All God's Children Gotta Go

All God’s Children Gotta Go

For our homeless guests, there are few if any public bathrooms they can use without fear of harassment or arrest.  At the end of each day at Manna House, we let our guests know that it is “last call for coffee.” 

At the same time we do last call for coffee we do last call for the use of the bathroom in the house.  For this last call for the bathroom I announce, “last call to pee for free with dignity or to take a crap without getting a police rap or to take a leak without having the police take a peak.” 

The first part of that rhyme comes from Ed Loring of the Open Door Community in Atlanta who was a leader in a movement to get public restrooms in downtown Atlanta.   Ed once took a toilet into the mayor’s office and sat upon it reading from the Bible.  Inspired by Ed’s poetry and activism, I added the concluding “stanzas.”  For our guests this ritual announcement brings laughter as it makes fun of a reality they regularly face.

However, I have on occasion shared this closing “poem” in churches where I’ve been invited to talk about Manna House and hospitality with homeless persons.  And when I have done that a few “good Christians” have told me that this “poetry” is crude and vulgar.  I’ve also been told by those few good Christians that such language is offensive. 

What I find offensive is that there are few places where people can “pee for free with dignity or take a crap without getting a police rap or take a leak without the police taking a peak.” 

I’m troubled by a kind of Christianity that takes more offense at “bathroom talk” than the absence of bathrooms for people who are experiencing homelessness.  I’ve pondered this taking of offense.  I fully recognize the poetry is awful, but I think there is a deeper theological reason for the offense.  I think it might be a reflection of disembodied Christianity.  Disembodied Christianity focuses on the soul to the detriment of the body.  Such a dualistic Christianity wants to “save souls” to the neglect of the bodily realities of being human.

A little biblical study highlights that “there is not a single place in the New Testament where the expression, ‘to save the soul’ ever means final salvation from hell…. In the New Testament we should always understand it as equal to our expression ‘to save the life’” (http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/save_your_soul.htm).

Life includes eliminating waste.  Jesus as fully human had to go to the bathroom.  God knows what it is to have to go. 

Further, to live well our bodies have to have access to places to pee and to crap.  Lack of adequate sanitation has been connected with the spread of disease.  Jesus said that he had come so that people may have life to the full.  Certainly a full life includes being able to go to the bathroom when one needs to go and in a place that is clean and private.

Hospitality is defined by welcome that respects the dignity of guests.  For Christian hospitality this must include welcome that respects that we are embodied persons.  Such hospitality makes a bathroom available for guests to use.  But hospitality must also advocate for public restrooms, for places where all God’s children can pee for free with dignity or take a crap with getting a police rap.”   

Manna House Volunteer Guide

The Practice of Hospitality at Manna House

What We Offer in Hospitality at Manna House

Manna House located at 1268 Jefferson is a place of hospitality in the Madison Heights neighborhood of Midtown Memphis.  It is a place of welcome for homeless persons and others in need.  At Manna House we welcome each guest with respect and compassion. 

Many of those who come to Manna House live nearby, either in modest homes or on the streets.  Others come to the neighborhood to eat a meal at the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen (called “the radio station”), located just a few blocks away.  Manna House is a place to sit and visit before or after a meal there.  It is a living room for people from the streets.

Manna House is open for hospitality every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 8:00a.m. to 11:30a.m.  Our hospitality takes a variety of forms.  We offer a place where people can come inside for conversation or rest.  (In warm weather our guests enjoy our backyard with picnic tables).  We offer something to drink (coffee, and in warm weather cold water).  We offer use of a bathroom.  We offer showers that include a change of clothes.  We offer some personal hygiene items and limited clothing items (such as T-shirts and socks).

Our Vision of Hospitality

            In offering hospitality we affirm that hosting our guests involves not only providing needed material goods, but more importantly honoring our guests’ humanity and personhood.  We are not a social service agency; rather we are persons welcoming other persons to share ourselves, our gifts, and gifts we have received from others.  We seek to know our guests as persons with names, histories, and hopes.  We seek to be stewards of God’s graciousness, not possessors of power and privilege dispensing charity from above.  We seek to build relationships and we are not out to “save” people or remake them in our own image.  We recognize and repent of our racism, classism, sexism, and heterosexism, and we seek to create a community of hospitality in which all are welcomed as children of God.  We recognize our own vulnerability and brokenness as we minister with our guests who are also vulnerable and broken.

