Charity

aek..

When donating your money to the poor, is it best to give our money to the Christian sufferers or to practically anyone?

Is it right to give it to a person on the street, who then buys him/her self drugs and alcohol?

mmatt95

if u know they will buy alcohol or drugs and they keep saying; i have to feed my kids and all of that; just offer them food, if they refuse, then u know that they want the money for other things ;)

Unknown

I think me and my friends asked abouna about that before and he said that the best thing is to give food as Hos erof said. You should give to anyone who is need because there isn't a difference between christain or muslim, jewish, etc.. we are all God's children. So if 2 of your brothers were hungry, would you prefer one because he is nicer to you and leave the other one or would you treat them equally because you love them both?? God bless.

Mark423

When I’m on the subway and beggars come asking for money. I always give them whatever food I have. You’d be surprised how many of them give me dirty looks because I didn’t aid them in financing their alchohol/ciggaratte/crack etc addiction. The truth of the matter is there are NO starving people roaming the streets of Brooklyn (or wherever you live). There are several means for them of getting food, clothing and any other basic needs; in addition to job opportunities. They don’t have to be on the streets, they choose to. And who can blame them? They make an EASY $20 every hour. Would you give that up for a minimum wage job? I can go on and on with several anecdotes about why you shouldn’t give “homeless” people money, but I’ll make a long story short and tell you; just don’t.

So… if you want to help and give to the poor, don’t give them any money. If you feel bad, as I often have, give them food. You won’t be their favorite person, but at least you’ve done your part and can sleep with a clear conscious.

WWJD56

hey i agree, i think you should never give ppl on the street money, but only offer to give them food or drinks so you are sure that they arent going to buy wastefull things like drugs or alcohol.
another reasson is becuase sometimes they arent really homeless. i remember seeing a "homeless" guy off a freeway and i go off that freeway all the time and he always has different clothes on which his clothes are expensive and one day i even saw him take out a cellphone so you have to be careful.

markbotros

When our Lord advices us to help the poor, indeed
we give him a little from what GOD gave us.
We must be thankful to our Lord WHO gave us
everything: health, money,etc....
It is very good to give and not ask he deserves
or not. If we suspect we ask abouna and he will till
us to whome we give and there are different
ways for that.

aek..

I don't believe in giving free money to people on the street, i rather get them to work for me in some way and by that way they earn there money..

CopticSoldier

Hi aek,

Is there any paticular reason for why you do that? I'm interested to know and how much sucess you have had getting people off the streets to do work for you?

God bless,

CS

aek..

I tried a couple of times but no success...This just tells me they are not desperate enough for the money and looking for easy money, and sorry no free lunch in the world we live in....

Unknown

in sunday school, when i was little, they taught us to give to everyone in need ex: a friend forgets their lunch, offer them some of urs, they don't nessesarily have to be homeless, just anyone in need. and they do teach us not to give money to ppl on the street cause u never know what they r using it 4. it's better to take them 2 store and buy them something

CopticSoldier

[quote author=aek.. link=board=1;threadid=647;start=0#msg11991 date=1095943560] I tried a couple of times but no success...This just tells me they are not desperate enough for the money and looking for easy money, and sorry no free lunch in the world we live in....

I was just wondering about that because that doesn't really sound like charity "Freely you have received, freely give." Matthew 10:8.

God bless,

CS

aek..

If you freely give to a person who's going to buy drugs with the money, then that loses the sense of Charity..you cant even trust Red Shield appeal these days as the money does not directly go to the poor...Its just very sad, but im more than willing to give a man a change to earn his money rather than sit down and hope for a free lunch when his more than capable to help the society..

G.J.I

my friend i say give to whoever asks of you and leave the rest to God.
dont forget the sory of anba Abraam he was the bishop of a place called Fayoum in Egypt, he would give mony to everyone, whoever asked, at times some one would ask him for money, go around in a circle and ask him again, and he would give...
certian group of men tried to abuse this privilage, they were three men, they tried to scam him, so they pretended that one of them was dead and two of them went to the blessed man and told him that they were 3 men and now there friend has died and that they needed money to pay for his funeral, he gave them, and he gave them generously... they went back to fing their friend and devide the money. they found their friend dead. dont judge if people are fooling u leave it up to God.
the powerful thing, if giving to people when they dont ask.
good example of this is seen with anba abraam and abouna mikhial ibrahim.
eg abouna mikhial ibrahim, b4 he became a priest would alwaz care for the poor, he wood walk past some one cold and take off his jacket and give it to them,he wood invite homeless ppl into his house and feed them, and if he couldnt invite them into he house, he would take them to the church and let them sleep there-the same nite he would sleep on the cold floor, and his wife wood ask him why and hed respond , that his poor brother is sleeping in the cold, am i better than he??

my friend the poor people are the brothers of christ, we should neglect any of them because of their faith, no matter wat they are.

CopticSoldier

[quote author=aek.. link=board=1;threadid=647;start=0#msg12048 date=1096010648] If you freely give to a person who's going to buy drugs with the money, then that loses the sense of Charity..you cant even trust Red Shield appeal these days as the money does not directly go to the poor...Its just very sad, but im more than willing to give a man a change to earn his money rather than sit down and hope for a free lunch when his more than capable to help the society..

Hi aek,

Apologies, perhaps I wasn't clear, I was not talking about whether or not they would waste the money on something immoral, what I was getting at is that God gives us many free gifts each day and for no other reason than that he loves us. God wants us to give natural free givers like Him, this is what He meant when He said "But when you give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does" Matthew 6:3 because it is supposed to be something automatic.

I can see good aspects in letting people work for money such as teaching skills and also making it look like a person isn't recieving charity to protect their feelings but as such the 'no such thing as a free lunch' idea is not very Christian considering there isn't one thing that we posess that wasn't given to us as a free lunch from the mercy and love of God.

God bless you,

CS

aek..

I guess your point of view is coming for a Christian perspective, however, then you could go as far as sacrificing your life for someone by following the Bible....Sometimes you must use you common sense, because by giving money to a person thats going to use drugs your actually bringing up his downfall and isn't that itself a sin?...supposing you knew that the guy was going to buy drugs

CopticSoldier

Hi aek,

There are two things you are missing here.

The first is I am not talking about the one recieving the money, I am talking about the giver and the second as G.J.I. pointed out, charity is something so sacred so that one of our saints Anba Abraam used to give to everyone without discerning whether or not they were worthy and he would leave it to God to deal with and very often people who took advantage of him got what they deserved.

As a follow on from where you were going, the whole point of charity in its many forms is sacrificing ones self and what they possess for others, that is my point as has been consistantly been itterated. Please do not confuse this with whether or not the recipient is worthy, this isn't what I've been getting at.

God bless you,

CS