Christians know that we cannot read others’ hearts, so the question of intent often strikes us as elusive and peripheral.
“You will recognize them by their fruits,” Jesus told us, referring to false prophets. (Matthew 7:16)
With that in mind, one may easily understand why Mayor Daniel Rodrick of Toms River, New Jersey, has expressed outrage toward rock legend Jon Bon Jovi for turning Toms River into what Rodrick, according to Fox News Digital, called “ground zero for homelessness.”
Bon Jovi, front man for the eponymous rock band that achieved superstardom in the 1980s with songs like “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer,” received permission from Ocean County commissioners to temporarily operate the JBJ Soul Kitchen, a pop-up restaurant designed to serve the homeless, at the Ocean County Library in Toms River, according to the New York Post.
The pop-up, which encourages diners with means to cover the cost of less fortunate patrons’ meals, and which offers volunteering opportunities for those who cannot afford to pay, has operated since Feb. 11.
As noble as that sounds, however, Rodrick alleged something more broadly sinister at work.
“These people are being dropped by in our community by agencies pretending to be homeless advocates who get paid by the head to import homeless people into our town from all over the state and the East Coast,” the mayor said. “These agencies are making millions of dollars importing homeless. Their plan is not about compassion; it’s about people wanting to profit off the homeless issue.”
Then, in a phone interview with Fox News, Rodrick elaborated on his concerns.
“We wound up with dozens and dozens of people being dropped off downtown every single day at the library no less, where a mom should feel comfortable walking into the library with her daughter and get a book. You shouldn’t have to walk through gangs of two dozen intoxicated or mentally ill homeless individuals, and that’s the real issue here,” the mayor said.
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Rodrick also fleshed out his charges of exploitation and profiteering.
“One of these nonprofits, he formed a nonprofit, this guy, and within a few short years he’s bringing in almost a million dollars in revenue, $750,000 according to charitable organization reports,” the mayor said, though he did not identify the nonprofit in question.
“So, I mean, that’s just this little operator who handles 15-20 people at a time, and three quarters of a million dollars is a lot of money, so you can only imagine how much money there is out there for this issue; and you know when they call it the ‘homeless industrial complex,’ I mean, man, they’re not kidding. It’s a big problem,” he continued.
Meanwhile, in a statement to the Post, Bon Jovi and his wife Dorthea — a partner in the enterprise — defended themselves.
“The JBJ Soul Foundation and JBJ Soul Kitchen are committed to ending homelessness through real solutions. We are not here to just move people around or force them into the shadows. Our Foundation has built nearly a thousand units of affordable and supportive housing,” the statement read.
They also disputed Rodrick’s “homeless industrial complex” characterization.
“We are unsure where the mayor thinks millions of dollars are trading hands, but we are completely unaware of any such programs and receive no such funding,” the statement read.
In the interview with Fox News, Rodrick leveled no such charges against Bon Jovi and his wife.
“I’m not accusing Jon Bon Jovi of being in this for profit,” Rodrick said. “We all like his music. And I think he means well and what he’s doing is the right thing, trying to feed people. We could all agree on that.”
The mayor insisted, nonetheless, that Bon Jovi’s efforts have also borne rotten fruit.
“However, bussing dozens of people from all over the state of New Jersey, all over the County of Ocean … I’ve had people come in from as far away as North Carolina and Philadelphia that wind up in housing that I have to then provide, hotels and such. So they’re being bused in here, dumped here,” Rodrick said.
Of course, without additional details, one cannot evaluate Rodrick’s exploitation and profiteering claims.
In this case, however, those claims seem like a secondary issue. What matters here is that Bon Jovi, whatever his intention, appears to have created a significant problem for Toms River, and his joint statement with his wife neither acknowledged nor refuted that problem.
And that is the modern liberal’s modus operandi. They will tout their noble intentions. They will defend their own work. And they will condescendingly dismiss your broader assertions that powerful people might want to profit off the less fortunate.
But one thing they will never do under any circumstances is establish pop-up restaurants for the homeless in their own affluent neighborhoods.
We saw it during the COVID madness: “rules for thee, but not for me.” And we heard it while they defended open borders from inside gated communities.
Thus, whatever Bon Jovi’s intentions, his apparent indifference to the rotten fruit produced by his own endeavor makes him appear unworthy of his own lofty claims to the status of benefactor.
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