My friend, Keith Ham, recently recommended a book called Toxic Charity by Robert D. Lupton. When it comes to charity Keith knows his stuff. He and Kathy have been in Kenya since 1991 serving as missionaries with CMF, International. They have raised a family in Kenya and they are two of the coolest people that I know. Keith is an upbeat guy who loves Jesus and teaches the bible. If he recommends a book that raises questions about how we do charity it must be good.
So wow, what a book. I read it in two days while traveling last week. Lupton's book is sobering, humbling, and ultimately encouraging.
More than once I found myself wincing as missions and outreach activities were described that were exactly like things I have been part of, sometimes coordinated, that could have been done in a much more holistic way. Lupton has spent more than forty years in inner-city Atlanta developing models of urban renewal and he supports his criticisms with information and good solutions.
At the crux, he points out that for communities to be successful there must be ownership to do for themselves what they are capable of doing - from picking up trash, to building, to leading the community. This holds true in our local towns as well as anywhere around the world. Working with communities to equip for ownership can take a lot more time and effort than simply going in and contributing or doing the work ourselves.
The book points out that many people, especially Christians, are kind and compassionate. We love to give and help. We embrace that feeling. We cherish telling the stories. The caution is one-way giving is often more beneficial to the giver that those they aim to assist.
On a personal scale we all dig going on missions trips and completing work projects. Valid questions are could the local population complete the same project on their own? What if the funds spent on the trip were used to pay local workers? Who is taking care of the project after the team leaves? Is it actually blessing people or putting a burden on them? Lupton mentions the value of exposing missions teams to other parts of the world, but also indicates the benefit may not be as big as we believe. Personally, I believe we should continue to send teams and expose people to missions, but we can rethink the work to maximize the long term benefit to local communities.
On a large scale he points out how over a trillion in foreign aid has been given to Africa in recent years only to lead to corruption and a decline in productivity. In the USA, the welfare system basically has the same problem. What we do as churches and individuals with one-way giving is the same thing on a smaller scale.
On the topic of one-way giving, this progression helped me better understand the central issue:
-Give once you elicit appreciation
-Give twice and you create anticipation
-Give three times and you create expectation
-Give four times and it becomes entitlement
-Give five times and you establish dependency
The idea is to not stop giving, but to stop one-way giving except in times of crisis. This is done to stop subsidizing poverty and start reinforcing productive work. Solutions like micro-loans, low-cost food coops, and community run resale clothing shops are outlined. These things take more effort and much more time to establish than one-way giving, but the benefits generate community pride instead of stripping pride.
All in all, this book made me rethink the approach to charity and missions. It is not a call to do less. It is a call to do better. And isn't that what we want?
ShareThis