By: Bethany, Community Engagement Coordinator
During my time as a Community Engagement Coordinator, I have been challenged to re-evaluate how I view and approach community work. Toxic Charity by Robert D. Lupton, has challenged me to see different perspectives on how churches perform charity work. The main premise of Toxic Charity is that “when we do for those in need what they have the capacity to do for themselves, we disempower them”. The author cautions that sustained one-way giving can be more harmful than we think because it breeds dependency. Lupton breaks this down into a progression:
-
Give once and you elicit appreciation;
-
Give twice and you create anticipation;
-
Give three times and you create expectation;
-
Give four times and it becomes entitlement;
-
Give five times and you establish dependency.
This is not to say that helping others in need is wrong, but rather than blindly distributing free handouts we should focus on empowering others and community development.
Toxic Charity goes on to explain that both mercy and justice are needed when helping others. Lupton explains that “those of us who get stuck in mercy ministry find ourselves growing impatient with recipients of our kindness, wondering why they don’t help themselves more, feeling a growing discomfort with the half-truths they tell us to justify their persistent returns for more handouts. Mercy that doesn’t move intentionally in the direction of development (justice) will end up doing more harm than good – to both giver and recipient”.
In one instance, I was challenged to face the difficult balance of mercy and justice. A client, who has a family of 6 people, came to the St. Jude Food Bank while I was responsible for distributing vegetables. I watched as the client came up to the table and received a bag of potatoes and I didn’t think anything of it since each family is only allowed to take one. Then, a more experienced volunteer took over and said, “He has a big family! He should get 2 or even 3 bags!”. In that moment I was very confused; I knew we had rules in place and set portions for each client, however, I had become cold and almost legalistic. I would catch myself thinking, “You get one bag and one bag only; if you’re out of luck, you’re out of luck”. When that volunteer stepped in and offered an extra bag for the large family, I was reminded of the empathy I had when I initially started at the food bank which slowly grew into desensitization and impatience, as Lupton described.
Overall, through reading Toxic Charity while seeing firsthand how charity operates at a food bank, I was deeply challenged to re-evaluate how churches approach helping those in need while trying to strike a balance between mercy and justice.