Charity: the good, the bad and the ugly

Following on from the previous post I want to start by saying that I think Charity has gotten a bad name in some circles. I want to re-claim Charity as a term that should mean something good. My friend Jonathan Bird said, "we need to get back to the root of charity, which means love." Indeed, our idea of charity as a biblical concept is the kind of neighbour love that flows from being loved by God, not because we are good, or deserve it or earned it or even have a right to it, but because God loves. That is what God does and it is what we are to do when God lives in us.

That being said, let me move on to the bad name that charity has developed in some circles. In its current form charity (in the forms it takes to care for the poor) has come to mean an organization with charitable purposes who exist to "alleviate" poverty. They do this most commonly through professionalized workers who provide goods and services for needy individuals or families. Charitable organizations often spend a fair amount of time and energy trying to secure funds to do what they do, and sometimes will partner with government in delivering those goods and services through some sort of partnership or grant funding. The power dynamics often involve the professional determining what the needs of the individual are while the person in need has little say in the matter. This is for the sake of efficiency. The bad name comes from the power inequities, and the professionalization of service. Some would say, the need is so great, what else can you do? Charitable groups do important work and they are right, they have developed systems to deal with the overwhelming needs they are confronted with daily.

The ugly part comes in when we stop and think about the situation as a whole. This point was made well by the Carnegie Community Action Project last week during the CBC food drive. They wanted to raise the concern that Food Banks were set up to be a temporary measure, to ensure that people did not starve while a longer term more effective process was set up. It was meant to be a band-aid on a gaping wound that needed stitches, but instead we have taken for granted that we need to give more to the food bank rather than asking why so many people do not have adequate food in one of the most wealthy nations in the world. The wound is growing but we keep assuming more band-aids are all that is required. What makes this particularly ugly is that here in Canada (this is not true in many other countries) a charity is not allowed to spend more than 10% of its resources advocating or lobbying for a change of the system. In other words, charities, who are the best positioned to see the needs on the ground are allowed to put bandaids on the poor and the dying (alleviate poverty) but they are not allowed to work to eradicate poverty if that eradication involves any sort of criticism of government. Government, meanwhile, washes their hands of public responsibility for the entrenchment of poverty in this land by offering capricious funding to charitable groups who do their bidding until said group becomes to political, or falls out of favour.

What are we to do? Is charity lost?

I want to argue that we need to recover charity as loving our neighbours. And we need to push our sense of who our neighbour is, as Jesus encouraged us to do in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Often it is easier to consider the far away neighbour as opposed to the one who actually lives down the street from me who I really don't like very much.

So yes, we must recover charity, and practice loving our neighbours. Loving our neighbours includes coming as equals, listening, caring, sharing what I have and receiving in turn. But, I want to argue that charity is not the answer to poverty. That addressing poverty, which we must do because the poor are also our neighbours but poverty is a power that has trapped our neighbours. Addressing poverty will require engaging in justice. The prophet Micah said, "what the Lord requires of you is to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God." We must put our hands, and our feet, our mouths and our hearts to the work of justice seeking in addition to loving mercy.

Charity and Justice: A view from here

I have had a lot of conversations in the last month or so about charity and justice. In the next few posts I would like to let you in on some of those conversations, and offer some of my thoughts and reflections. It is an important and complex conversation and I want to invite feedback and interaction. I want to also acknowledge that we are in the most charitable season of the year, and by raising questions I want to invite critical thought and reflection but do not mean to be-little activities that any readers here may be engaged in. Rather, I find myself in a unique social location and want to simply offer, as I said in the title, a view from here. My hope is that as we share our views, our perspectives from our unique places we might see together a little more clearly.

So, what does the view look like from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, now the third poorest postal code in Canada and certainly the site of most charitable activities in the Lower Mainland. Tonight, I can name at least 10 families in my community I know who are attending their 2nd Turkey-Dinner-Christmas-Party of the day and their 5th since Friday (today is Monday). Walking past the intersection of Main and Hastings there has not been a day since the first of December when I have not encountered an impromptu food line formed at the back of a car that pulls up, the trunk is popped and soup or sandwiches are handed out maybe with a scarf and toque as well. The kind people will serve until their pots are empty and then will hop back in their cars and head back to work, or home. There is an abundance of food around right now, but everywhere I know of that offers Safeway cards so you can go shop for your own food has been out since the 8th of December. Hundreds of Christmas baskets will be given out in the next week full of special treats, candy and gifts, but it will be really hard for lots of my friends to find the money to make any vegetables or meat for Christmas dinner with their families. And, come January, the turkey dinners will have come to an end, the sugar rush will have worn off and cupboards will be bare, still.

Does charity keep us from justice? This is a question I have heard posed a few times in the past little while. A friend of mine and resident of the neighbourhood asked, does giving to charity enable us to simply make a "better" consumer choice. I decide for example to buy a Christmas dinner for someone in need (through a $5 donation to UGM) rather than get that afternoon latte from Starbucks. But does that consumer choice then allow me to walk away feeling like I have done something good without changing or challenging the system that allows me to choose between these two options while my neighbour is only able to choose between whether to go stand in line for that dinner with her 5 hungry and rowdy kids (outside for at least 1 hour in order to get a seat) or to stay at home and feed them noodles and butter.

My friend likes to challenge people, for every act of charity you engage in this holiday season, would you commit as well to an ongoing act of justice that carries on beyond the season? Its a good challenge. Let's think more on this together soon.

Blanketted

The blanket is one of my favorite symbols in west coast culture. "Coming under the blanket" indicates belonging, family, and responsibility in light of that relational tie. Some of us who are not Native have been blanketed as witnesses in ceremonies or as family to mark celebrations of significant events in the lives of families.

This Easter we celebrated the first baptisms in the life of our community. As AJ came up out of the frigid ocean water at the end of Main Street, he was "blanketed" in a white blanket. A symbol that he belongs to God, that he is clothed with Christ, wrapped in white, pure and new with the presence of the Spirit like a mantle upon his shoulders. This is a gift and an honor. It also comes with responsibility. To be a witness. To tell the story of what happened on this day. To live in light of the reality of belonging to God and to God's family.

Good Friday in the Hood

Today is a holiday, the streets are full. The sun shines. Twenty of us, ranging in age from 74 to two months, stand in line outside the mission, waiting for a meal with another 70 of our friends and neighbors. When the doors open we tumble in with the rest jockeying for seats where there is a good ratio of kids to adults, and we tuck in to a beautifully prepared "easter" dinner despite the fact that today is good Friday. But volunteers don't come down to serve meals on Easter Sunday, so it is now or never for the ham and scalloped potatoes, and no one is complaining.

After the meal Beth stands and invites anyone who would like to join us for a walk through the neighborhood, to remember the path that Jesus walked this day many years ago. Some leave, some stay and we walk familiar paths through our neighborhood. The path we walk to accompany a friend to court, familiar and yet more profound as remember Jesus' experience of a kangaroo court where nothing he said would make a difference in the outcome, so he says nothing. We too have sat silent before judges, powerless.

Over and over familiar spaces transformed by the memory that the One who loves us spent his final hours, on the wrong side of town, on the wrong side of the law. Forgotten, beaten, another dead body. Just like us. But this Friday we call good. A Friday with the power to transform every day since.