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Author
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Topic: Charity
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libraschoice77
Knowflake Posts: 1459
From: past, present, and future
Registered: Aug 2010
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posted October 01, 2013 10:04 AM
  
I use to give to charity a few years back when I was able to, would try to play Christmas Angel around the holidays for both a boy an girl. Basically what that is people set up trees with paper angels an on the back are the list of toys that the children want. Would buy the toys for them and drop them off in the designated location. Did volunteer at AC&C for awhile, but then I stopped when the morning crew would leave me there alone to deal with all the adoptors.Did try to enter into the Peace Corps, but you need extensive training in certain areas. IP: Logged |
hippichick
Knowflake Posts: 3389
From:
Registered: May 2009
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posted October 01, 2013 10:06 AM
When I began the process of eliminating things in my house to prepare for sale...and I am talking about 2 decades of things, I had a garage sale, but it was a bust.So, I gave everything away. Quality furniture, appliances, you name it. I used to be in banking and even since I have been a nurse I had acquired alot of very nice clothes. But I didnt want them to go just anywhere, so I found a lady who got them to The Battered Woman's shelter. I once dated a guy who said "you dont need to go to church or tithe cause you do every day at work." He was Buddhist and into tithing bigtime, but thought, spiritually, even tho I get payed for doing so, I do so much more that comes from the heart.. So charity..yes, love doing it, but in my own way~ IP: Logged |
geea
Knowflake Posts: 775
From: hitchhiking through the galaxy
Registered: Jun 2011
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posted October 01, 2013 10:31 AM
quote:
Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
You guys asked. I answered. Actually, it's none of anyone's damn business whether anybody gives to charity or not. And it isn't for anyone to judge who gives how much to where or to whom. For a Christian, it is between that individual and God.The entire thread appears accusatory in nature. What is this? An ambush? How many Christians are there in this forum? Some give the "mandated guideline" of 10%. Others give more. So what?
quote:
Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
Give where to where ever you want to give. If you have the money, then give. If you don't, then don't give and don't harbor any insecurities. If you do, then don't carry any superiority complexes. Only God sees it.
i personally still feel a bit guilty of not taking action when needed, i even talked with my bf, we agreed to help with more if possible, but we found no trace of that foundation. ------------------
http://youtu.be/jy6b8esmyp0 IP: Logged |
hippichick
Knowflake Posts: 3389
From:
Registered: May 2009
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posted October 01, 2013 10:59 AM
It may be a "Christian duty" but it is also a duty of the soul, to give to a fellow traveler.
"Charity" does not have to mean monetary, necessarially..
wow too many y's  IP: Logged |
libraschoice77
Knowflake Posts: 1459
From: past, present, and future
Registered: Aug 2010
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posted October 01, 2013 11:06 AM
quote:
Originally posted by hippichick:
It may be a "Christian duty" but it is also a duty of the soul, to give to a fellow traveler.
"Charity" does not have to mean monetary, necessarially..
wow too many y's
Completely agree, giving your time generously is also a form of charity. IP: Logged |
YoursTrulyAlways
Knowflake Posts: 6574
From:
Registered: Oct 2011
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posted October 01, 2013 01:18 PM
No need to justify charity, money, time, or otherwise. Or lack thereof.Who you give it to isn't anyone's concern. This is none of anyone's business. Even the Christian church does not question (the legit ones), and many of us don't claim IRS deductions either. Anybody claiming to be a person of God pestering for money is a fake fraud phony sham.
IP: Logged |
PixieJane
Moderator Posts: 3518
From: CA
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted October 01, 2013 05:07 PM
I'm more the "random acts of kindness" though I have spent nearly a year working with the homeless until where I worked at got shut down due to embezzlement of funds (I even organized a Bible study for some who wanted one for themselves, getting them free Bibles and the like as well as making them fliers to pass on to those interested with time & place, I was made an "honorary Christian" for that after the preacher there wouldn't help them  ). Since then I've helped at some Thanksgiving meals for the homeless (perhaps a legacy from back when I used to organize a Thanksgiving potluck for those of us without families to celebrate with which was really popular at the time, maybe it still is though I stopped going years ago). What was really cool was a couple of weeks or so ago I met a homeless guy I helped who remembered me even after 2 years and was very pleasant to me. But I'm usually more random than that. I'm very cautious about giving to charities (and when I do I tend to give things instead of money). I used to give to Amnesty International but some scandal shook my confidence in them (I also didn't like a program they were pushing very hard internationally that I thought would do more harm than good) and also gave to a couple of international anarchist charities (one helped political prisoners around the world) many years ago as well as volunteer food and serving with Food Not Bombs. I've gotten away from that for a variety of reasons. I used to give to Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders as I vetted them both to my satisfaction but they kept pestering me for a regular monthly donation so I stopped as my finances go up and down and can't always afford that. Plus, some charities would sell my name to sucker lists which was annoying, and I couldn't always tell who it was. (Though one was surprising...turned out it was my gun range who sold my name, and though that was mostly for right wing political propaganda I did get a few looking for money like a phone service that claimed to be a "charity" to "fight the gay agenda" that kept calling me trying to guilt me "as a Christian" to use them that would donate to their cause and wouldn't stop calling me despite my giving them a firm refusal and politely asking to be taken off their list each time they called until I gave up being polite and yelled at one that not only was I not a Christian but I was having sex with a woman I lived with and if they called me again I was going to contact the ACLU to find good organizations to donate to in order to fight THEIR agenda of hate. THAT finally got them to stop calling me.) IP: Logged |
