What Does "Sin Is the Root Cause of Homelessness" Mean?
How Christian Nationalists justify religious indoctrination for welfare assistance (Scroll to the end to listen)
Others have written about Jeff Weigand, the Christian Nationalist Dane County WI Supervisor who voted against funding for a men’s homeless shelter. Most of the coverage has been outraged by his assertion that, to quote him, “sin is the root cause of homelessness.”
One of the reasons I started this space was to use my religious indoctrination for good. And part of that good is deconstructing such statements for those who weren’t indoctrinated in Christian Nationalism.
In my newsletter “What Does ‘Forced Birth Can Be the Greatest Healing Agent’ Mean,” we reviewed what Christian Nationalists believe about God. They worship angry, vengeful Old Testament God, a god who destroyed entire cities for one couple’s infidelity and demanded the execution of those who dared to take his name in vain.
Christian Nationalists believe people are homeless (or jobless or unwell or penniless or mentally ill) because they have done something to displease God.
Maybe God tried to point out his displeasure several times with lesser punishments, and the recipients ignored his messages. This forced God into the drastic step of taking their homes or their jobs/giving them cancer/losing their money or their minds.
To a Christian Nationalist, homelessness is a visible manifestation of God’s extreme displeasure with someone. People with big problems are big sinners.
Let’s look at what that means in Weigand’s own words:
Weigand said he believes county-funded programs should come with accountability.
“What it looks like from a county funding perspective is to invest in initiatives that will hold people accountable to God’s standards …You can hold someone accountable while also meeting their needs,” he said. “And part of holding someone accountable is addressing their sin issues, if they have any. Not everyone is living in a situation that they created through their own sin, but some people are … If you are struggling with alcohol or drug abuse, let’s find you that assistance, let’s get you that physical need. Let’s also make sure that you’re accountable and not continuing to go down that path anymore.”
Source: Madison365
When Christian Nationalists use the word “accountability,” they always mean “forcing everyone in society to live by their interpretation of the Bible.”
And who should hold people accountable? Christian Nationalists, of course!
“That’s the model that I think works the best because the church individuals, people one on one, can determine the difference between someone that wants to continue to make poor decisions, and someone that doesn’t, someone that truly wants to turn their life around,” he said.
“If we’re going to physically give you help, we’re going to do a Bible study with you,” he said. “You don’t have to believe it, you can sit there and check the box. But we are going to because we believe that that’s the true solution. We’re also not going to turn someone away if they have a physical need. If you have a physical need, come on in. We just ask you sit through this Bible study. If you don’t want to listen, that’s fine.”
Source: Madison365
This Christian Nationalist model of “religious indoctrination for welfare assistance” is what Project 2025 proposes for ALL welfare - federal, state, and local. I wrote about that policy position here.
It is important for Americans to recognize how pervasive this view of homelessness is. While they may not blame homelessness on a person’s “sin” or “poor choices,” too many Americans believe a person’s homelessness (joblessness, illness, etc) is somehow that person’s fault.
This belief in assigning blame keeps us from funding escape routes and giving Americans the help they desperately need. That void has left churches and other faith-based organizations to fill those gaps, often without oversight or - one of their favorite words - accountability.
How to use this information to study political candidates and their positions:
Does a candidate repeatedly talk about accountability for those receiving welfare assistance? If yes, ask them what they mean.
Does a candidate blame a person’s need for welfare assistance on “poor decisions?” “Poor decisions” is code for “sinful choices that violate the Christian Nationalist interpretation of the Bible.”
Can the candidate name organizations that excel at providing welfare assistance? If yes, are any faith-based?
Use our guide “Questions for Political Candidates Who Profess to be Christians” linked below.
And let’s not forget how “sin is the root cause” could impact YOU.
You or someone you love could be forced into religious indoctrination for food, housing, healthcare, clothing, diapers and more.
You or someone you love could be forced into religious indoctrination to avoid jail time.
Your definition of sin likely doesn’t match the Christian Nationalist definition of sin. Most of us violate Christian Nationalist definitions of sin so much more than we know. Under Project 2025, the meanings of words have big consequences.
