A Moral Lesson From ABC TV Show

[Terry_from_Ypsi]

Watching the ABC “Extreme Makeover, Home Edition” on Sunday Feb 18, 2007.

Patrick and Jeanette O’Donnell have a family of 6 children, 5 of whom are autistic and live in Austin Texas.

They were faced with foreclosure by a bank and
“if their home isn’t deemed to be a safe and secure environment”, the state taking away their 6 children.

In comes ABC and they have a new home, and hope. Now,
for any Roman Catholic in Austin - I hope you find out what bank was going to foreclose and for all Texans, I hope you let
the State of Texas know what your opinion is of their threats
to this family.

The parents were doiung their best. If this family is Roman
Catholic then the Church failed them bigtime. If Catholics were
involved in the foreclosure threats or state involvement, I pray for God’s mercy for you.

There is something rotten in Austin, Texas.

Regards,

 

[didymus]

Watching the ABC “Extreme Makeover, Home Edition” on Sunday Feb 18, 2007.

Patrick and Jeanette O’Donnell have a family of 6 children, 5 of whom are autistic and live in Austin Texas.

They were faced with foreclosure by a bank and
“if their home isn’t deemed to be a safe and secure environment”, the state taking away their 6 children.

In comes ABC and they have a new home, and hope. Now,
for any Roman Catholic in Austin - I hope you find out what bank was going to foreclose and for all Texans, I hope you let
the State of Texas know what your opinion is of their threats
to this family.

The parents were doiung their best. If this family is Roman
Catholic then the Church failed them bigtime. If Catholics were
involved in the foreclosure threats or state involvement, I pray for God’s mercy for you.

There is something rotten in Austin, Texas.

Regards,

I would agree that the Church failed this family but I would not condemn the bank, or any Catholic working there. The bank lends money in the expectation of being repaid, for all we know they were understanding with this family and tried to give them a break, or several – banks usually would prefer refinancing to repossessing a home.

Actually, we should know more facts before assuming the Church let them down – did they ask for help? at what point? By the time thay asked it might have been too late.

Let’s not assume “something is rotten” until all the facts are in.

 

[Nechasin]

There is something rotten in Austin, Texas.

Yes there is, the majority of the State Legislature is rotten (Austin is the State Capital), but I don’t think they had a bearing on the bank foreclosure.

 

[JimG]

Not many banks own the mortgages they service. Usually the mortgage paper is sold to and owned by some large corp such as GNMA or FNMA and the bank must operate by their rules.

And those entities are not likely to bend rules, because the mortgages are generally securitized, and the holders of those mortgage-backed securities are guaranteed to receive the principal and interest owed on the mortgages each month, whether the borrower is paying or not.

 

[ElizabethAnne]

To be honest, I really dislike “Extreme Makeover, Home Edition.” I know they come in and give people new homes, people who can really use their help. But they do it in such a “pimp my house” kind of way. The families end up with mansions, and I would also assume that they end up with high property taxes as a result. Is that really helpful in the long-term? Is giving them material wealth really going to solve all of their problems? The show seems to want to say that everything is going to be “happily ever after.”

I’d put my money or volunteering into Habitat for Humanity or a like project. They build decent, not decadent homes. They can also build many, many decent homes for the price of one decadent home.

 

[K-McD]

WOW! What a leap! (Blaming the Church) I’m surprised you didn’t include George Bush as well. The Church is out; Sunday worship will now be directed toward ABC.

As far as Extreme M is concerned, I haaaaaaaaaaaate the show. (Although, my kids like to watch it.) Really fake. They may be doing some good with helping people rebuild lives, but don’t pretend you just arrived and did it in two weeks. It take me two weeks just to get permits for an addition. And don’t get me started on the designs. (Previous poster did that already.)

 

[aimee]

WOW! What a leap! (Blaming the Church) I’m surprised you didn’t include George Bush as well. The Church is out; Sunday worship will now be directed toward ABC.

As far as Extreme M is concerned, I haaaaaaaaaaaate the show. (Although, my kids like to watch it.) Really fake. They may be doing some good with helping people rebuild lives, but don’t pretend you just arrived and did it in two weeks. It take me two weeks just to get permits for an addition. And don’t get me started on the designs. (Previous poster did that already.)

It only takes a week

Come on now its a good show…yes I know they go a bit over the top sometimes… its not fake…because its true…just over done a bit.
As for the property tax…not so bad since the mortgage is usually paid off…

 

[K-McD]

It only takes a week

Come on now its a good show…yes I know they go a bit over the top sometimes… its not fake…because its true…just over done a bit.
As for the property tax…not so bad since the mortgage is usually paid off…

Point taken. Still, it drives me crazy.

 

[Woodstock]

The state of Texas could not remove the children from the parents solely because of the parents’ inability to provide permanent housing for them. Homelessness is cause for removal in several states, but Texas isn’t one of them. If the parents continued to raise the children in an unsafe environment which was damaging to their well-being, the state would work with them to provide the family with the support services needed. Housing could be in the form of a friend, neighbor, homeless shelter, low-income housing, or other safe environment, and support would be provided for medical care, employment, day care services, groceries, housing, utilities, etc as long as the family “worked their plan.” Only if the family continued to place the children in harmful surroundings would the children then be removed until such time that the parents cooperated with the family reunification plan, which would most likely then include safe and permanent housing. My guess is that the show hyped the point to push what saviors they are to swoop in and save the day, the family, and the children. They have to get ratings somehow!