PixieJane
Moderator Posts: 3518
From: CA
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted October 01, 2013 05:26 PM
Btw, I just remembered a guy who told me he had almost no money and didn't know what the future had in store and so didn't give to the woman panhandling outside whatever fast food place he went into. Thinking about her while in line he ended up getting some meal combo to go and put his change into it to give to her as he left (he said she went, "Thank you, brother!"). He got back to his room at the YMCA in Denver (IIRC) and flipped through the Bible there while bored and in an odd bit of synchronicity he opened straight to this: quote:
Matthew 25:35-40New International Version (NIV) 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
He's not even Christian...but he felt better after that all the same. IP: Logged |
PixieJane
Moderator Posts: 3518
From: CA
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted October 01, 2013 05:41 PM
About 5 years ago I stopped to try a Mexican food place that was cheap...but also dirty and I had to give up on it as I found it too greasy and just poor quality. But I knew that outside it would be snatched up by hungry homeless people a lot less choosy than I and surely it beats dumpster diving. I dumped the rest of the trash and as I went in to dump the ice first before throwing the cup away I saw the one other outside customer who was eating get up and throw the half plate of food away. As he did it I yelled, "Wait, homeless people will get it!" "Exactly," he said, as he dumped the food into the trash. I realized I didn't have much to stand on since I was leaving the food behind, but I still paid for it, and he threw it in the trash. But as I am the way that I am, I tried understanding why he did that, as it surprised me that he'd do that in the first place. "What did they ever do to you?" I asked. Angrily, he said, "They take our jobs." And then I recognized what HE was seeing. Whereas I was seeing that food as a manifestation of my labor and also that it couldn't be made to go to waste (as it had when he put it in the garbage), and I was seeing the homeless people who grab it as being of any race, gender, age (such as myself when I was a kid on the streets snatching unattended food like that) and the like, he was seeing some illegal alien working subminimal wage grabbing the plate I left behind to get strong to steal another's day labor from him. No doubt, the grubby Mexican he visualized lived in some tent and scavenged whatever food he could, because no way he could afford sufficient food and shelter on what he'd make. (Interesting, too, that he'd be more angry at the Mexican illegals than the ones who hire them.) I wondered if he was laid off, which might help explain why he was eating there like I was (it's cheap), despite the fact that the staff there really couldn't speak English (to get an order, I finally had to say "cuatro" and flash 4 fingers to get "order number 4"), and loudly spoke Spanish. Maybe he felt he was brought to the brink of ruin, and here he was eating cheap at a place that mocked him. 'Course, this is all just what went through my head, I didn't ask him about any of it. Whether I was right about why he was eating there and how it irked him or not, whether he was justified in feeling that way or not, the guy was angry and bitter, and I was still annoyed that he threw the food I left behind away. All I said was, "You could've at least given it to your dog," and left. Weird, how very differently we can see the world. I don't just mean in differences of opinions and such, but like how a plate of food I left behind was seen as very different by him and by me. That man and I live in the same objective reality, but in our subjective worlds, that plate had entirely different meanings to the two of us. Not like I saw an apple and he saw an orange, but we saw entirely different universes. It was a plate of food to both of us, but the associations it brought up in us were so radically different. It's just weird to me to think about. IP: Logged |
YoursTrulyAlways
Knowflake Posts: 6574
From:
Registered: Oct 2011
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posted October 01, 2013 05:47 PM
I stop by and buy lunch for those begging all the time. They are all over the business district. Sorry I can't give them substantial amounts of cash because it often goes into booze or cigarettes or worse. I tell them so. One guy was so insolent that he told me he wants only cash.IP: Logged |
PixieJane
Moderator Posts: 3518
From: CA
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted October 01, 2013 05:53 PM
^^Oh yeah, I remember a woman telling me how starving she was so I told her I lived a few blocks away and could bring her back some bread with PB & J. She refused wanting cash and I just said, "You're not THAT hungry then" and forgot her. I don't give as much to individual homeless as I used to either. The breaking point was they lost so much respect for me that once I was walking home loaded down with groceries when a homeless guy sitting on a bench called me over. I went thinking maybe he was hurt but he just asked me for money. He got nothing ever again (had he offered to help carry my groceries, even for free, I'd have paid generously, however, though I wouldn't have let him follow me all the way back home). And I gave another a dollar from my back pocket that I saved for panhandlers and he looked at me reproachfully and said something like, "I was hoping for a $20." I got mad and told him that I was sure he was used to disappointment by then. He looked like he might attack me for a moment but didn't. Those 2 incidents were when I became a lot less likely to give to just any panhandler I met on the street. IP: Logged |
hippichick
Knowflake Posts: 3389
From:
Registered: May 2009
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posted October 02, 2013 03:48 PM
Well, Pixie....once again, very much enjoyed reading your posts...too much to quote and I dont like doing that anyway...Yea, I give as to my own fashion. There was a big United Way campaign to, ofcourse, get all the monies donated and have a competition with all the hospitals in the system. I kind of retaliated. One is supposed to sign the form, anyway, even to reject, and I didnt... I give in my own way. Was asked to donate this morning at a conveneince store "for the children." I didnt even waste my precious breath...just declined. My dearly passed grandma was like this too... She would always reply the same, but her biggest "charity" was always me and my brother.... IP: Logged | |
Lindaland
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