It is difficult to say this out loud. I can’t escape Jesus’ words; “Give to
everyone who begs from you ….”(Matthew 5:42, Luke 6:30). His call to compassion for the beggar is
unequivocal. And my response is full of
qualifications. I want to follow his
teachings. I want to follow his
example. But as with his insistence that
“…if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off….” (Matthew 5:30, 18:8) I don’t
take his begging admonition literally.
I was introduced to institutional begging during my college
sophomore year in India. It has framed
my response ever since. Entire families
make their living begging on the streets and in the market places of that
wonderful country. Both Hinduism and
Islam require alms-giving as a practice of their daily faith. Beggars hang outside of Temples and Mosques
taking advantage of this practice which has all the best intentions of
compassion for the poor. Professional
adult beggars will mutilate their children to increase their earning potential
for the family unit. During our
orientation classes in Bangalore we learned from social workers that giving
money to beggars only perpetuates a system of class oppression. Education, investment in self-development
businesses and a commitment to build relationships with those who beg were the
solution to this dehumanizing practice.
Such a context may seem alien to our North American
experience but only at first glance.
Handing a few dollars to the one holding the cardboard sign by the side
of the road, dropping a few coins in a cup is designed to make us the donor
feel good…benevolent…superior. Those invested in begging count on that. Such charity does little to move a suffering
individual to wholeness. At best it
provides a temporary Band-Aid.
I’d be the first to say that if you’re bleeding, a Band-Aid
is important. I have friends who for
each baseball game they attend bring a number of sack lunches with healthy food
to distribute to the long line of beggars outside the gates. Awesome!
When a transient comes to church looking for money for food,
I personally take them out to lunch or to the grocery store and pay their
bill. When they come looking for money
for a tank of gas, I drive with them to the gas station and pay for a full
tank. I don’t lecture or proselytize in
such an encounter. I try to listen to
their story and affirm their humanity.
If they are local I refer them to organizations that can assist them to work
towards self-sufficiency, if that is their goal. If they are just passing through I bless
their journey.
But dropping a dollar in a cup doesn’t involve a
conversation or an encounter with a human being. It’s designed to be convenient and detached
for the donor. Is that what Jesus had in
mind? He sets his admonition about
begging in the verses about “turning the other cheek,” “going the second mile,”
“lending to any in need of borrowing,” “praying for our enemies.” Vulnerability, openness and connection
between human beings were his call. Was
it the pious convenience of quick and easy charity?
My bias is to serve our local food bank/direct assistance
non- profit agency; “the safety net” for our community’s poor and frail
elderly. Along with other members of our
church I have been on the Board of Directors of the Community Service Agency of
Mt. View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills for years. (I have worked with similar agencies
throughout my 37 year ordained ministry.) Our Alpha Omega Homeless program
assists the transition to decent housing and economic self-sufficiency for an
average of 350 people each year. When we
distribute food and/or emergency PG&E or rent monies to those facing hunger
and potential homelessness we do so with trained social workers developing a
plan towards self-sufficiency for our clients.
We work with them in an on-going relationship. Dignity in such a process is one of our
highest priorities as an agency.
What dignity is there for the person begging on the side of
the road when we drop in a few coins and just pass on by?
Years ago, Bonnie Bollwinkel worked as an outreach social
worker finding veterans in “single occupancy housing” who had lost their
connection to the government assistance they earned defending our country. She knew them by name and they knew hers as
they called out to her while she walked the streets of that city’s “skid row.” The program in which she worked would assist
scores of veterans to resource the next steps in their lives.
Jesus didn’t intend for almsgiving to be an exercise in
convenient piety for the donor but a spiritual practice in which we participate
in God’s promise that someday all will have enough, all will be treated with
dignity and all will have a safe place to call home (Luke 4:18-19).
I won’t give money to beggars. I will contribute to the team/community
effort it takes to restore a life.