            We are committed to providing a place where everyone is treated with respect, both guests and volunteers.  In engaging with each other as persons we refrain from the posting of rules.  We do not ask for identification.  We reject racist, sexist, and any other form of denigrating language.  We respond to conflict in a spirit of peacemaking and nonviolent conflict resolution.  We sometimes have to ask a guest to leave who has become disruptive or abusive so that the peace of hospitality may continue. 

We abide by the vision and practices of Manna House that are necessary for the good order needed for hospitality.  Among those practices is the recognition of the need for boundaries and limitations on what we can offer and when.  We affirm that sometimes it is necessary to say “no” to a request from a guest in order to continue to say “yes” to those forms of hospitality to which we are committed for the long haul.  We recognize our limitations and seek to be honest with our guests about what we can and cannot do.

            Before we open at 8:00a.m., we gather for a brief prayer.  To prepare for the day, including making job assignments, and to make time for prayer we ask volunteers to arrive at 7:45a.m.  We also gather at the end of each morning at 11:30a.m. for prayer and reflection.  We consider this time together after we close to be crucial to our practice of hospitality.  During this time we encourage each other to share our experiences from the morning of offering hospitality, to examine how we may improve in our practice of hospitality, and to bring all that we have done to God in prayer.

Areas of Practicing Hospitality at Manna House

Hospitality at Manna House revolves around two main areas:  the clothing room and the frontporch/living room/dining room/backyard.  A long-term volunteer guides the hospitality in each of the two areas.  Other volunteers should rely upon the long-term volunteer for direction, and to answer any questions or to respond to problems that may arise.  It is important for volunteers to work as a team that offers hospitality in ways consistent with the vision and practices of Manna House.

Opening Responsibilities

Please do not arrive at Manna House or seek to enter the house until 7:45am.  Prior to that time those who have arrived early to begin the coffee and engage in other work seek time for reflection and prayer.

When you arrive at 7:45am please seek out the person in charge for that day for work assignments.  Also, please be ready to immediately join in some tasks necessary for opening.  These typically include filling the sugar containers, setting out items necessary for serving coffee, preparing items in the clothing room, wiping off picnic tables in the backyard or setting up chairs in the front yard.

All volunteers gather for a short prayer at about 7:55am.

Clothing Room

Persons offering hospitality in the clothing room area are responsible for offering showers, and sharing the hygiene and clothing items with guests who are signed up to receive these items.  A volunteer will put the names of guests on two different lists.  One list is for “socks and hygiene” and the other is for those who will shower.  The person who “works the list” will begin signing up guests for the showers and clothing room before Manna House opens and also when the doors of Manna House open at 8:00a.m.  The person working the list will also call the names of the guests in order and bring guests to the clothing room, telling the volunteers in the clothing room if the guest is there for a shower or for “socks and hygiene.”  No guests should be in the clothing room if their name has not been called.  Also, guests are not to re-enter the clothing room once they have been served.

Guests signed up for “socks and hygiene” may receive a shirt, socks, and hygiene items.  We do not give out pants or underwear as these are reserved for persons who are showering.  We do not have the resources to give out these items to everyone.  Some hygiene items (such as deodorant) are only given out on specified Thursdays.  Please respect these limitations.  Although it is difficult to say “no” it is only in saying “no” to some needs that we are consistently able to say “yes” in meeting other needs.  For the sake of the order needed to practice hospitality these limits are necessary.  

On Mondays and Thursdays showers are offered for men.  On Tuesdays, showers are offered for women.  Guests sign-up for showers on the day previous to the day Manna House will be next open.  Once a guest’s name has been called for the shower and he/she has been brought to the clothing room, other volunteers will assist the guest, giving him or her, a towel, wash cloth/face towel, razor, toothbrush, and assisting the guest in choosing clothes.  Soap and shampoo are already in the showers.  After guests shower and put on clean clothes, guests give us their dirty clothes.  We launder these clothes and they are returned to the shelves of the clothing room to be used again.

