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Some of the opposition to the group home was couched in Christian terms: "We feel the Christian way is we have to do something for these children, but we don't want them living next door", and "We . . . have always felt that those troubled youths should receive love, attention, nurturing and a place to live. The fact remains that they have behaved in a manner that is not acceptable to society and may well continue to behave in such a manner, and we feel that no community should be forced to tolerate such behaviour. We do not pretend to know what the answer is to this problem." ==
This opposition brought counter-reaction from a number of sources. Hank Neufeld, past chair of New Directions, was drawn into the struggle between the organization and the neighbourhood. He writes:
"It has been quite impossible for me to make sense out of this Christian community's reaction to our planned move. About 400 people, with active support from local MB church leaders, joined forces to keep six troubled young boys from living on their street. There are hundreds of similar group homes placed at random throughout Winnipeg, and such a nonaffirmative response is highly unusual. I was confounded.
AI keep thinking about Christ's insistence on being good neighbours, on inviting children into our lives and on visiting those in jail. I tried to reconcile the expressed piety of the Mennonite
Brethren Church with this blatant and public rejection of children in need. When friends called
me to ask for some rationalization, I was stumped.
A >I thought Mennonite people were good people,= someone said. >Isn't there something in their
religion about forgiving 70 times?= @
Neufeld=s letter goes on to say,
AThese kids, of course, aren't pushovers. Many of them have been dreadfully hurt, and are in grievous need of the treatment we offer. They use bad language and sometimes wreck other people's things. They bring a discomforting reality into a community.@
Jubilee Mennonite Church, a joint MB?Conference of Menonites congregation whose building is in the same vicinity, became aware of the problem when it was approached to host a neighbourhood meeting to rally opposition to the group home.
The church declined, but instead offered to facilitate (with a skilled facilitator) a meeting
between the various parties. This offer was not accepted by the neighbourhood group; instead, the group had a meeting on someone's front lawn. Sara Jane Schmidt, moderator of Jubilee Mennonite, attended the meeting and saw the hostility of many of the neighbours, a good number of them Mennonites.On the other hand, she observed, ANew Direction [also] was not forthcoming with information, and their hired PR consultant (also a Mennonite) seemed to react defensively to intense questioning. The format tended to polarize positions, rather than aid understanding."
During a subsequent CBC radio phone-in show, Schmidt observed that not one person called to offer support to the upset neighbours. Instead, the callers chided them, spoke of their own experiences as neighbours of group homes (positive and challenging) and offered suggestions for how to do this well. One woman shared her experience as a Atroubled@ group home resident, and the help she received there. Her words came slowly as she voiced the rejection that these children, who had faced rejection all their lives, must again be feeling. Schmidt concluded, AAn opportunity to serve >the least of these= has been lost and damage done to the Mennonite witness in Winnipeg.@
A situation like this poses a distinct dilemma. All of us would say we are concerned about our
neighbours, about troubled kids, about abused women and about a host of other social evils. We
can all easily pray for these situations, even give money for shelters for abused women. But when
it comes down to the practical, everyday response, we shy away. We don't want our property
values decreased because of who our neighbours are. We don't want our children to play with the
neighbours= children, because their values are not the same as ours.
AWhoever promised a committed group of Christians a neighbourhood of rose gardens? I mourn for the rejecting church; I weep for the abandoned children, wrote Neufeld.
Personally, I don't know what I would do either. I live in a nice house, in a nice neighbourhood,
and I also have my two grandchildren living in the same house. Do I want to fear for their safety
every time they go outside to play? Do I want them to hear the language that troubled youths often use? Early in our marriage, my husband and I taught in a home for delinquent girls in another province. We saw troubled girls every day and had many positive, as well as negative, times with them. We invited them to our home, and to our church, but we also witnessed a riot where the girls had to be forcibly restrained. So we know a little of what this kind of a situation can involve. However, I want to think that if a home like this were established on my street, I would be there with freshly-baked zwiebach, and a word of welcome.
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