The Oregon City Council reportedly stopped a Brookings-based church from feeding the homeless daily but its pastor responds by continuing with the program.
CBN News said St. Timothy's Episcopal Church Pastor Rev. Bernie Lindley has affirmed his decision to continue with the feeding program despite the Oregon City Council's ordinance against it. The said ordinance, which was passed last week, limits the days churches in the city can feed the homeless to twice a week instead of daily.
Lindley, in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting, pointed out that the feeding program is the only chance the homeless gets to eat. He also pointed out that this is also a means of expressing one's faith. Stopping the feeding program or limiting it, he said, is a violation of one's right to religious freedom.
"It would disrupt their ability to get warm, nutritious meals for sure. This is the way we express our religion, by feeding people," Lindley said.
"We're not going to stop feeding. They're going to have to handcuff me and take me to jail, which they won't do. So it's not going to happen. We're not going to stop feeding. We're going to do what Christ compels us to do," he stressed.
Lindley explained that residents may have petitioned against the feeding program following what took place when they launched it in line with the beginnings of the pandemic last year. He recounted that they housed the homeless in their parking lot after being granted permits for it. There were some "drama" resulting from some of the homeless who experienced emotional breakdowns, enough to create some disturbances within the neighborhood.
"Some of the people who are emotionally fragile ended up having some psychotic breaks, manic episodes, stuff like that. So definitely, things got pretty dramatic for a while," Lindley recalled.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that the City Council's restrictions to the offering of free meals to the homeless actually came "following complaints from people who live near churches that fed people."
Residents living near St. Timothy's sent a petition to Brookings City Manager Janelle Howard in April asking for the feeding program to be stopped. Howard disclosed that the residents were "impacted" by the feeding program as the homeless would leave behind litter, would trespass, or cause too much noise. She raised that such would not have been the case if they were in a commercial zone.
"They were looking for some relief because it was becoming an impact to their particular neighborhood, whether they mentioned trespassing, littering, noise. They were asking for some kind of relief from the city," Howard said.
"If they were in commercial zones, there would be no limitations to the frequency, or the hours, or the number of days a week," she added revealed.
The City Council discussed the ordinance against the church's feeding program for months, and only unanimously voted to pass it on October 25. The decision came from the belief that that the City Council has the authority to limit the "services" of churches and charitable organizations in the same manner it does with restaurants.
The City Council highlighted that the Oregon Health Authority similarly releases licenses to churches and charitable organizations for such "services." The Brookings Municipal Code states that restaurants are prohibited in residential zones. Ironically, the churches in Brookings are located in residential zones.
Besides St. Timothy's Episcopal church, several local churches have been providing free meals to the homeless daily since 2009. Local churches work together through the Community Kitchen Project.
