Providing charity

Showing agape

Description

Giving voluntarily to those in need. Agape in action.

Context

Evolution from love of God.

Implementation

Direct charity in form of giving food, clothing, shelter, money, assistance etc. Indirect charity like teaching the poor to produce more food. Unbiased charity like respecting the rights of others and treating all people equally. Personal charity and corporate charities like foundations and government grants for development efforts or disaster relief (floods, fires, earthquakes, wars, refugees etc.).

Claim

Giving love, as an expression of affection, sympathetic interest, empathy or benevolence, is repeatedly identified as a powerful basis for interrelating people, whether individually, in small groups or communities, or at a more universal level.

"It's not what you do, but how much love you do it with." (Mother Teresa)

Counter-claim

Charity fosters dependence and mediates against self-reliance.

It allows the social structures which are responsible for creating the situation of need to continue unchallenged.

It salves the conscious of those who could affect change, both the givers and receivers.

Charitable organizations frequently pay large salaries to administrators, no taxes on large accruing funds and act as fronts for corporations which are supportive of the existing social order.