Christian Love vs. Charity--Dialogue Column 9.11.07

I’d like to share some thoughts that I’ve been wrestling with in recent days. If you read my blog, you are aware that I find inspiration in the writings of the social activist, theologian and Princeton professor Cornel West. Almost twenty years ago, he wrote a critique of American religion that remains just as true today as it was then (if not more so). He described American religion as having lost its prophetic voice—by prophetic he does not mean predicting the future but rather like the prophets of the Bible speaking out against popular culture and political power on behalf of the poor and oppressed. Gone are the days when people of faith led the way to change injustice in society as was done by those who worked for the abolition of slavery, the rights of women, and civil rights for ethnic minorities.

West asserts that in the place of prophetic faith we have settled for charity. It may seem strange to criticize charity since we call it a virtue, but West argues that even though charitable groups accomplish wonderful things, people give either to enhance their own prestige or salve their own conscience. Such impulses arise for “sentimental reasons” like pity. The problem with this type of giving is that it considers only a pitiful person or persons rather than the greater social forces and problems like prejudice, lack of education, violence and corruption that imprison people.

I would argue along with West that giving of our time, energy and money should be done not out of charity that soothes the conscience but does little to solve the problem nor out of self-service to get one’s name on a building or donor’s list but out of deep moral convictions that seek to change our community and world for the better. As Christians, we should endeavor to see others as God sees them: first, as individuals who have inherent worth, and second, as part of a community of humanity that stretches around the globe. Our efforts to demonstrate Christian love should come out of convictions, such as: no person should go without food and shelter, no person should be exploited or used, every person should have the opportunity to live out the potential God has given to them, each person has worth because he or she is created by God, etc. My prayer is that our deep moral convictions will drive the activity of our church and the ways in which we give to it.

Grace and Peace

Chase

P.S. If you’d like to read the passages from Cornel West that I refer to you can pick up his book Prophetic Fragments (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1988) or read the excerpts of it in The Cornel West Reader (Basic Civitas Books, 1999).