A Lover's Quarrel With Portland: Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.
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A Lover’s Quarrel with Portland
A sermon by The Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie
Isaiah 5:1-7 (NRSV)
James 2:14-17 (NRSV)
We need a little Resurrection talk this Sunday after Easter. On Good Friday, we remember how Jesus was betrayed and put to death by the Roman Empire. We recognized that Rome did not have the final word on Easter Sunday. The Disciples encountered the Risen Jesus, an encounter that continues for Christians today.
This Sunday, I want to step back from the Easter story, but not the Resurrection spirit, to talk about Portland's difficulties. There is wisdom in Scripture we can learn from as we confront these difficulties and how people of faith might “bend the moral arc” of Portland more towards justice.
I want us to consider how Portland can be a resurrection city.
William Sloane Coffin once spoke about patriotism and love. He said:
"There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover's quarrel with their country, a reflection of God's lover's quarrel with all the world."
I have carried on a lover's quarrel with Portland for 35 years in advocacy, ministry, and higher education. While my family is originally from South Carolina, a place I love, Portland has been my home since I was 10.
I choose to be here. Portland is my community; I love this city as much as any place on Earth, and as true as that is, every mayor from Bud Clark on would tell you I've been a chief critic of Portland. It is, indeed, a lover's quarrel that I have carried on with the city of Roses.
For those that wonder what has happened to Portland in recent years – why has our homelessness crisis exploded, and why have we become so polarized over finding solutions to our problems – all I can say is that nothing unexpected has happened.
In our first Scripture reading today, Isaiah 5:1-7, God laments on the state of Israel after the Exodus. Israel, God says, was like a beautiful vineyard, everything perfect and in place. Is that not also the story of Creation? We have been given a plentiful world with all the resources humanity needs to thrive.
However, you’ll remember that God commanded the Israelites not to recreate in Israel the oppressive systems they had escaped in Egypt. What God finds after some time is a society where the wealthy and powerful exploit the poor and vulnerable. This was not what God intended. God “expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!”
As a minister in the United Church of Christ and a professor of religion at Pacific University, I've spent much time studying the Hebrew Scriptures (or Christian Old Testament). A common misconception is that the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is angry and vengeful. A closer read of the text shows a God who loves God's people and who, time and time again, warns Israel that if attention is not paid to creating a society based on justice, society will look something like Portland in 2022.
At 53, like many Portlanders, I'm dismayed where we are as a city and wondering if Portland, with all the Rose City, has to offer, will become the new Eden, or are we on a path to becoming the new Gotham. You might be surprised to learn I'm still hopeful about our future.
Real hope is not blind, however. Portland has significant problems. Going back to the 1980s, when Portland began to experience a growing homelessness crisis, advocates pleaded with city leaders to better address the need for affordable housing and supportive services.
In 1984, Bud Clark successfully ran for Portland mayor on a platform that mirrored what advocates called for. Clark's administration made progress, but his effort faltered with the passage of the property tax-reducing Ballot Measure 5, which cut needed funding and opposition from business leaders.
In the intervening years, homelessness grew. When a shelter would close, or leaders like Mayor Vera Katz opposed proposals to increase housing, advocates would warn that inattention to these issues would leave the city with people sleeping outside on sidewalks and in camps in growing numbers. Now here we are.
More and more Portlanders have recognized that homelessness will never end without more public funding. Along with the voting public, political and business leaders deserve praise for investing more in housing and services. We see now in Portland, with tents across the city, both the result of growing economic inequity on a national level and a failure to act decades ago.
The crisis of civil rights, along with the related issue of police accountability, has been an equally longstanding issue that intersects with the issue of homelessness. Albina Ministerial Alliance, led by area clergy and other advocates, has long pressed for Portland to address civil rights. But Portland leaders have resisted or proven ill-equipped to take on the powerful police union, the Portland Police Association, which has a long and ugly history of racism and obstructionism.
As we survey Portland today, we are a vineyard in trouble.
As much as politics intertwine with issues concerning homelessness, what we face today is as much a spiritual crisis as a political crisis. Until we get a handle on the spiritual side, the political process will always favor the powerful over those who are unhoused.