Here’s what Project 2025 says about the root causes of homelessness, buried in a footnote on page 516:
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) was established in the 1990s, and numerous Administrations have devoted enormous resources to the Housing First model, experimenting with various ways to provide federally financed rapid rehousing and permanent housing opportunities. Housing First is a far-left idea premised on the belief that homelessness is primarily circumstantial rather than behavioral. The Housing First answer to homelessness is to give someone a house instead of attempting to understand the underlying causes of homelessness. Federal intervention centered on Housing First has failed to acknowledge that resolving the issue of homelessness is often a matter of resolving mental health and substance abuse challenges. Instead of the permanent supportive housing proffered by Housing First, a conservative Administration should shift to transitional housing with a focus on addressing the underlying issues that cause homelessness in the first place. (Weigand’s “sin is the root cause.” - ALW)
In my home state of Oklahoma, where my ancestors have been born for 7 generations and have mostly been very poor, the Christian Nationalist Governor has just signed a law to levy fines on the homeless. Since there is only a tiny minority of Democrats in our state govt, there was little they could do but they tried to stop it. In a state that reliably votes 80% plus for Republicans, there’s little that can be done about any of this take over of our society and lives. All horrible laws are first passed in Texas then, in very short order are passed here.
Folks that don’t live in a state where the people vote in huge majorities for Rs need to take heed and do all you can, Please, to hold back the tide. Once it’s all locked up it’s too late.
I rarely follow my local news so I missed this dingus. For those who don't know, Dane County is a place where Trump got about 23% of the vote in both of his presidential runs. In such an environment, this clown and his Christian Nationalist brethren are basically harmless eccentrics, free to believe whatever nonsense they want to. That's the goal for all of America, for these people to have absolutely no chance at power.
The issues at hand today are difficult, because accountability generally is a good thing. When any of us aren't our best - and the more power one has the more important this is - we have the potential to hurt others, so we need to own our behavior and try to do better. That's the healthy purpose of guilt and shame and regret, to make us better.
There has to be at least some role for this in public policy. If we look at what's happened in Oregon, where they decriminalized drugs, there's been a big increase in social problems related to addiction, and there's been a public backlash. It seems that treatment can work, but that addicts don't tend to get treatment on their own, that they need some kind of motivation. It's also true that we need a lot more resources devoted to care, but all the resources in the world won't matter if someone is not willing to try a different path.
In that way consequences can be a good thing. I don't think any of us would question that if we were talking about men engaging in harassing and abusive behavior towards women, or corporations harming their workers, customers, and the rest of the public in pursuit of greed.
The reason this is important is because we don't want to get into a situation in which the other side is arguing for accountability, and we are seen to be arguing against it. That will lose elections every time.
Instead we have to propose better methods of accountability, ones that are more compassionate, which will ultimately be more effective. If we don't counter their call for 'accountability' with measures of our own, we'll lose the voters in the middle, who don't support Christian Nationalism but also are at least just as worried about no accountability.
It's all too easy when the other side says something, to just come out against it. It's much better to examine what need or want or fear of the public is attracted to what they say, and try to come up with better ways to address it. Some people ARE just assholes, and won't be satisfied by anything other than punishing and controlling other people. But if that's a majority of the voting population, we're probably screwed anyway.
I think the unequal distribution of resources is a huge factor in social problems. I think illness plays a big part (although there's also the question of how we become ill). But individual choices have to make a difference too; otherwise there's no free will and everything is predestined or fated. I think we need to believe that people can be rewarded for making good choices, and suffer consequences from making bad choices. AND, crucially, help make that happen! Or else it's all hopeless. And I think we need to find ways to incorporate that into our solutions. I'm not sure we can gain enough trust and credibility with the public if we don't, or aren't seen to.
I'm kind of tired today so I probably could write better, but I think the pattern is that progressives want to hold people with more wealth and power accountable, while conservatives usually want to hold people with fewer resources and power accountable. If that's the choice, I pick progressive every time, because more should be asked of those who have more. But I don't think it works to just give those with fewer resources carte blanche. I think Israel - Palestine is a good example of this. I think there has to be some common humanity that we're all responsible to, whatever our position in life.