Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, January 28, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I’ve been reading a lot lately about the myth of the billionaire philanthropist. The whole concept that wealth is acceptable because it allows those who have it to do large, sweeping amounts of good for the world is utter nonsense. The truth is that wealth in any form owes its existence to the very actions that have created the problems rich people now deign to try to address with said wealth. It’s ridiculous. Moreover, that concentrated wealth means that the philanthropist (almost always white and male) makes decisions about what will solve the problems (that his wealth created) without giving any agency to the affected populations. Put another way, Person gets rich by making others poor. Rich person donates a slim portion of said riches to organizations (run primarily by white do-gooders) that do not center the communities they supposedly serve. Put still another way, just because Jeff Bezos donated $100 million to Dolly Parton doesn’t make him a good guy. At the time of the gift he was planning to lay off around 10,000 Amazon workers, not to mention Amazon’s pathological refusal to allow workers to unionize, and a whole laundry list of business practices that create more wealth for him while causing financial hardship for his company’s employees. No amount of news coverage—sounding the trumpets before them so they will be praised by others—alters the fact that this wealth was ill-gotten.
That being said, it’s not a bad thing to donate money to charitable causes. There are amazing organizations out there doing incredible work that is fully reliant on donations. Jesus encourages us to give, but humbly, even secretly. And in this day and age, I would add mindfully.
How well do I understand the work of organizations I donate to?