There is also important work to be done in the “sorting room” which is at the back of the house.  In this room donations are sorted and organized to be shared in the clothing room.  Guests are not allowed in the sorting room.  Shoes and coats are always stored in the clothing room.  Shoes are given only to those on the shower list.  Coats in the winter are given out at More on Monday, a meal served at Manna House each Monday beginning at 4pm.  

Living room/dining room/backyard

            Persons offering hospitality in the living room/dining room/front porch/backyard areas are responsible for serving coffee or other drinks.  We strive to keep a steady supply of hot coffee ready for our guests, along with any other drinks we are serving.  Persons working in this area of hospitality also need to attend to the sugar, creamer, and number of coffee cups to make sure there is a steady supply.  We typically do not prepare or serve any food as this is not a type of hospitality we are equipped to provide during this time.  We do, however, serve a meal on Mondays beginning at 4pm, and also on the third Thursday of each month at the monthly Foot Clinic. 

In addition to preparing the coffee and maintaining the needed sugar, creamer and coffee cups, volunteers should attend to keeping these areas clean by picking up cups, cleaning the table, mopping up any spills, and emptying trash cans when full.  It is also important to supervise the bathroom located off of the dining room, making sure it remains clean, and that guests who use the bathroom are using it for legitimate purposes.

Most importantly, volunteers working in these areas should engage in conversation with guests, getting to know them as persons.  Please do not congregate in the kitchen, but enter into the living room/dining room/front porch/backyard areas to interact with our guests.

           

Closing Down, Reflecting, Praying, and Cleaning-up

At 11:15a.m., we begin to let our guests know that we will be closing soon by announcing “last call” for coffee.  We ask our guests to begin leaving at 11:25a.m. so that we can close down and have time to reflect and pray before cleaning-up.  By 11:30a.m. we seek to have all guests out of the house and/or the backyard.  It is very important that all volunteers help to direct guests to prepare for closing, so ending conversations, games, haircuts, etc. should begin by 11:15am.

From 11:30a.m. to approximately noon., we gather to share our experiences from the morning’s work of hospitality, to reflect together, and to pray.  This is a very important time for us to share experiences from the morning, to learn from each other’s experiences, and to gather our experiences up in prayer.  Either before or following this time we turn to clean-up tasks:  sweeping and mopping the living room and dining room, taking out trash, cleaning coffee pots, etc.  We also clean the two bathrooms and the showers and sinks.  Both bathrooms should also be mopped.  Before leaving we need to make sure all windows are closed and locked, and all doors are locked.

Some Short “Do’s” and “Don’ts

Do welcome each guest with dignity and grace. 

Do engage in conversation with guests.

Do learn names and stories.

Do keep a sense of humor and a sense of compassion.
Do follow the leadership and direction of those experienced long-term volunteers running each area of hospitality.

Do ask questions.

Do be patient with yourself, with other volunteers and with guests.

Don’t give money if asked by a guest.

Don’t give rides to guests. 

Don’t give out personal information such as phone number, address, etc. to guests.

Don’t lend your cell phone to guests.

Don’t use your cell phone unless absolutely necessary.  Sitting playing games, searching the web, doing Facebook, etc. distract one from the practice of hospitality.  If you must make a call or respond to a call do this in a room not frequented by guests.

Who Runs Manna House?

A nonprofit tax-exempt organization, Emmanuel House Manna, provides the funding for Manna House through donations from a variety of individuals, churches, and synagogues.  Members of the Board of Emmanuel House Manna along with volunteers at Manna House set the vision and practices for Manna House.  Monetary donations may be sent to Emmanuel House Manna, 53 N. Auburndale St, Memphis, TN 38104.  Donations of clothing and other times may also be left on the front porch at this address or brought to Manna House during the days and times Manna House is open.  Please do NOT leave donations at Manna House when it is not open.

Directions and Parking for Volunteers

Manna House is located at 1268 Jefferson.  Please park across the street in the parking lot provided by Mississippi Boulevard Church.  Do not park in the parking lot immediately next to Manna House.  The owners of that building have asked us to not park in that area.

Manna House’s Additional Ministries

More on Monday

More on Monday is a meal that is served every Monday.  Guests arrive beginning around 4pm.  Volunteers should arrive by 4:30pm

Foot Clinic

Every third Thursday Manna House provides a foot clinic.  Guests sign up in advance for this evening which involves dinner, foot washing, and evaluation/treatment by a foot doctor.

