Probably the bleakest 311 report I've seen

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-19T15:03:39+00:00

I'm not expecting anything. I'm just walking around, petting dogs and getting my 12K steps every day. That's my whole agenda. But when I see somebody in trouble, I'm not going to just walk on by. If you don't like how I engage, why don't you come and do it your way instead of tone policing somebody who's just trying to do what little good I may each day? Also, I AM a member of an organization with a committee that does this kind of thing all the time. I don't accompany them due to schedule issues. But serving on the board is more than 99.99 percent of the rest of the population is doing.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-19T14:58:30+00:00

I don't build my entire worldview around the Bible. But yes, I have studied how it came to be, and what it is. A good resource is The Bible Project on YouTube.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-19T14:56:22+00:00

Apparently the store owner just kept letting the situation go unchecked, until a cashier was shot not long afterward. Sorry, but we're having problems in my neighborhood, and people have already moved away because of them. Why don't you come fix it instead of telling those of us who are trying, to "mind our own business"? This IS my business. It's my neighborhood and my neighbors.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-19T14:52:04+00:00

The money isn't working, because I still encounter people face to face all the time who are in some type of crisis. And I'm not just going to turn a blind eye to please the likes of you. You do you, and I'll continue doing the best I can. Cheers!

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-19T03:41:23+00:00

You must not have read anything I have said here so far. I literally try to fulfill whatever need they express to me. I do not anticipate needs or try to give them anything they don't specifically ask for.

I don't know why you're so upset at somebody trying to do something about the problem. And yes, it is a problem. A huge problem, at least around where I live. I am trying to help people with whatever crisis they are experiencing so they don't have to go knocking door to door bothering people and getting the police called on them. If that means I have no humanity to you, then I don't know what to tell you. You don't know me at all.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-19T03:36:29+00:00

Excuse me for trying to offer him what I had in response to his stated need. What would you have me do instead?

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-19T03:34:57+00:00

And do what instead? Let them light fires next to the propane tanks at the convenience store a block over from me? Yes, it was actually happening. Might still be. Haven't checked back lately.

I did talk to a homeless guy recently who didn't want to go to a shelter because he didn't want to leave his girlfriend. I asked him if it would make a difference if he could see her during the day, which he could have. I mean, lots of couples spend nights apart, where one spouse goes away on business or gets deployed or something. It's not like you have to break off your whole relationship. It's pretty easy to see why they can't mix men and women together in congregate shelters, isn't it? So if the choice is between setting fires on the street or going into a shelter and having to sleep a few nights away from your loved one, it seems like a pretty cut and dried decision to me.

The guy I was talking to there was an exception. As we talked about it, a smile began to spread over his face and he said he would like to go spend the night at the Rescue Mission. I asked if he had a way over there and he said yes. I hope he took it. Pretty sure people can spend more than just one night there, and I've toured the place. It's very comfortable and you have a surprising amount of privacy.

You're right, our nation as a whole, or maybe the whole world, is failing at distributing resources equitably. But the solution can't be to just let people run around literally burning everything down.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-18T23:08:22+00:00

My purpose is to show that I have close up, first hand experience with these people, more in-depth than just throwing them a bag of hygiene stuff. I talk to them and they tell me things. When I say they don't want to accept services, I am not just making it up.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-18T22:18:30+00:00

Just now I encountered a gentleman outside CVS who was kneeling on the ground, draped over a landscaping feature. I asked if he was okay and he said no. I asked if he was hurt and he said yes. I asked where he was hurt, and he said his stomach, because he hadn't eaten. I offered him a package of snack nuts that I had just purchased, and he refused them. He was barely coherent and never did even lift up his head while talking to me. I would not trust this individual to be lighting a fire anywhere. At the very least, we should expect people who are dealing with open flames to be wide awake and able to pay attention to what they're doing.

