This guy hit the nail on the head -- I will always shake my head at the thoughtlessness and hypocrisy of some people...


A disaster occurs. People have been without power or running water for a week and are now out of food, too. They show up at your house and ask you to share. What do you do? I have had this article topic in my ‘drafts’ for about 6 months now. It is a touchy subject that I, quite frankly, did not want to touch on due to the controversy that it can cause. Ironically, that is the very reason that I decided to: it is a subject that is unpleasant therefore it needs to be discussed. Learning how to sail a boat during a storm is a surefire way to get yourself killed. Trying to decide what to do in this situation while it is happening can have some negative consequences.

I do not claim to be an expert on any of this stuff. I do, however, have some very strong feelings about it and tend to look at the situation in a black and white, logical manner. Of course, logic will have little to no bearing when you have 5 people at your door, begging for food they think you have to spare (whether you do or not does not matter). So, let’s dive in. Most preppers or survivalists have thought about this topic and while some have an idea or plan of what they would do, it is hard to really say until you are in the thick of it. Part of preparing is having the skills and plan to deal with the ugly side of humanity who will be knocking on your door. Even if you have 100% solid OPSEC and there isn’t another soul who knows about your 6 month supply of necessities, they will come knocking. Even if you are like us and aren’t ‘preppers’ per se but lean more on the side of homesteading, they will come knocking. Or just break your door in. Are you ready for that?

For those who have tried to talk to people and wake them up to the need to have some food and whatnot set back just in case, only to hear them say, “If something bad happens, I’ll just come to your house.” you need to tell them loud and clear.

“NO, YOU CAN’T COME TO MY HOUSE.”

It doesn’t matter if they are saying it in a joking manner. It doesn’t matter if it will tick them off or offend them. They need to understand that you are serious and that you are not FEMA, the local government, or their parents. Here is a real conversation I had not too long ago about this very topic at my day job. It was with one of the paraprofessionals I know.

_________

THEM: “Well, if it all goes crazy, I will just come to your house since you have all I would need!”

ME: “Uh, no. I don’t think so. That would not be a good move on your part. I don’t have anything for you at my house or anywhere else.”

THEM: “But you just said you are building a 3 month food supply up. That is plenty extra to share.” (It was at this point my temper started to rise. I took a deep breath and kept my calm.)

ME: “You’re right. I am trying to build a 3 month supply of food for TWO people. How long do you think that will last if you and your 3 kids come? Not only that, even if I only had enough extra for two week, what makes you think it is acceptable to come to my place and expect me to take care of you and your children with my resources? Resources that I worked for, saved for, and put up.”

THEM: “But we’ve known each other forever. Would you really turn me and my hungry kids away?”

ME: “Yes, yes I would. You acknowledge that there is a need to prepare and yet don’t. You assume that it is OK for you to come to my house and eat up my food and resources without offering anything in return?” (Of course, the smile was gone from their face at this point and they did not look very happy.)

THEM: “Wow… I guess I never expected you to be so greedy.”

ME: “Greedy? How is it being greedy to work, save, and plan for my family to make it through some hard times and not want to just give it away to someone who didn’t take care of their own?”

THEM: “Well, not sharing when others are in need…”

ME: “OK, let me ask you something. I am out of ammo for my .22 rifle. You have some and I want you to share it. You know you can’t get anymore but since I am in need, I think you should give it to me.”

THEM: *Scoffing* “Well, you should have stocked some up like we did!”

ME: *Looks at them…waiting*

THEM: “That is completely different than if my kids were starving.”

ME: “No, it isn’t. You stocked up when you could and now you have supplies. I am stocking food a little at a time so I will have it if needed. It is not my responsibility to prepare for my family and yours. I am not FEMA and I am certainly not the local charity. I worked, I planned, I have. A lack of planning and foresight on your part does not make a responsibility, emergency, or obligation on mine.”

THEM: *Looking at me, slightly aghast that I would be so inhumane and ‘greedy.’*

ME: “You are an able bodied person who can choose to do the same thing I am or you can expect that the government will swoop in and hand over whatever you need in the quantity you are used to. Because, we all saw how well that worked during Katrina and Sandy. What world do you live in that makes you think that is acceptable? I am not the government, I am not FEMA and I don’t have the supplies you think I do. Why should I be expected to just freely give over what I have to you? How can you even expect that would be a given or normal thing? Do you just hand over what you have to people without expecting anything in return?”

THEM: “Well no but you are talking about the grid being down or some other disaster. People need to help each other get through it.”

ME: “Yes, people do have to help each other to make it. But first, they need to help themselves. I’m not saying that I would be ‘that guy’ who just turns people away on principle. If people are willing to work with me and the group for the betterment of all, then I am right there next to them but the people who just expect you should share without contributing anything or even trying to barter, will not be welcome.”

__________

Needless to say, that person is much less friendly toward me than they used to be. I consider it worth it if they started to think about what I said and began planning for their own family’s needs.

