Day 3

Today, we had a highlight—to be noted as one of the highest points of the week. The high point was, however, an awkward point for me—and will possibly always be a as such for me. I simply am still to conservative (more than I realize), and ignorant, to construct a an appropriate action upon homosexuality. I can pretend that the lifestyle does not exit. I will be confronted, eventually, with a gay couple in my parish. What will I say? What will I do? As this is a very controversial issue, I am not ready to take a definite stance. I agree that some issues are more important than others. Yet, different people consider different issues to be of top importance depending on their political and theological lenses. While many fundamentalists argue that homosexuality is amongst the most important issues for Christians in the United States, others argue (at best) that homosexuality just isn’t a major theme. Each argues over whether or not this is a primary reason for divine wrath in scripture. As a moderate, I prefer that we remain permissive of contrasting perspectives, because arrogance has gotten us nowhere on this issue. For me, to say that something is not as important as the other is not to assume that it is the least important. Christians are not exempt—yes, amongst the guilty—of black and white thinking.

After the AIDS project, we went to the “Mama’s” kitchen tamale restaurant. Mama’s is a non-profit business that provides food service training to those who wish to become a vendor or restaurant owner. I was fascinated by this opportunity for Latin Americans, whose eating-out experiences normally encompass street vendor dining. They are the clientele for anyone who has setup a taco stand without cleanliness approval. Mama’s is an answer to those who struggle to jump through the legal loopholes that that restaurant owners have to go through.

The third place we visited was the Catholic Worker soup kitchen. The lady who runs this kitchen worked with Dorothy Day herself—including sitting in jail with her for two weeks in 1972. Very politically active, she protested in person the building of a multi-million dollar cathedral that replaced an earthquake-damaged one.

The most intriguing part of our visit to the Catholic Worker was her story about the shopping carts that the local homeless used to transport their belongings. In the context of new urban development, the police have complied with the city developers’ newfound strategy to scoot out the homeless by attaching to them any offence possible. Their possession of a stolen shopping cart usually meant a misdemeanor offense. Authorities jump on this as a way to get their way with the poor. As a response, Kathy (?) buys carts from stores for the purpose of distributing them. They are gifts—not stolen property—to their beholders, thus, cannot be used as a tool for espionage.