Pastor in NC Supported by Libertarians in Fight Against Harmful Regulations

FULL DISCLOSURE: My, that is, Rachel S’s, libertarian flag started to flutter a little bit in my righteous indignation and now I can’t put it away. As per usual, the libertarian views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect those of Chicks on the Right as a whole.

I’m just going to let Libertarian Meme King Spike Cohen take the wheel here:

The tweet, in its entirety, reads,

Remember Pastor Moses Colbert?

The @CityofGastonia government shut down his homeless shelter last year, and after lots of pressure from you, they backed off and let him re-open. Well, now they’re trying to steal his church, his homeless shelter, and the property that it’s on.

Why? Because he’s embarrassing them, by doing more to help the homeless with money we’ve raised voluntarily than they’ve done with their multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded budget.

For those who are new to this story, this all started last year, when we found out that Pastor Moses’ shelter had been shut down, because the City said that churches should stick to “religious services”. Last I checked, helping the poor was a religious service.

Soon after Moses’ shelter shut down, homeless people began dying every few days. For years, none had died while the shelter was open. Gastonia now had the “homeless crisis” the politicians needed to secure millions in funding to deal with it. And what have they done with those millions? Great question. As far as we can tell, they bought a seedy motel and…don’t appear to even be using it.

When we found out what the city government was doing to Pastor Moses, @YATPOfficial sprang into action, working with @LPNC , Gaston County LP, and other local organizations and activists. Facing increasing pressure, the City backed off and let Moses re-open the shelter. We even raised money to purchase trailers for him to use on site, for education and emergency housing purposes. Every step of the way, Pastor Moses says he has worked with the City, and asked them what he has to do in order to be in compliance with zoning and other regulations. He was told everything was fine.

And then he received a notice that he owed them $60,000 in fines. They know he can’t afford that. It’s pretty clear that they want to steal Pastor Moses’ property and run his church and shelter out of business. All because he’s done more for the homeless community, at no expense to the taxpayer, than the City has done with millions of tax dollars.

It is time for us to fight back again. I will back in Gastonia very soon, and I hope you’ll join me then. More on that soon. In the meantime, here’s the link to contact the Mayor and ever City Council Member in Gastonia. http://cityofgastonia.com/government/city-council.html… Go there and RESPECTFULLY let them know what you think about their treatment of Pastor Moses and Gastonia’s homeless. We are just getting started, and we won’t finish until the Gastonia city government backs off of Pastor Moses and his shelter, for good.

“But without the government, who would build roads?” More like, “But without the government, who would terrorize a pastor and abuse their power to strip him of his livelihood of helping others because it has the side effect of making them look as incompetent and petty as they are?” (Also, to answer the road question, Domino’s. Domino’s will build the roads.)

This story so succinctly summarizes everything wrong with government, including but not limited to:

• The worst of human nature running amok now that it’s unaccountable (because, as it turns out, putting “government official” in front of someone’s name doesn’t magically make them act decently, or even rationally).
• An utter disdain for the plebians, even when their lives are literally on the line
• Rampant greed and entitlement to the taxpayer’s hard-earned dollar, with which they will accomplish absolutely nothing in the interest of their communities

My friends, I cannot stress this enough: people DIED because the City of Gastonia thought it was more important to smack down a pastor than to actually be a decent f*cking human being. I was going to say “do their jobs,” but the behavior of these individuals goes beyond simple job descriptions into the actually despicable.

“I’d much rather ask for their forgiveness than ask for their permission, because I’m not getting their permission to do anything,” Pastor Colbert said.

Zoning laws shouldn’t come before human lives. Ego shouldn’t come before human lives. Government shouldn’t come before human lives.

A link to donate is found further in the Twitter thread linked above.