Raise the Hammer
Suppose everyone put people first, put the needs of people ahead of power and money and the sort of important heritage structures that power and money can build. What kind of world would we then have?
By Kevin Love
Published December 24, 2016
What is the problem with those Christians? They knock themselves out helping the poor, the homeless, refugees and people who are sick or dying. But when it comes to preserving heritage structures, they are such a disappointment. It is almost as if those Christians consider people to be more important than buildings!
For example, consider the case of James Street Baptist Church. For 130 years that congregation did things like running a food bank and openings its doors to the homeless as part of Hamilton's "Out of the Cold" program.
But as soon as they could no longer afford to support hungry and homeless people and also pay an escalating maintenance bill, they chose to keep helping people and sold the building. Now all that is left of that building is the façade, preserved in a new condominium development.
Or the case of All Saints Anglican Church. As they fought for affordable housing, those Christians made their priorities very clear. According to Executive Archdeacon Michael Patterson of the Diocese of Niagara. "... the congregation decided their ministry and the 'desperate need' for downtown affordable housing outweighed their attachment to the building."
And it is not just buildings. Those Christians also have a habit of considering housing people to be more important than housing cars. It is almost as if they believe that a city should be for people, not cars! How dare Mr. Patterson justify replacing car parking with housing for people in his affordable housing complex by saying things like, "Most of the residents in the complex would not be able to afford a car and the intersection offers ideal access to public transit."
It looks like those warped priorities come from the very beginning, from that nasty Jesus guy. He was always going on and on about taking care of people, but said nary a word about the importance of preserving heritage buildings.
Indeed, probably the most important heritage structure in Jesus' life was the great Temple in Jerusalem. If the Temple existed in Hamilton today, it would undoubtedly be designated a heritage structure and granted protection. So what did Jesus do with the Temple? He condemned it to destruction! Where does he get off condemning a heritage structure like that? Who does this Jesus guy think he is, God or something?
And ever since, those Christians have been just so disrespectful of heritage structures. And also disrespectful of so much more than heritage structures. You can even see a huge crowd of them singing in this video about their disrespect of power, money and earthly glory as well as their disrespect of important heritage structures. Don't they realize how important these things are? Look at some of the words they use in the video!
Pride of man and earthly glory,
Sword and crown, betray his trust.
What with care and toil he buildeth,
Tower and temple falls to dust.
Just imagine if everyone had the same bizarre set of values of those Christians. Suppose everyone put people first, put the needs of people ahead of power and money and the sort of important heritage structures that power and money can build. What kind of world would we then have?
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