Now consider having this conversation with family members. Your lazy cousin who spends more time trying to get free entitlements from the government than they would if they just got a job. The aunt who lives high and mighty in her huge home worth half a million dollars but only shops for food once a week and never has anything extra. Your siblings who tease you constantly about being a ‘doomsday prepper’ while they go into debt just to get the latest iPhone. All of these people will come to your home when they run out of food (or even before, hoarding what they have but expecting you to share all you have) and other supplies. How will you handle it? There is no perfect answer here. The worst solution you can go with is to just freely let them in because it puts your immediate family in jeopardy of not surviving the disaster.

There are solutions that can be worked out beforehand though! Offering to store supplies for them (if able) is one. Giving them a shopping list of extra stuff to buy here and there and then storing it at your home is a great way to make sure that the people you know will come have been accounted and planned for. Even if it is a little, that is better than nothing! One of the things I have personally done is to buy preparedness items as Christmas and birthday gifts. Of course, these are only to those I really care about and worry over (or just know in my heart that they will come running if the SHTF). I explain to them what it is and why I am giving it to them. I explain that since they will not listen, the items are their ‘key’ to being let in. They will not come empty handed and will contribute to the group overall. They were very grateful actually. More than one commented about how it was kind to think of their emergency needs and supplies. (And it is cheaper than the average Christmas present, too!). I would like to believe that people will band together and do whatever they can to help each other and there will certainly be that….at first. When your 3 year old is so hungry that they don’t even cry for food anymore and just stare with a dull, blank look – what would YOU do? That’s right, whatever it took.

There is a large risk with any of the above suggestions, of course. It is likely that these people will tell others “I have 20 pounds of rice and beans stored at my cousin’s house in case of a disaster.” That causes less security for not only them but you as well. The people they told will show up either with them or alone, and when you tell them you have nothing for them, will say, “But so and so told me you have all this food.” When you tell them no again, they will likely get ticked off and come back with more people to take what you may or may not have. You could be telling the truth when you say you have nothing left but hungry people aren’t thinking logically. They will not believe you (or care) and are bent on getting inside to take whatever they believe you have. It is really easy for people to be generous with supplies they took from someone else (or were given by the government).

I find myself getting hardened to the prevalent mindset of people today. Particularly those who only consume and do not create or contribute. They don’t try to learn how to preserve food or provide for themselves at all, only consume. What really gets me is the people on food stamps who refuse to get a 20# bag of rice, beans, and oats to make sure they have enough food in a bad situation (like when there are no more food stamps accepted or the stores are wiped clean).  Now, before you get all twisted and think I am getting down on people who use food stamps, just stop right there. I use it to make a point of how people these days focus primarily on the now and never consider the later because there will be more on the card the next month.

The majority of the population never considers that during martial law, stores can and likely will be shut down completely. In a large disaster, there may be no 911 to call. No police will come to your rescue when hungry mobs are breaking into your house to take the last grains of rice. Law officials will be either dealing with something else or taking care of their own family. If the power goes out for a long time, say goodbye to having clean, running water.

When people get desperate enough, they will go out looking for whatever they can find. That sweet teenager who helps mow your lawn every summer could turn into a gun toting looter if hungry and desperate enough. We here in America are so used to seeing these things happen on TV and in ‘other places’ that they couldn’t possibly fathom it actually happening here and to them.

And that is their first mistake.

Wow this is a controversial topic for Catholics, or it should be.  I've truly struggled with this topic.
For as long as I can remember, we've always been prepared for an emergency (i.e., unemployment) or natural disasters (been through multiple major hurricanes and 2 - 7.0 earthquakes).  More recently, we've anticipated other possibilities and prepare accordingly.

My question is, what does the Church teach about this?   Here's the movie running through my head: I have plenty, but someone shows up - possibly with hungry children, and I run them off with my glock?  I wrestle with the ethics of this very probable scenario, knowing the temporal consequences of sharing with those who have not prepared.  

So is this an end justifies the means situation?  I don't know.  I do know that I want to do what Christ, teaching through His Church, tells us to do.
Being practical, it's not logical to provide for those who may show up at your door - supplies will deplete rapidly.  But as a Catholic, I'm trying to envision Christ with my glock, chasing the hoards away.  Exaggeration, I know, but you get the point.

Charity is the greatest of virtues, and we are told to give our coat as well as our cloak, so shouldn't we trust that He will either provide, and if not, it is His Will that we perish?   Again, I don't know, but for me it's important to contemplate.

I figure only a very small number of people will completely be able to take care of themselves. So, most of us will probably be out looking for bartering and other arrangements. Perhaps you've stocked seeds, but you don't realistically have enough land to ensure enough food. On the other hand, your neighbor has stocked nothing, but they happen to have an able body and a back yard. Perhaps another person has not stocked anything, but did grow up around livestock and knows the basics of how to care for them.

I think the key to long-term survival would involve building community relationships quickly rather than hunkering down and trying to fend for yourself. Because, as you say, the hungry with nothing to offer will come to you eventually and as a Catholic you won't be able to run them off at gunpoint. The more people in a area working together, the more the group would be able to help someone who has nothing and the better they will be able to defend what they have.

