Jesus House in OKC Under Fire

It has come to light, through an anonymous letter sent to the Oklahoma County DA's office and several local media outlets, that there is probably a considerable amount of financial impropriety that has been going on at the Jesus House, here in Oklahoma City.

According to the letter and tax records obtained by the local newspaper, the director of Jesus House, Janis Mercer, has given herself a $52,000 raise (around 50%), to $154,000, at a time when the homeless shelter 1) had a decrease in donations of around 25%; 2) has a tax lien on its property for failure to pay payroll tax withholding to the state; and 3) is currently about $1,500 overdrawn on its bank accounts.

In fact, Ms. Mercer's pay reflects more than 10% of all donations to the charity. (Here's a link to the full story.) Total donations fell to just over $1.2 million in the year Ms. Mercer's pay was raised, and in that year the Jesus House spent more than $200k more than it took in.

For decades the Jesus House has served our community, and was run by its founders, Ruth Wynne and Betty Adams, who inspired comparisons to Mother Teresa for their dedication to their calling of serving the poor. According to the shelter's website, the group was founded in 1973 in downtown Oklahoma City. Before that, Sisters Ruth and Betty ministered to the 'hippie' culture, when they began feeding kids on the street, and sometimes taking them home to sleep on the floor of their apartment. 'Sister Ruth would sit up with these young people, telling them about Jesus and reading scripture to them. Students from the nearby campus of OCU (Oklahoma City University) would also come by to talk to Sister Ruth, and the apartment was nick-named "that Jesus House".', according to the website.

These two women who founded the group, the last of whom passed away in 2002, were true believers who honestly did the Lord's work. I can remember one incident, back when I was growing up, when there was a crackdown on the homeless and indigent poor, during the winter. The shelter was forcibly shut down by the Oklahoma City Police Department, under orders from then-mayor Patience Latting. The women residents were taken to other area shelters, but when the shelters were full, several men were forced to spend the night out in the cold. By morning, three of them had died of exposure.

They supported their organization in its early days by cleaning offices in the downtown area, along with whatever volunteers they could gather to go with them. They worked tirelessly to carry out their ministry for years and years.

And now it's come to this.

Why is it that some people seem to think they can get away with skimming a little off the top of good people's generosity, or sometimes more than a little, in order to enhance their lifestyle? Even more, why do they think they can get away with using the Lord's name to do this? To take money donated in the name of Jesus Christ to help the poor in order to make a lavish lifestyle for yourself has to be the worst form of apostasy there is. Even if Ms. Mercer realizes what she's done, and makes restitution, and truly, deep down from within her soul she repents (which I honestly hope she does), it seems to me that she'd really be stretching the Lord's forgiveness here.

Now, with all the allegations and investigations going on, the future of what the two Sisters put together is very much in jeopardy. All their work, their lives' work, could very well come crashing down. Who's going to want to finance some director's lavish lifestyle when the money was supposed to go to feed and shelter and care for the homeless? (Making things even worse, as if such a thing were possible, is that Ms. Mercer is the daughter of Ruth Wynne.)

And it also casts a pall over all other charitable organizations. In such organizations all involved must avoid even the merest appearance of sin and impropriety. There are always those who are quite ready and willing to castigate the homeless, wanting to shove them off on some other community, send them down the road to some other city or town, and thereby eliminate the problem for 'us'. One of the things that I hear all the time, when the subject of religion comes up at work and elsewhere, are those who are very quick to point out the ones who've embezzled (a strong word, but let's call it what it is) from the churches and other organizations they've led in order to set themselves up in a comfortable lifestyle. Just down the road is the vast elaborate mansion of the pastor of a megachurch here in Oklahoma City, providing a perfect and readily visible illustration of this particular problem.

It is a betrayal of all of what Christ preached. It causes other believers to lose faith, in and of itself an heinous sin, according to the teachings of the Apostle Paul (for example, see 1 Corinthians 10:31-33). It keeps other potential believers from finding salvation. It's impossible to condemn this sort of behavior enough, to match the magnitude of this particular sin. (Of course, any sin is just as bad as any other, in the Lord's eyes, but one that keeps others from salvation must rank higher at least in human terms.)

Realizing that Paul and evenJesus Himself were accepting of those who preach the Gospel for their own selfish ends--that the preaching of the Gospel and spreading of the Good News is the more important part--it is still dishonest and hypocritical to manipulate the Lord's teachings for selfish ends. And it's basically the last thing the Church needs.