I can only speak within an American context. I was heavily involved in my local “Christianity/Church” affiliated homeless shelters/care programs and after a couple years walked away from it. We were not helping the poor, but rather enabling a subset of people’s irresponsible lifestyles. I would like to know what the definition of poor is, in relation to being in the United States. I delivered boxes of food to families in the projects that were in possession of nicer cars, televisions and cellphones than what I had at the time.

I saw “Christian” agencies being soft on drugs and alcohol. The list goes on.

Are we scripturally called to care for the poor? 100%. How to do that in the world’s most affluent country, where our poor are rich compared to the rest of the world, is a quandary.