Some of the Inspiration for Our Hospitality

“The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, ‘My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on--since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’” Genesis 18:1-5

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day….”  This is what the Lord commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs… Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” Exodus 16:4, 16, 19

“Is this not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from you own kin?  Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly…  Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and God will say, Here I am.”  Isaiah 58:6-9

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Matthew 25:35

“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:1-2

“Be hospitable to one another without complaining.  Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” 1 Peter 4:8-10

“The stranger requires much attendance, much encouragement, and with all this it is difficult for him not to feel abashed; for so delicate is his position that whilst he receives the favor, he is ashamed. That shame we ought to remove by the most attentive service, and to show by words and actions, that we do not think we are conferring a favor, but receiving one, that we are obliging, less than we are obliged.”  St. John Chrysostom, Homily 14 on 1 Timothy

“If you cannot relieve, do not grieve the poor.  Give them soft words, if nothing else. Abstain from either sour looks or harsh words. Let them be glad to come, even though they should go empty away. Put yourself in the place of every poor person; and deal with him as you would God should deal with you.”  John Wesley, in Christine Pohl, Making Room, 71.

“You will find that charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the kettle of soup and the basket of bread. But you must keep your gentleness and your smile. Giving soup and bread isn’t all that the rich can do. You are the little servant of the poor, the maid of charity, always smiling and in good humor. They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting as you will see, but the uglier and dirtier they are, the more unjust and bitter, the more you must give them of your love. It is only because of your love that the poor will forgive you.” St. Vincent De Paul (1581-1660)

“Those who offer hospitality are not so much providing a service as they are sharing their lives with the people who come to them.” –Christine Pohl, Making Room, 71-72.

Asking a Guest to Leave

Asking a Guest to Leave

I had to ask Mark and Michael to leave Manna House this morning.  Mark was asking inappropriate questions and making inappropriate comments.  Michael had begun to swear at other guests and use vulgar language.  They each struggle with mental illness.  They each became disruptive at different times during the course of the morning.  Michael left quietly; he will be welcomed back tomorrow.  Mark left after he poured some coffee on the back of another guest.  He is not welcome to come back for one month. 

We can go along for quite a while without having to ask anyone to leave and then two are asked in one morning.

            I find that asking a guest to leave is never easy.  Like other volunteers at Manna House, I ask a guest to leave only after repeated attempts to get the guest to stop whatever he or she is doing that is harming the practice of hospitality at Manna House.  Usually that harm involves the guest saying or doing something to another guest or a volunteer that is denigrating or threatening.  This morning both Mark and Michael were warned several times about their language, and when they did not stop, they were asked to leave.

            Our experience at Manna House shows that an early intervention can prevent the escalation of inappropriate words or actions into more and more unease on the part of other guests; and that unease can sometimes boil over into a fight.  A guest who cooperates and goes when asked is welcomed back the next day we are open.  A guest who does not cooperate may not be welcomed back for several days, a week or more, or sometimes a month or more.

            Before a guest is welcomed back, either I or another volunteer will try to have a conversation with them about what they did, why they were asked to leave, and if they are now prepared to return.  With someone who is very mentally ill this conversation may not take place or may be very brief.  On a few rare occasions, a guest has not been welcomed back because the guest could never admit to doing anything harmful. 

            What vision guides our asking guest to leave or welcoming them back?  We are grounded in the vision that offering hospitality requires a peaceful and orderly place.  Hospitality cannot be offered if there is danger and fear and too much disorder.  Hospitality requires sanctuary.  When is sanctuary violated?  When is there danger and fear?  What is too much disorder?  When guests or volunteers have their dignity as human beings violated or they fear for their safety, or when language or actions make guests or volunteers uneasy, anxious, or unsafe, then hospitality is not possible.  So, when harmful words are said or a fight breaks out or weapons displayed, a guest or guests will be asked to leave.

            Very rarely a guest who has been asked to leave will refuse to leave.  Then we announce that we are shutting down all of Manna House because this particular guest will not leave.  The pressure from the other guests almost always works to get the disruptive guest to leave.  When it doesn’t, we simply shut down and everyone leaves.  This has happened only very rarely.  We never call the police as the police would only escalate the conflict and lead to deepening confrontation.  The police bring weapons and coercive power of the state.  Neither of those help to diffuse conflict or move people in conflict away from Manna House.

