This weekend, I spent some time with another gay christian libertarian — a combination that rivals the Australian Hairy Nosed Wombat for rarity. He’s letting an unemployed, down-on-his-luck human being crash in his spare bedroom. Over breakfast in a local mom-and-pop diner, we got into a conversation about charity toward others. How we had helped other people out in the past, sometimes with good results, more often not, sometimes, people straight up took advantage. We had no hesitation about extending charity when opportunity arose, but we also found room to criticize people whose form of charity only perpetuated the dependency and low state of others.
But the central focus of our conversation was “Why be nice to people.” Both being of the Christian persuasion, we were both very clear that the Gospel inspires charity. But we also agreed that there is a misunderstanding among non-believers (and an unfortunate number of Christians, unfortunately) that being charitable toward others is how you buy your ticket to Heaven. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. Becoming a disciple of Christ changes your heart such that helping out others just becomes something you do. People who treat it like a deposit in the Bank of Karma are missing the point. People who think Christians only do it to win favor from God are also missing the point. It’s just good to be good.
the purpose of “real charity” is to make the person receiving the charity independent of the person giving the charity. the purpose of the so-called liberal charity is to make the person receiving the charity permanently dependent on the liberal politician that is using someone else’s money to claim to be charitible. the real purpose of the dole is to create enough permanently bought and paid for votes to keep the same people in office for ever i.e. dictatorship.
Always have a guest bedroom that invites people not to stay long. Hopefully he laid some ground rules that the person either needs to be looking for a job or going to school.
Its certainly not a bank of Karma. Narcissists will disassociate with anyone who has helped them in the past because they don’t want to acknowledge they ever needed help. To them gratitude is often a terrible burden that they gladly discard.
Helping others can backfire even if they don’t take advantage. In the case of the Corcyrans and the Corinthians who were at the brink of war with one another. They both wanted to win over the Athenians as an ally because to do so, would surely win the war. Both sides sent representatives to plead their case to the Athenians. The Corcyra representative could only offer one thing and that was an alliance of mutual interests to create a formidable force that could intimidate the rival state of Sparta. The representative from Corinth only talked about their past relationship with Athens and went on to list the many services Corinth had performed for Athens, and the importance of showing gratitude to one’s friends.
Needless to say, The Athenians were offended by the Corinthian ambassador by his subtle way of asking them to feel guilty about past generosities. The Athenians could have cared less and allied with the Corcyrans.
Being nice is for your own peace of mind and happiness.
I am an agnostic/atheist, but I don’t have an issue with Christians as long as they are not hypocrites or strongly press their beliefs on you like a drill sergeant.
Often times I get a “misdealing” of what hypocrisy means from atheists/agnostics: Hypocrites in the Church ~ Conversation Series
Non-Christians think that by calling Christians out for taking care of their families first and and saying that somehow we are no longer Christian because we want to protect our country, will gain them leverage and make us feel guilty enough to do what they want. When The Prime Minister of Hungary closed his countries borders, many of my ‘friends’ told me that because I supported that decision, I was not very Christian.
Being Christian does not mean you have to crawl on your belly – that’s for snakes. Being nice doesn’t mean you can’t stand up for yourself. I love being nice, just saying hello to bus drivers and thanks to cashiers makes my day and quite often theirs. Whether or not I get into Heaven is up for grabs but I believe the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. Being kind makes Heaven that much closer to our daily lives. We are the presence of God on this earth – making someone’s day better is a joy. I don’t expect a reward – the reward is in the kindness itself.
The correct answer to that, Leigh, is to look at them and say, “Of course it’s not Christian. You always say the government shouldn’t follow or practice Christianity, so why are you insisting that the government ‘act Christian'”?
Then watch their brains short-circuit.
Then while they’re stammering through that go, “Okay. So you’re saying that Christianity should be used to produce law? You are saying that the government should operate on Christian principles? Or….are you just trying to exploit my faith to get your selfish way?”
Who knows, they may learn something.