name of the denomination passing out food is neither here nor there. Food is food, regardless of who is handing it out. In these troubled times, anything is appreciated, regardless of the Group or individuals providing it. My beef is that I cannot help but be somewhat suspect of the motivation behind why this certain group in particular is suddenly so concerned about the wellbeing of all the suffering souls on the street. Being privy to the inner workings of the group in question, I, on numerous occasions, often encountered highly judgmental and condemning attitudes toward the homeless exhibited by a variety of their members in the course of my conversations with them. Perhaps there has been a change of policy in the meantime, I really can’t say for sure. All I know is that in my experience, this particular denomination does not usually go out of there way to help anybody outside of their own tightly knit circles, unless of course there is some sort of gain involved, whether it be financially motivated or else the furtherance of their theological ideologies within the surrounding community.
In other words, if they cannot use you in some way to further their cause, they won’t give you the time of day. In my experience with members of this particular group, they are very nice people on the outside, but quite ‘standoffish’ and ‘Clannish’ on the inside. If you are lucky enough to find yourself considered worthy of the respect of these people, they can make some the best friends you might ever have. Again, that is if they consider you worthy. I you happen to be one of the many unlucky ones that in their opinion do not make the grade, you will most certainly know it.
As far as helping the ‘homeless’ are concerned, these avid ‘churchgoers’ are more than happy to throw together a pile of food and ‘Feed the Raccoons’ for lack a better term once a week in order to put on a display of benevolence and charity for all the world to see, with the banner of their denomination fluttering in the breeze overhead. There is only one thing that you and I need to understand. If you think that these same individuals are going to take the time to get to know you on a personal basis, you may be in for a big disappointment. That would require a much larger investment of time and effort, of which the majority of them are not willing to make. I hate to say it, but this problem isn’t isolated to one particular church body. It just so happens that the group of which I have spoken of is notorious for bending over backwards for members of their own denomination, but fail miserably in the department of treating others outside of their own circles with a whole lot of dignity and respect. Apart from being concerned about the wellbeing of the souls inside of their little assemblies, it sure appears that those that are outside of it are not of the highest priority.
Remember, any demon can feed the raccoons, and shudder.
Glory be to the God and Father of us all, raccoons included. In Jesus name, Amen!
Wednesday October 1st, 2025
By Lucien ‘Looch’ Delean