Toxic Charity

For the summer, I'm hoping to complete a book I just started called Toxic Charity.  The subtitle is chilling, How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help.  I've only read the first chapter so far and it reminds me a lot of When Helping Hurts.  These authors have worked in ministering to the poor for decades and have seen what works, what hurts in terms of helping the poor.  Let me start off by just showing you the first paragraph of the book, (the first chapter entitled "The Scandal") and you'll get the author's point very quickly.

"In the United States, there's a growing scandal that we both refuse to see and actively perpetuate.  What Americans avoid facing is that while we are very generous in charitable giving, much of that money is either wasted or actually harms the people it is targeted to help."
With that being said, I can either refuse to believe what he says as true, or I can continue reading, already knowing that the author has quite a bit of knowledge and experience in this.  I kept reading.
"We mean well, our motives are good, but we have neglected to conduct care-full due diligence t odetermine emotional, economic, and cultural outcomes on the receiving end of our charity.  Why do we miss this crucial aspect in evaluating our charitable work?  because, as compassionate people, we have been evaluating our charity by the rewards we receive through service, rather than the benefits received by the served."
Wow.  That kind of hurts.  Sometimes I'm at a fast food place and I might be asked to donate a dollar to go to "whatever" fund and I sometimes might say yes.  I feel good.  Did a good deed.  It's small but it helps, right?  I'd say I'm more focused on the fact that I feel good rather than on those that the money goes to.  I have no idea what organizations I've given to, if the money was used with integrity, or if any positive results came from it.  I have no lasting relationship or memory of these "needs." 

Yes, in some circumstances, giving material things is not only good but it's absolutely necessary in order to keep people from dying.  Food, water, clothes, shelter.  We'll call this relief.  In natural disasters, economic structures and resources can be wiped out.  Disaster strikes.  Compassionate people start food drives, clothing drives, etc. to ship to these places.  This relief is good because it's quick and sustains life for a while.  However, there comes a point where relief must transition to development and in a timely manner, otherwise, prolonged relief becomes toxic, despite good intentions and compassionate hearts.  It destroys personal initiative.

This reminds me of the after school program and helping the kids with their homework.  I can see a kid's poor grades and feel really moved to help them get better grades, so I could start giving them the answers to their homework assignments.  This could be called relief.  However, I feel in educational circumstances, development is really the only option in order to help the kids grow and learn things for themselves.  I can act as a guide, but as soon as they become dependent on me giving them the answers, I've knocked them back in the wrong direction.  They are worse off then before, despite my heart to help.

To finish up Chapter 1, Robert D. Lupton (the author) provides The Oath for Compassionate Service.  Basically, six musts when looking to serve the poor.
"-Never do for the poor what they have (or could have) the capacity to do for themselves.
-Limit one-way giving to emergency situations.
-Strive to empower the poor through employment, lending, and investing, using grants sparingly to reinforce achievements.
-Subordinate self-interests to the needs of those being served.
-Listen closely to those you seek to help, especially to what is not being said--unspoken feelings may contain essential clues to effective service.
-Above all, do no harm."

For those of you who I haven't told yet, 2nd Mile Ministries is a Christian Community Development Organization, looking to empower those in the community through relationships to lead their community forward.  These long-term goals have to be carried out carefully as to not make things worse.  I hope this information either challenged you, made you think, or encouraged you.  It's definitely worth the read.  Both Toxic Charity and When Helping Hurts are very similar in content, yet are told from different view points and include different experiences so reading one or the other would probably suffice.  Kind of like watching Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail (so I'm told).  Same story, different circumstances.