This may very well be the “Greatest Object Lesson EVER!”
Mormon Bishop, David Musselman, from Taylorsville, Utah dressed up like a homeless man…and his congregation reacts…just exactly how they react is the most fascinating social experiment.
How would you react?
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Thanks for doing this interview. I found it touching. It reminds me of a poem I wrote some time ago:
http://siever.ca/our-poetry/do-it-unto-the-least-of-these/
This sounded suspiciously like a Christian hoax that has been circulating on the Internet. I’m glad that it is not.
I think it required a lot of courage for Bishop Musselman to do this. I’ll be interested to see if it changed any of his ward members longterm.
That was the first thing I thought of, Kent.
I feel that the Bishop had good intentions but was wrong in the execution of what he was trying to do. If I were him I would have dressed up like he did but then I would go find out how easy, or hard, it would be to even to find out the local homeless programs in the area, then to see how wide the ‘bubble’ is between where how much money you make discredits you from the programs, but you still don’t have enough money to truly live on.
For example there are numerous government programs that are not publicly well known that you really need to know about the program to get the grant, or whatever it is called.
As the Bishop found out later, a few people that told him to leave, had a bad experience with a homeless person in the past. And if you need to be reminded, there was a serial killer that was in Utah sometime in the 1970’s-‘80’s, he even became a member of the church just for cover, so that people wouldn’t think he was an ‘outsider’. I also think it is unfounded to judge me for not doing the ‘Biblical’ thing of helping my fellow man, when back in the Biblical times, and in the culture, if even your sworn enemy told you he wasn’t going to flee your custody, you could, like Nephi did, with Laban’s servant, he the servant said he wouldn’t flee. Well its 21st century America, well even a friend will lie to you about even the smallest thing, let alone about something big. As a personal experience, there was a homeless person that had a sign that read he needed money for gas, I was tempted to roll down my window and say that that I was willing to drive next to you to the nearest gas station, and fill up your car, if gas is what you really want.
I also feel that the Bishop, when he dressed as a ‘Hobo’ which will just reinforce the image of homeless man is a dirty, unhygienic, and drunk. He could have degusted himself so people would have recognized him but not as a ‘hobo’.
My guess is he was going for something more personal. As to the choice of costume, I don’t have anything to say there. He chose what he chose.