Looking For Your Input
I've been reading Muhammad Yunus' book, "Banker to the Poor", and was hoping to get your feedback to a paragraph that he wrote. (Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, created Grameen Bank, which is a banking system specifically designed for the poor. Grameen Bank has provided 3.8 billion dollars to 2.4 million families in rural Bangledesh.)
"When we want to help the poor, we usually offer them charity. Most often we use charity to avoid recognizing the problem and finding a solution for it. Charity becomes a way to shrug off our responsibility. But charity is no solution to poverty. Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor. Charity allows us to go ahead with our own lives without worrying about the lives of the poor. Charity appeases our consciences"
Give me your thoughts.
posted by Mel Giles at 5:52 AM
1 Comments:
I think that he is right insofar as he is referring to charity as throwing money at a problem. We see this in our inner city neighbourhood that has become home to us. The is already a culture of entitlement in the world that this perpetuates (and this is true in the inner city and the upper class suburbs).
Perhaps we need to reclaim "charity" from this usage and back to the way it was intended- love. True love selflessly gives for the betterment of others and to honour God. In this sense, giving money might be truly charitable. However, it is more likely to find expression in relational service, mutual investment and a move towards real community.
Great quote!
Peace,
Jamie
www.missional.blog.com
7:37 AM
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