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New Alabama Food Truck Regulations Prevent Local Churches From Feeding The Homeless

New Alabama food truck regulations prevent local churches from feeding the homeless (via Raw Story )

Food truck regulations that went into effect on January 1, 2014 are preventing churches in Birmingham, Alabama from feeding the homeless. Minister Rick Wood of the Lords House of Prayer told ABC 3340 that police informed him that he would not be able…

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Writer in Alabama. Veteran. Politically incorrect about your ammosexual lifestyle choices. Burner of Confederate flags and fake Civil War histories. Chronicler of alt-right scumbags since 2008. A theory of change must win hard political power in time to save American democracy from regressive forces or else it is bullshit.

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  • muselet

    Wood attempted to argue with the officers, claiming that the regulations only apply to trucks from which food is sold, but was told that the ordinances apply to all food vehicles, even ones which sport Matthew 25, 35-40 on their sides.

    Section 9(1) of the ordinance says:

    No person or business entity, including religious or charitable organization, shall operate a mobile food vehicle and/or pushcart upon the public rights-of-way within the city without a permit.

    That would seem to cover Wood’s feeding the homeless; however, the ordinance consistently refers to food “vending” and Wood isn’t selling anything.

    Who could possibly have predicted that a local ordinance would be sloppily written?

    I kind of like the way commenter “philbear69” thinks (from the link):

    Lots of cities are pulling this ****. So what the preacher needs to do is have a couple of people with him, set up a few chairs and hold a church picnic where everyone in the community is invited to attend and eat. Let him say a few words, a prayer or two and then everyone eats.

    –alopecia

  • This is really just the latest manifestation of what I call “Cruel Christianity” in the state. You may remember Alabama’s ridiculous anti-immigrant law a couple of years ago. The churches lobbied very hard against a provision that made it illegal to transport an undocumented immigrant, even to church services. I watched Sen. Scott Beason defend that horrible measure by claiming that it would let terrorists criss-cross the state at will in the name of religion. When the Senate finally did amend the bill to remove that portion, Republicans in the House slammed their version through unredacted and sent it to the Senate, where Beason got it passed in a morning vote. These are people who talk in Glenn Beck language about “social justice” being a communist plot. So these anti-humanity measures are not mistakes at all, but the deliberate coarsening of Christianity by right wingers who’ve inserted the Book of Rand between Romans and Revelations.

  • muselet

    Overall, the crazy isn’t as strong here in California, but I’m not sure you’re ever more than a thirty-minute drive from some city that has enacted an anti-poor/anti-homeless/anti-not-quite-defined-undesirables ordinance in the past decade. The courts have been pretty good at slapping them down, but that may not always be the case.

    “Cruel Christianity” sounds just about right.

    –alopecia