There simply won't be enough food to go around.

Will God work miracles? Or will all the Catholics necessarily have to die off?

.....Imagine every city in the world getting hit by a Category 5 hurricane AT ONCE. That's more what we're talking about. A total collapse of the modern world.

I think it would be a miracle if I even made it through a Category 5 hurricane, also there would probably be many "preppers" who didn't survive, but for those Catholics who prepared and survived, they are perfectly correct to do what they need to do to secure their own and their family's survival first and foremost.

Yet I think that maybe the parable of the "Prodigal Son" (Luke 15:11-32)  somehow applies. I mean, if one of your relatives with 4 kids comes to you like the prodigal son (repentant) who returned, wouldn't you need to react as the father did in Luke 15:21-23?........21 And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee: I am not now worthy to be called thy son.
22 But the father said to his servants: Bring forth, quickly, the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry:

The difference is that the father was not in survival mode, but because the son returned repentant, the father fed him.

The corporal works of mercy bind us to to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and shelter the homeless. The Spiritual works tells us we're supposed to comfort the sorrowful, forgive all injuries and to bear wrongs patiently. We know we would please God by these acts no matter what our situation.

So IMO, you certainly would need to feed your relatives, friends and even strangers if they ask for aid, but if they come to you like an angry mob demanding that you give them food or seeking to take all you have as if you you owe it to them, at that point, I think you would be justified to defend what is yours with whatever means you have at your disposal per Mat. 24:43
But know this ye, that if the good man of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open.

I don't know how well, if at all, the above Scriptures might apply to the OP scenario, but we are our brother's keepers and we are taught to feed the hungry etc. so I think if we can help, we should, regardless of the obstinate  ignorance of those asking our help.
 

I agree with Matthew's post.

If someone is encouraged to prepare and doesn't might
2 Thessalonians 3:10 apply?

"if any man will not work, neither let him eat."

 :geezer:

I figure only a very small number of people will completely be able to take care of themselves. So, most of us will probably be out looking for bartering and other arrangements. Perhaps you've stocked seeds, but you don't realistically have enough land to ensure enough food. On the other hand, your neighbor has stocked nothing, but they happen to have an able body and a back yard. Perhaps another person has not stocked anything, but did grow up around livestock and knows the basics of how to care for them.

I think the key to long-term survival would involve building community relationships quickly rather than hunkering down and trying to fend for yourself. Because, as you say, the hungry with nothing to offer will come to you eventually and as a Catholic you won't be able to run them off at gunpoint. The more people in a area working together, the more the group would be able to help someone who has nothing and the better they will be able to defend what they have.

Nothing changes in a post-calamity scenario. You and your family will still be outnumbered by people hostile to the Catholic Faith. Are you willing to become adjoined with heathens and atheists in a community, if it increases your chances of physical survival? How is this any different than now, when Catholics have a choice of flowing with the current and embracing modernism, or carrying our crosses while remaining steadfast in Christ and His true Church? What if members in this post-disaster survival community scoff at you for keeping holy the Sabbath day, and they insist that you instead use that time to contribute to the community? What if they lambast you for contributing resources to your chapel or priest who celebrates the Divine Sacrifice, and these same heathens demand that you give it, instead, to the community? Compromise is a poison concocted and administered by Satan who tricks the Faithful into taking it.

The fact is most Catholics will have to endure these times in more or less temporal isolation, depending on their exact circuмstances.

Wow this is a controversial topic for Catholics, or it should be.  I've truly struggled with this topic.
For as long as I can remember, we've always been prepared for an emergency (i.e., unemployment) or natural disasters (been through multiple major hurricanes and 2 - 7.0 earthquakes).  More recently, we've anticipated other possibilities and prepare accordingly.

My question is, what does the Church teach about this?   Here's the movie running through my head: I have plenty, but someone shows up - possibly with hungry children, and I run them off with my glock?  I wrestle with the ethics of this very probable scenario, knowing the temporal consequences of sharing with those who have not prepared.  

So is this an end justifies the means situation?  I don't know.  I do know that I want to do what Christ, teaching through His Church, tells us to do.
Being practical, it's not logical to provide for those who may show up at your door - supplies will deplete rapidly.  But as a Catholic, I'm trying to envision Christ with my glock, chasing the hoards away.  Exaggeration, I know, but you get the point.

Charity is the greatest of virtues, and we are told to give our coat as well as our cloak, so shouldn't we trust that He will either provide, and if not, it is His Will that we perish?   Again, I don't know, but for me it's important to contemplate.

We need to balance this with our other God-given duties to our family.  Those of us who are responsible for a family, don't have the liberty to sacrifice their needs out of "charity" to others. That would be disordered.  Those who have greater freedom, not having dependents, are more morally compelled to assist others.

But none of us are compelled to sacrifice our lives simply because of someone else's negligence.

Also, we all need to be careful of deceptions in these situations. The man asking for food for his children just might be trying to manipulate you.  

People come to my house already without natural disaster.