The Sparrow’s Hope women’s shelter is almost ready to accept women desperately seeking a new life after escaping dangerous and abusive relationships.
And it has to be said that it’s about time. Not because it’s taken a long time for the shelter to get off the ground, but because there is a need for this in the community and another option is more than welcome.
The Hope Resource Centre has done excellent work since it opened, but manager Heidi Magus has said the centre has been constrained by the lack of a shelter space closer than Edmonton. Sparrow’s Hope does a lot to fill that void.
But what many may question is why it took Ben Kellert of Youth for Christ, a religious organization, to get such a project off the ground.
Where was the public sector, i.e. the town and county, or even the provincial and federal governments, in this project?
The answer: strangely absent. Why?
Could it have to do with Sparrow’s Hope being a faith-based initiative? It is possible. We don’t know.
Is there a problem with funding faith-based projects? Some people say, yes, there is. Some people will say that the secular state should not be providing money to a faith-based group because that gives tacit approval of that faith’s beliefs.
Let’s look at Sparrow’s Hope in this way: it’s a women’s shelter that just happens to be founded by a faith group
Kellert himself says, “We’re not here to preach.” The primary goal of Sparrow’s Hope is to help women escape a dangerous past and strive for a better future.
There are many faith-based initiatives that are about more than their faith. The food bank in Westlock is run by Sister Eileen; should it beboycotted because of the religious leanings of its operator? Of course not.
It is more important to examine what goal an enterprise is attempting to achieve rather than who is setting that goal. By all means, governments have the right to direct their funds where they will have the most effect. But perhaps they need to realize an initiative attached to religious ideals is not something to be avoided. If its sole purpose is to improve the community, it should be fully supported. The public itself sees that. Why can’t our representatives?