Jesus teaches us that how we treat God is akin to how we treat those who are the “least of these” in society. When we walk past someone on the street, when we avoid eye contact or any other human connection, we are walking past and avoiding our relationship with God. When we step over someone on the street, we step past God.
We talk too much about “cleaning up” Portland and talk too little about how those who are housed are our neighbors, our brothers, and sisters.
“Faith without works is dead,” we heard in our reading from James. How we live out our faith is more important than proclaiming our faith. For people of faith, then, our central concern must be for those living in poverty, as it was for Jesus. We must act in that spirit.
When people say they are upset with all the camps and garbage, and street protests that sometimes dissolve into anarchy, I think, me too. Who isn't? But our response cannot be to criminalize homelessness or tear gas protesters demanding civil rights. We are dealing with human rights issues. It is through a human rights lens that we must address these issues.
In the past year, with the pandemic raging and the unprecedented assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the United States' social fabric has been ripped apart. This is important to note because what happens nationally impacts Portland. The homelessness crisis would never have emerged in the 1980s if the federal government had not cut affordable housing funding dramatically. Local leaders are responsible for acting on issues, but not all problems can be solved without federal support.
President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan moves the nation in the right direction, but what comes next?
Today, there is trouble on the horizon.
A dark money group called People for Portland has emerged. This well-funded organization wants not to end homelessness but to institutionalize homelessness. Fearful of their wallet and unable to summon the leadership needed for this moment in history, many of our political leaders have fallen under People for Portland’s sway.
The number one priority of this group is to take away 75% of the money that moves people from the streets and shelter into housing. Instead of permanent housing solutions, People for Portland and their allies in City Hall have proposed everything from large-scale camps run by the National Guard to large-scale shelters housing a thousand or more.
People for Portland are using their secret money to push a ballot measure that would undo what progress Portland has made. They aim to move people experiencing homelessness into areas out of sight and out of mind. They would offer no escape from homelessness- just a path into the abyss. I’ve been concerned to see politicians, even some faith organizations, parrot People for Portland’s talking points.
Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury is to be commended for her work. Even as Chair Kafoury has worked with service providers and housing advocates to make housing a priority, she worked to increase shelter capacity from 1300 beds to 2100 beds. But Chair Kafoury and those living in these shelters will tell you shelters are no substitute for a permanent and safe home.
Thanks to voters, over 500 people moved from shelters and tent living and into permanent housing in 2021. In 2022, even more, people have escaped homelessness. Another 1400 people were kept in their apartments and away from the streets with rental assistance. All of this has occurred because of the HereTogether-Metro Regional Supportive Housing Measure. This work is at risk because of People for Portland’s advocacy.
Now I believe that good people can come to different conclusions on difficult issues. But I also make the following claims- and if you agree, I encourage you to summon your inner Baptist with a hearty Amen.
Housing is a human right.
Amen.
No one should go hungry in the wealthiest nation on earth.
Amen.
Shelters are critical and life-saving.
Amen.
Only affordable housing and supportive services will end this crisis.
Amen.
I urge all Portlanders to support every effort to address homelessness: with your vote, with your voice, with your money, and with your time as a volunteer. Agencies working to end homelessness, like Outside In and Transition Projects, need us.
The church council here at Ainsworth United Church of Christ just approved a feasibility study to determine whether or not any of our property might be used to create housing. Every house of worship should consider the same. Other churches, like Grant Park Baptist Church, are opening shelters. Again, every house of worship should consider the same.
Take time to visit HereTogetherOregon.org. Use their website to send a message to elected officials across the region that you want more affordable housing to end this crisis.
Why hold on to hope amid all these challenges? Look at the leaders who have emerged in recent years. Voters in the Portland-area have trusted people like Shemia Fagan, Jo Ann Hardesty, Mohamed Alyajouri, and Juan Carlos González.
These leading lights have a passion for justice, a belief in the common good, and the lived experience to demand progressive policies that make Portland and Oregon work for everyone, not just the powerful.
These leaders and young people demanding change in our streets and at the ballot box provide mountains of hope.
And how do we become that Resurrection city?
Scripture tells us: "… if you offer your food to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in." (Isaiah 58:10,12 NRSV)
It is time for all Portlanders to become restorers of the streets to live in. Portland might never become the new Eden, but we do not have to become the new Gotham.
We have a choice. We always have.
Amen.
