When he talks to men with alcohol or drug problems, he does so from experience. So do Freddie Garcia and Juan Rivera of Victory Fellowship, both reformed heroin addicts. Former business executive Ben Beltzer was once homeless, an experience he says helps him understand the residents at Interfaith. I've been there. There is a way out.
Poverty is more than a material condition, it is also a condition of the spirit.
No programs to help welfare recipients will do lasting, life-changing work unless they take into account spiritual as well as material needs. Assistance must build the person from the inside out, not from the outside in. External restraints cannot create inner order by imposing it, nor can gifts create it. No laws can make people motivated, responsible, and virtuous, only the law written in the heart. We are obligated to care for those in need, not because we are forced to, but out of obedience to Christ.