Betrayal on the Southside

Well, today, three dying Lutheran churches and one big bully of a nonprofit stuck it to the people of South Bethlehem. Lehigh has done it before, and they’ll do it again, all along saying that they cooperate and collaborate.

It is incredible to me that a nonprofit would outbid the city in which it is located on a property the city needs to address a major unmet need . Stunning. This university, regardless of the claims made by its presidents, has done it before, and it will do it again. Because we tolerate it.

Scriptures are loaded with parables, stories, songs, and sermons that come to mind: David and Goliath, the Beatitudes, Jesus ransacking the money-changers, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has long been presented as a laid-back, low-key dude. I much prefer the angry Jesus, and based on the teachings that I grew up on, that Jesus would be pretty pissed. St John’s Windish should beware.

I don’t know where the trustees and alumni are, but the Southside has been let down yet again. These presidents breeze through town doing what it takes to help them get to their promised land - a Yale, a UVA. They step on the faces of the little people who may try to get in the way, and it works for them.

Someday soon, I hope that we can all get the guts to get in the way even if it means the president ends up at a community college or back in the classroom for his failure to understand the rules of engagement.

This is why people are cynical. This is why people stop fighting back. This is why people don’t vote. It’s why so many have abandoned the church.

Some day, maybe we will find our promised land.