CUTTING EDGE: Don't you find the poor so tedious?

WE MUSTN'T judge the Napier pastor who accepted chunks of a disabled rest home resident's life savings for his church. These are parlous times and the Lord moves in multifarious ways.
Strangely, too, He has been known to do this among the poor and needy, and this knowledge will have prompted an Elim Church pastor, reluctant as he may have been initially, demurring as he no doubt did, to allegedly accept the last of a poor man's life savings, graciously given.
Whetu Abraham, 54, has been unfortunate. He is a partial tetraplegic suffering from head injuries and uses a wheelchair. Yet such is his generous spirit that he has now, according to the Otatara Rest Care and Rehabilitation facility where he lives, emptied his bank account to help the church. As I say, these are parlous times, when a church - indeed anyone at all - would welcome a spot of the ready.
Rest home manager Lucy Dever says Mr Abraham has no family and no next of kin. Taking his savings was, she says, "unethical, immoral, and I believe un-Christian. He used to have a nest egg but now he has no life savings. He believes if he doesn't give it to them, he won't go to heaven."
Mr Abraham, she adds, now can't afford dentistry on his rotten teeth.
It is perhaps impertinent of him to expect any, if I may say so, since dentistry is rightly the preserve of the wealthy. The poor have always had their teeth yanked out with pliers when they gave them trouble, and I'm sure they're all the sprightlier for it. What have they got to chew on, anyway?
The pastor, Bruce Collingwood, is now in a difficult position, what with being called un-Christian. But I have no doubt that he considered the matter carefully, was within his legal rights, is doing no more than many people do, and has the inside running on heaven that Mr Abraham relies on. It's just - how can I put this? - not an elegant look. And I don't mean his trousers.
The trouble with the poor and needy is, they sometimes don't know their place. So I sympathise with the people running state houses who have to listen to their complaints. They may not have to actually do anything about it, not in a hurry, anyway, but it's surely an inconvenience when they could be doing better things, like crossword puzzles.
Currently a Titahi Bay woman is upset about the mouldy state house she lives in. Danielle Koveskali is 21, has renal failure, is on dialysis, and has been waiting for something to be done about the problem for more than a year. Her doctors have recommended she be moved, for the good of her tenuous health. Her mother says the family regularly has to wipe black mould from the walls, and that Danielle has now developed bronchitis, and sometimes struggles to breathe.
Although they were offered another house, it didn't have enough room for dialysis equipment. That was in July last year. Since then nothing doing, and why should there be? Black mould would be considered a desirable feature by many people, particularly Goths.
Not to be outdone, Cannons Creek woman To'a Finau says the dampness in her state house has aggravated her heart condition. A hole in a bedroom wall is a special feature, showing water running down a bank behind the house. I ask you - they complain when they have a water feature?
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman has commented on such housing issues, which is a change, since the last time I saw him evincing great enthusiasm was his protest about something happening in Tibet, a subject upon which the Chinese leadership plainly needs to take his advice.
Mr Norman's repeated cry of "Give me my flag back!" when it was wrenched from him by security people protecting the Chinese Vice-President last week was priceless tragedy. Such staged news events are most affecting, and Mr Norman positively beamed while complaining that he'd been manhandled.
Should we ever have any problems on our plate locally, he could be just the man for the job. Perhaps he could start by getting equally worked up about my future pension.