            So, asking a guest to leave is finally about the respect for human dignity and the boundaries that are needed to practice hospitality.   Hospitality has to reflect that basic respect for each other’s dignity as humans in order to practice welcome.  And there has to be an “in” into which people can be welcomed.  There can be no “in” without expectations for how we will treat each other in a this space.

            Michael will come back tomorrow.  Hopefully he will be able to make it through the whole morning.  Mark will likely not come back.  Hopefully he will come back in a month.  

Jesus was a Panhandler

A year or so ago, guests and volunteers at Manna House agitated against a proposed anti-panhandling ordinance that was proposed for the city of Memphis.   We decided to get some t-shirts made that simply said, “Jesus was a Panhandler.”  We wore the t-shirts to several city council meetings, and we’ve worn them ever sense.  Each of us has experienced how some people get quite upset when we wear this t-shirt that says, “Jesus was a Panhandler.” 

Why do these folks get so upset?  In conversation with them I’ve learned that they just don’t like panhandlers and it seems disrespectful to equate Jesus with panhandlers.  These folks judge panhandlers as immoral, as lawbreakers, as lazy, as addicts.  They see in panhandlers all sorts of immorality, and so certainly Jesus as our Lord and Savior was not a panhandler. 

Yet, despite their view of Jesus, it is quite clear that in the Gospels there is no record that Jesus worked to support himself.  Despite the popular notion that “Jesus was a carpenter” there is no biblical reference that indicates he engaged in this work, though he was the son of a carpenter. 

There are, however, direct instances in which it is clear that Jesus and his disciples relied upon the generosity of others for their well-being.

            In Luke 8:1-3, several women are identified as traveling with Jesus and the Twelve and “These women were helping to support them out of their own means.”

            On numerous occasions Jesus relies on the generosity of others for meals (Mt 9:10, Mk 1:29-32, Mk 14:12-16, Lk 11:37, 14:1, 12-14, and on at least one occasion, when he encounters Zacchaeus, Jesus invites himself to dinner (Luke 19:1-10). 

            Jesus sends out his disciples telling them to rely upon the generosity of strangers (Mk 6:7-13, Lk 10:1-12).

            Jesus consistently teaches that strangers are to be welcomed and that he identifies  with those who are hungry, thirsty, without clothing, in jail, sick and those who are in need of such welcome (Mt 10:40-42, Mt 25:31-46, Lk 15:2 Lk 16:19-31).  Jesus himself practices the feeding of the hungry drawing upon donated food (Mt 14:13-21, 15:32-39 see Mk 6:30-44, 8:1-10).

            Jesus’ disciples practiced gleaning, an ancient form of panhandling (Mt 12:1-8).  Jesus responds to panhandlers in a gracious way (Lk 18:35-43, Jn 9:1-34) and urges us to do the same (Lk 6:30, 12:33, 14:13-14).

            So, in his life Jesus both identified with panhandlers and literally relied upon the generous donations of others to engage in his lifestyle of street preaching.

            A final word.  I have found that often it is certain religious leaders who react most vehemently to the statement “Jesus was a Panhandler.”  Perhaps they want to protect the sacredness of Jesus; perhaps they find it blasphemous to identify Jesus with people they judge to be contemptible or at the very least unrighteous sinners.  But perhaps they need to be reminded of Jesus’ words to the religious elite of his day, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Mt 21:31).

No More Bologna and No More Baloney

I have a long history with bologna.  Bologna was standard lunchtime fare when I was growing up.   My parents had to stretch their dollars.  There were six of us kids and my Dad was a sheet metal worker bringing in blue collar wages, while my Mom worked various part-time jobs over the years as she focused on child-care (we were an unruly lot).  So, out of economic necessity my Dad ate bologna sandwiches for many years and so did us kids (once we graduated from peanut butter and jelly).  

There is an old family story about the time Mom complained to Dad that the price of bologna was going up.  He was insistent that despite the rising cost of bologna his sandwiches would at least have that meat.  Somehow my Mom subconsciously revolted, and the next day when my Dad opened up his dinner bucket at work there was no bologna, no meat at all, between the two slices of bread, just some mustard and butter.   My Mom had forgotten to include the bologna when she had made his sandwiches.