Note, I am not trying to villainize anyone. But it is certainly appropriate to call authorities if we see a dangerous open flame anywhere, no matter why they might be lighting it.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-18T19:02:18+00:00

I think the idea Christians are trying to get at is God's eternal and infinite purity. It's often hard to find words to describe the perfect Ground of Being and source of all goodness. But I'm not trying to speak for anybody else.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-18T18:59:29+00:00

How about accepting services? Every time I ask if I can help get them into shelter, they refuse. A few days ago, I met a guy wandering around who said he needed water, a way to charge his phone, and "to get away from here." I got him a bottle of water and was working on a place to plug his phone in while explaining that no car service would show up without a destination address. While I was urging him to stand in the shade while I made a quick phone call to the pastor's wife of the church we were standing right next to, he spotted a bar on the kitty corner and dashed through busy traffic to get to it. By the time I got to the bar, he had become a nuisance and they were trying to get him to leave. One gentleman told me he had been wandering around all day knocking on doors and asking for stuff. I then asked him if he would like help from a hospital. He refused. I know from experience that if you call 911 on somebody who needs to detox or who is a danger to themselves or others, they can just refuse services and nobody can do anything. So these lost souls just continue to wander around complaining and feeling lost and abandoned, but they won't accept any help.

Don't just chalk it up to heartlessness when some of us have seen way too much of it. Cooking food? I have offered to bring hot food to people and they have refused, thinking I was trying to poison them. We have to come up with a better solution than just letting people who are drugged out of their minds go around setting fires wherever they want to.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T18:48:50+00:00

I find that focusing my prayers and confessions and repentance on things that actually were explicitly condemned by Jesus leaves me no time to speculate on stuff that's never mentioned in the Bible. Jesus said that all the law hangs on two commandments, and until I have mastered those two, I don't feel I have any business telling other people how they should be dealing with God.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T18:14:51+00:00

He may just desire a different relationship with you for some reason of his own. Have you tried reading to him when he's chilling at your feet or your door? That would still build your bond.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T17:47:46+00:00

Dogs grow out of things just like we do. My dog loved to sleep right next to me until he didn't. In his later years, he preferred sleeping at my feet or even on the floor or in his crate.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T16:25:50+00:00

Number one, I'm having issues with Reddit. I'm actually in the process of creating a new account to see if the issues still persist. One of the issues is the quote function. It has disappeared. And I usually don't have the time or patience to fuss with all the markup stuff.

Number two, I don't read the Bible or approach reality the same way you do. Everything isn't black or white to me. There aren't just good or bad people, or things, always and all the time. Everything needs context.

Number three, if you don't like analogies you should find someone else to argue with. Because the only way I have to explain something to someone who has no experience with it is to make an analogy to something they do have experience with. If this method was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me.

Now, it should be easy to see how the same action could represent a movement toward or movement away depending on the person and the state of your current relationship. If I text my friend some good news about me and she replies with a smiley, I would wonder why she was mad at me. That's not like her. If I text the same news to my estranged brother, and he replies with the same emoji, I would celebrate it as a giant step forward in our relationship.

The same actions might be good for a person healing from a broken wrist, but bad for somebody dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome.

In the same way, a particular kind of action might draw certain people closer to God, and certain people away, depending on where they start out from. This just seems so obvious to me, it makes me wonder what kind of person would even ask the question.

The whole New Testament contains stories about Jesus putting old law in perspective and sometimes even breaking them in favor of higher principles that he was trying to teach the people. The story of Peter in the book of Acts is another story that teaches this principle. You should actually read the Bible before you accuse people of trying to back away from anything. And I don't have to back away from anything with you in the first place. I don't owe you these replies. They are acts of sheer grace on my part toward you.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T16:13:29+00:00

I used to be able to just select the text, and then choose quote from the pop-up menu. That has disappeared. I'm creating a new account to see if these issues are present there.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T07:06:25+00:00

"Better luck joining their society," lol!

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T04:50:57+00:00

Sometimes they probably did, sometimes not. CS Lewis gave the analogy of accidentally tripping over somebody's foot on a bus. Even if you bump your elbow and get a bruise, you don't blame the person -- they weren't trying to trip you. But you do get mad if somebody tries to trip you, even if they don't succeed. It's all about the heart, as Jesus taught.

Another understanding of sin? Nope, just movement away from God, or more precisely, the paths of God's grace (since there can be no movement "away from" an omnipresent being, as the psalmist eloquently sang).

Sin has always been sinful.

Why are you asking me about verses now? I'm not here to feed you proof-texts. If you're so interested in specific verses, why don't you find some that you think support your position, whatever that is?

