Guess Who's Not Coming to Christmas Dinner; Homeless Shelter Refuses Strip Joint's Charity
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
December 17, 2004
(AgapePress) - A New Mexico homeless shelter has made headlines for refusing an offer from a local strip club. The club promised no alcohol would be served nor any lap dances done, but the head of the shelter told the "gentlemen's establishment" no thanks.Earlier this week TD's North show club in Albuquerque contacted Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, and invited the ministry to bring its homeless, single, divorced and hungry to the club for Christmas dinner. The written offer on TD's flyer stated, "We want to celebrate Christmas with you! ... If you know of a family or person in need, bring them in."
But Jeremy Reynalds, Joy Junction's executive director, rejected the club's offer. He says he declined the invitation on Joy Junction's behalf because the funds financing TD's Christmas outreach have been generated by a business that exploits and takes advantage of both women and men.
Joy Junction teaches its guests to respect women, the ministry director notes, but the funds that would pay for the TD's charity dinner proceed from the club's customers, "who take advantage of vulnerable young women by paying money to lust at them in various states of undress." That kind of exploitation is not something Joy Junction is willing to be associated with, much less to endorse.
"These folks at TD's are doing what some might think of as being a so-called good deed for one day," Reynalds explains, "but if we had allowed those flyers to be posted -- if we had allowed our folks to go have dinner -- in essence we would have been saying, 'Well, you know, this is okay. We have standards, but we really don't hold everybody else to those standards.'"
Although the strip club was offering to tone down its normal activities for one day in the spirit of the season, Reynalds points out that this would be "one day out of 364 other days." But meanwhile, he says, what the owners of TD's and businesses like it do every other day of the year runs completely counter to the faith-based values Joy Junction tries to instill in those who stay at the shelter. "For us to accept this offer as an organization, or even to post the flyer," he asserts, "would be saying that we are in agreement with the 'values' of their club."
Another reason for turning down the offer, the head of Joy Junction points out, is that clubs like TD's target an already vulnerable homeless population. Very often, he notes, these establishments and the things that go on in and around them have contributed to the very plight in which many of the homeless find themselves.
"The needy men, women, and families who crowd into missions such as ours know that drugs, alcohol, and especially, in this case, illicit sex and lusting, and other life-controlling behaviors are some of the behaviors that have helped them become homeless," Reynalds says. It is vital, he asserts, for faith-based ministries like Joy Junction to adhere to strict standards that demand accountability and lead to changed behavior.
Joy Junction is planning to hold its own annual pre-Christmas dinner at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 21, at the shelter, where guests will enjoy a traditional Christmas meal and after-dinner entertainment. And although the ministry is still asking for assistance with providing the meat and trimmings for that event, the executive director says Joy Junction is concerned with more than meeting people's physical hunger and need.
"We are a faith-based ministry," Reynalds says, "a charitable group whose goal is to save souls as well as bodies." Unlike the "anything goes" approach of typical governmental programs, he adds, faith-based ministries employ a "tough love" that demands accountability and adherence to moral standards.
