Debate : 21825


Off-Topic / Debate / 21825	21824 \| 21826

Subject:	Re: Finally some church/state mingling that I can really get behind!
Newsgroups:	lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date:	Wed, 13 Aug 2003 03:07:50 GMT
Viewed:	183 times

Rearranged slightly to make a point In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Carl Nelson wrote: > Or to put my argument another way, spend a Saturday helping build a house for > Habitat for Humanity. Serve in a soup kitchen. Volunteer at a nursing home, > Boys and Girls Club, or Scouting program. Give blood. > Give money to a fund for the education of the kids of a police officer > killed in the line of duty. The high school soccer team who's trying to get to > a tournament in Washington, DC. The family who took in a foster child with > health problems from his mother's drug use during pregnancy and needs the money > for his medical care. The Nature Conservancy or a neighborhood association > that's rebuilding a park down the street. Even (gasp) a church. All good. Assuming you did your research, that is. > Give $10 to a panhandler on the street, without sneering at his line about > needing it for bus fare to go home. Terrible idea. Why would you want to do that?(1) ALL your examples above are worthy charities (based on the assumption that you as donor have validated facts about the situations), but this one is just plain altruism. And altruism is a bad idea. It enables bad things in the receipient and is morally wrong, at least in my view. 1 - "because I believe god told me to do so" is not an acceptable answer to me although I acknowledge it may be to others.

Message has 2 Replies:

		Altruism is a bad idea? (was Re: Finally some church/state mingling that I can really get behind!)
(...) And here I was thinking that "all rights are property rights" was a strange belief. Adieu Richie Dulin (2 URLs) Port Brique Somewhere in the South Pacifique (2 URLs) Misérable Building a safer South Pacifique (21 years ago, 13-Aug-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

		Re: Finally some church/state mingling that I can really get behind!
(...) Point taken--probably not the best illustration of charity. "Buy a panhandler a meal" would have been a better example. Religiously speaking, Jesus would have helped the panhandler to overcome addiction, adversity, laziness, or whatever other (...) (21 years ago, 13-Aug-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:

		Re: Finally some church/state mingling that I can really get behind!
(...) Charity is absolutely a Christian (and most other religions', at that) value. The problem is, the government is not a charitable organization. God wants us to give money not because He needs it (televangelism aside <g>) but for what the act of (...) (21 years ago, 11-Aug-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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