Sometimes it’s interesting to see how comments on the Facebook page can take a different tack than comments here on the blog. But in other times, it’s more interesting to see how the conversations converge.
Case in point: “Is charity work an excuse for avoiding justice work? The Facebook comments quickly evolved the conversation, roughly, to “You need both.” One commenter in particular, Kay O’Reilly, defended charity work in this context with a personal story:
I run a church food pantry that served 1,260 people last month, mostly working poor and newly unemployed. Over 700 of those we served were children. We give fresh produce, dairy, eggs, meat,canned and dry goods to anyone who asks. Seems to me that providing good nutrition to children is helping to address the problem, at least for the future. And like Sarah commented above, when you need a band aid, you need a band aid. Of course there’s a big picture problem, but our food program is there to help people when they’re getting back on their feet after being unemployed. Sometimes people cry when I give them a gallon of milk. Is that just? No. Is it reality? Yes. I feel like I’m helping when I feed the nurse who lost her home and has been job-hunting for a year. She can concentrate on her search and not on where her next meal is coming from. I wonder if the person who wrote that article has ever been hungry.
In the comments here on the blog, Tom Sramek Jr. found a useful analogy:
I would liken this distinction to the distinction between relief and development. Episcopal Relief and Development, for example, does both (hence the name). I think one needs to do both–address the immediate crisis or need and work to deal with the systemic issues. Charity without justice is ultimately futile, justice work without charity seems heartless. As was pointed out, Jesus did both.
A rose by any other name is still a rose, but you really can’t call a sunflower a rose, right? That’s how some folks are defending the copyright suit brought on over the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. As Christianne McKee put it:
Iker and friends didn’t want to have anything to do with the Episcopal Church, but they want to hang on to the the name and the seal with the pretty longhorn on it. But it’s really an attempt to keep to the assets of “The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.” It falls somewhere between theft and hubris.