Lost in all the hubbub, sound, and fury over the Herndon day laborer issue was an important fact: the proposed day laborer center was NOT pushed by the government, but to the contrary by a grassroots, overwhelmingly faith-based group called "Project Hope and Harmony." Today's Washington Post has an excellent article on how this group came to be. It's a heart-warming story of true Christian (and Muslim) values -- charity, compassion for the poor and less-well-off -- in action. Here's the story:
On a frigid winter day two years ago, Mukit Hossain drove past a 7-Eleven in Herndon and noticed a large group of men, some wearing only sweat shirts, shivering like leaves in the parking lot.Something made him stop and ask what they were doing. In broken English, one man explained that they were looking for work. With their chances as bleak as the weather at 3 in the afternoon, Hossain asked why they did not just give up and go home.
"We don't have much of a home to go to," Hossain recalls the man telling him.
From that encounter, a charity was born that ultimately has led to a government-sanctioned day-laborer site that has generated national attention.
Hossain called a meeting of civic and religious leaders, many of whom had worked quietly for years helping day laborers learn English, find housing and get medical care. He proposed that they join forces and collaborate under a name with a distinct mission: Project Hope and Harmony, whose sole goal would be to create and run an orderly site for itinerant laborers.
In addition, the Washington Post points out, "the application for a grant of about $175,000 from Fairfax County to run the site was made in the name of Reston Interfaith, one of the groups that is part of the [Project Hope and Harmony faith-based] coalition."
In other words, this is a tale of one religious person bringing together other religious people to provide aid and compassion to the less fortunate, the hungry, the thirsty, the "strangers" in our land. As it says in Matthew 25:31-46:
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me."[...]
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry, and ye did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not."
So why are right-wing Republicans like Jerry Kilgore attacking a faith-based group of religious people who are following the powerful teachings of Jesus Christ on the poor, the hungry, the "stranger" (aka, "immigrant") among us? Have these right-wing Republicans not read their Bibles recently, or at least not the quoted passage from Matthew? Something to ponder this Sunday morning...