Red Clay Ministries

In light of the resurgence of discourse around what constitutes a “real job” and who deserves a living wage, we would like to remind you that a job’s moral weight and its perceived respectability are two different things. Just because it pays your bills better than flipping burgers or scrubbing toilets doesn’t automatically give you any moral high ground over people taking harder, less well regarded jobs.

We understand that there are jobs people take out of desperation. Poverty is a coercive force, and propaganda is strong. But doing harm to your neighbor to line your own pockets still makes a negative impact on your community. If you choose a job in a property management company, then every time you fill out the eviction paperwork to turn a poor person into a homeless person so that a rich person can get richer, you have unhoused your neighbor for a paycheck. If you choose a job where you have to swear to enforce all the laws, knowing that unjust laws exist, you’re responsible for every injustice you carry out. If you accept a job that will require you to take a life, you’re the one who spills that blood. If you accept a job that will require you to put children in cages, you’re the one caging children. So let’s not pretend that the perceived legitimacy or status of a job has any bearing on people’s moral right to be fed and housed and to live their lives in peace.

Our motto as a congregation has always been, “Serve justice, not power.” Our loyalty and compassion lie where they always have, with the poor and vulnerable of all nations. We hold, as we always have, that human beings have more in common with each other than we have differences, and we reject the idea that liberation could come through violence and conquest. We reject that there could be a moral justification for wars of empire, and we call on our community and on those in power to do the same.

There’s so much empathy out there for pets left out in the cold. “If you’re cold, they’re cold” messaging is everywhere this time of year. But when was the last time you stopped to realize the same thing about the unhoused human beings in your community? Walk outside right now, in the middle of the night, when temps are hovering right around freezing (lower in some parts of the state). How long can you comfortably stay out there?

Now think about the fact that for three thousand people in Charlotte alone, that’s where they’re going to be sleeping tonight. The shelters are so full that they’re operating on a nightly lottery system, and that’s if you’re not turned away for “needing more than they can provide.” You don’t have to help through us. We’d love it if you did, and our Amazon wishlist will be linked in the comments. But please, do something to make this winter less brutal for the folks with nowhere to keep warm. Don’t limit your empathy to animals when human beings are suffering.