Charity That Does Not Enable Sin (August 6, 2006)

Give to the worthy poor.

A recent Chicago Tribune story carries the headline "Church tells Katrina mom it's time to go." St. Paul United Church of Christ in Palatine provided a 23-year-old woman and her three fatherless children with a nice home to live in for a year after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their house. They also provided her with a car, clothes, furniture, food, and thousands of dollars cash.

Now the year is up, and the church needs the house back for its intended use as a parsonage. But the woman doesn't want to go, and she has taken her case to the media. "I have three little kids," she says. "They don't deserve to be put out on their behinds."

She's right. The kids don't deserve to be put out on their behinds. They deserve to be adopted by loving parents and freed from the clutches of an irresponsible woman who fornicates, gets pregnant, expects others to shoulder the consequences, and responds to loving charity with a bitter "It's not enough - why are you being so mean to me?" Her expectation seems to be that the church will provide her with free everything forever. Poor kids. They need an adult for a mom. A dad would be nice too.

The church, despite its goodwill and sacrifice, is being made to look bad. It is not bad, of course. I applaud the good people of St. Paul UCC for their patience and kindness. They know what it is to do good and then get kicked in the teeth for it. An uncharitable church would never feel this pain.

Still, I believe there are biblical guidelines that can help good people avoid getting kicked in their charitable teeth - and also help them to alleviate suffering without enabling the kind of behavior that caused the suffering in the first place.

First, insist that the recipient of charity do whatever he can for himself. Israelite farmers were not commanded to bundle up food and deliver it to the poor. They were to leave the edges and corners of their fields unharvested so that the poor could go and pick up the grain themselves (Leviticus 19:9-10).

Second, take care to distinguish the more from the less needy. In 1 Timothy 5:3-16, St. Paul divides widows who should receive help from those who should not in part by gauging their relative need. Childless widows over 60 had it the worst, so the church needed to give them money. Younger widows had the resource of remarriage, and widows with grown children had the resource of relying on their offspring. The church was forbidden to help widows with capable sons because that would enable irresponsibility on the part of neglectful children.

Third (and oh how politically incorrect this is!), help the worthy poor. Paul told Timothy to give aid to aging, childless widows only if they had done good works and been faithful to their husbands (1 Timothy 5:9-10). Imagine that! The selfish, the fornicators, the lazy and the malicious would be turned away with a polite "No."

When a centurion's servant fell ill (Luke 7:1-5), Jewish elders begged Jesus to go help him, saying, "This man deserves to have you do this." Deserves! What a rare word that is becoming. It would be good to remember it, because character matters when it comes to determining whom to help. There are more needy people than you can count, and you cannot help them all. Try to help the deserving ones first.