            Of course when I was growing up, I really didn’t know that it was economic necessity that led my family to eat so much bologna.  It was just what we had for sandwiches.  I didn’t have much class consciousness.  And even with all the education I gained over the years, I never really thought much about bologna’s place in the social hierarchy of foods.  It was many years before I picked up that bologna was known as the meat for the working class and the poor. 

Recently I came across a book that begins with a reflection on bologna and social class.  Miguel De La Torre in Latina/o Social Ethics: Moving Beyond Eurocentric Moral Thinking, writes of asking his students at the beginning of his class on social ethics, “Ever wonder what happens when you fry baloney?”  The students who consistently know the answer (it bubbles up) are people who have known poverty.  De La Torre writes, “only the poor—sick and tired of eating the cheapest meat available as a dietary staple—finally revolt and attempt creative new ways of serving the food of the poor.”

De La Torre’s experience that bologna is a dietary staple of the poor, and that poor folks would prefer to eat something different, does not seem to influence most soup kitchens that also serve sandwiches.

About two blocks from Manna House, a place of hospitality for homeless and poor persons in Memphis that I help to direct, there is a soup kitchen.  This particular soup kitchen serves a bologna sandwich with every lunch.  And through spending some time on the streets and talking with guests at Manna House I’ve learned most other soup kitchens do the same.  Bologna sandwiches are common fare at soup kitchens around the entire city.   I have a hunch that this commitment to bologna sandwiches is not for reasons of taste, nor of economic necessity, but is due more to the attitude, “the poor can’t be choosey.”  Serving isn’t so much about hospitality, welcoming people in ways that affirm their dignity, but more about charity dispensed from above.

There is another place in Memphis that serves bologna sandwiches with regularity, the county jail, widely known as “201” because its address is 201 Poplar.  I’ve had the pleasure of eating at this fine establishment.  About two years ago I was arrested along with several others as part of a protest against the war in Iraq.  We were handcuffed, put in police cars, and then taken to 201.  While I was being processed into the jail a meal was served in the processing area:  jungle juice, chips, and a bologna sandwich with white bread.

It really was at that point that I began to wonder if our guests at Manna House saw any connection between the bologna sandwiches served at 201 and the bologna sandwiches served at the soup kitchens around town.  The next day, back at Manna House, I started asking guests about bologna sandwiches.  One laughed and said, “O yeah, we’re served prison food at the soup kitchen.”  Another said (knowing how I like a good rhyme), “Poor man’s meat, ain’t no treat.”  One observed, “We’re served bologna in prison and on the streets, and in neither place are we free.”  Lastly another said, “Slave food, pure and simple.”

A light bulb came on over my head during these conversations, “now I know why the Open Door Community in Atlanta, GA says no to bologna.”  It wasn’t simply a reflection of the personality of its founders; instead saying no to bologna reflected a class analysis and makes a political and theological statement.  To serve bologna is to say, “beggars can’t be choosers” or “people on the streets only deserve cheap meats.”  To serve bologna is to say, “we don’t care to serve meats that are nutritious and delicious.”  To NOT serve bologna is to stop such baloney.  To NOT serve bologna is to practice a hospitality grounded in God’s hospitality which offers nothing but the best to those who are poor.  To NOT serve bologna is to recognize that Jesus is being served, and Jesus doesn’t like bologna. 

To NOT serve bologna is also to connect bologna’s social class connotations with its linguistic connections.  “Baloney” is a word pronounced the same as “bologna” but can refer not only to this cheap meat, but also nonsense.  And through a little research I came across a clear statement of their connection, “Baloney is a line of crap you tell someone.  Bologna is crap that you eat.” 

So, I have a modest suggestion for soup kitchens in Memphis, in Atlanta, and everywhere sandwiches are served with soup:  No more baloney and no more bologna.

Welcome to the Radical Hospitality Blog

Radical Hospitality is a blog dedicated to the exploration of the theology and practice of hospitality with homeless and poor persons.  Resources for theological reflection and wisdom gleaned from the practice of hospitality will be shared.  Stories will also be told and reflected upon to deepen our faith commitment to hospitality and strengthen our practice of hospitality.