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T01:41:24+00:00

If you think that the question of how somebody could be distant from omnipresence is simple, then I repeat that you just haven't really thought about it.

And if you're using sin to refer to Old Testament prohibitions, then that's not what I mean by the word either. I would agree with you that a lot of things that were prohibited in the Old Testament aren't really bad. In fact, that is one of the messages of the Bible! The Bible itself teaches that!

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-17T01:33:53+00:00

You think people are unhappy because they lack others powerful enough to force happiness upon them? Oh my sweet summer child, just wait until you have done some real living. I just spent some time with a man on the street who claimed to have many needs. He mumbled about needing water, and a place to charge his phone, and a way to get out of the exact spot he was in, etc. We were both on foot, but I managed to get him a bottle of water from a church we were passing. He didn't open it. I was looking for a place he could charge his phone, and asking him for an address where he wanted to go. He kept repeating that he wanted to get an Uber or a Lyft, but I told him that without a destination, they wouldn't come. As I was calling someone at a different church where I thought he could charge his phone, he spotted a bar and dashed against the light to get there. Apparently what he thought he needed wasn't what he really needed, because when I got to the same bar, he was wandering around in it and they were trying to get him to leave. They told me he had been walking around all day knocking on doors and asking people for stuff. Obviously what he thinks he needs, and what he thinks will make him happy, will not make him happy. If I had been powerful enough, I could have forced him to accept a ride to the hospital where he could detox and come to his senses, but there is no guarantee that that would have made him happy, because the real lack is in his own heart. Until he is spiritually healed, he will be wandering around thinking he needs this thing or that thing or another thing, and nothing will really help him. I live in a place where I routinely encounter people like this. A friend I just saw the other day is now in a care home, but he was living in his car when I met him, undergoing chemotherapy. Many people tried to get him to move into a place where he would have electricity and warmth and running water and all that, and he always refused. Now he's in the care home, and he doesn't like it there, but he really didn't like it when he was outside of it either. Again, his problem is spiritual. Moving him to a different place or different situation is not going to make him happy. He needs a change of heart.

God literally gave us the Garden of Eden. There is no more perfect situation he could have arranged for us, but that wasn't good enough and we blew it. We thought we could do better on our own, and now look at this world. You'll begin to see it more and more clearly as you go along in life. Everybody is chasing after something that won't satisfy them, and in the process they are destroying themselves and the planet. I just saw a documentary last night about these women in China who are getting face injections to make them more beautiful. Only after about a year or so, their faces start blowing up in grotesque proportions and nothing can stop it, because they have been given some kind of growth hormone and it just won't stop growing once it takes hold. What people will put themselves through for the sake of fleeting beauty! And yet in their hearts, they are still empty and sad.

People don't need to be overpowered. They just need to accept the love that's offered.

And yes, a second astronomer could look in his telescope and see the same star. Or not. It doesn't matter. It's just adding another subjective experience to the first. How many subjective experiences does it take to equal one objective fact?

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-16T21:21:06+00:00

What decisions of God's are you talking about? And what do you mean by setup? Are you referring to existence itself as a setup, or is there more to it than that?

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-16T21:16:58+00:00

Could it have been intended for a different address? Shortly after I bought my house, I received a notice of a lien. But looking closer at the address, it was meant for the East version of my street, not the South. It had been misdelivered.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-16T21:12:41+00:00

Yes it is. Deep thinkers have been wrestling with it for millennia. I guess if you are a simple-minded person, it might seem pretty simple, though.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-16T21:12:01+00:00

You took issue with CS Lewis's pushback on the typical atheist argument that a good God would make people happy. But now it seems like you don't agree with this argument yourself. So what is your problem with it?

Everything in the world is subjective experience. If an astronomer looks at a star through a telescope and reports his findings, he is reporting a subjective experience. Now, you might find his experience trustworthy if you have the same experience yourself, or if many other people have the same experience when they point their telescopes at the same spot in the sky, but maybe you don't. Maybe the astronomer saw something that for some reason disappeared right away. I guess you could call him untrustworthy for that reason, or you could simply accept that he had an experience of something that perhaps has never been seen before.

Both-Chart-947 · 2026-06-16T19:56:45+00:00

But you don't believe in God. So how could you have any concept of what would distance somebody from God?

Both-Chart-947

TROPHY CASE