The past few weeks I´ve been thinking a lot about the difference between charity and justice. This reflection started after a lunch conversation between me, a Canadian, and a Mexican at a retreat center in Cuernavaca. We sat at the dinner table, well after everyone else had gone on their way, discussing charity and justice in relation to what the woman from Canada had experienced as part of her trip to Mexico. I will not recount the entire conversation, however, I will say that we covered three main perspectives or approaches to charity and justice:
1. Charity is a way to improve people´s situations. During immersion programs participants are flooded with experiences and images that cry out for the need for charity: children who could easily eat more than one meal a day with a little help from the outside; families whose homes of sticks and cardboard could be replaced by more sturdy bricks and aluminum with very little effort from the north; a parent´s desire to send their child to school with books and uniforms could easily bet met with a little charity; the elderly woman on the sidewalk could eat for a day with an act of charity of 50 pesos. The criticism the three of us identified about charity is that it is seen as a stopgap that often serves to make the donor feel good about themselves, leaving another fed for a day but hungry for life.
2. The focus must be on justice. Justice will eliminate the need for charity. During the immersion program participants are introduced to some of the root causes of injustice in our world today: the effects of agribusiness on small campesino farmers; the displacement of entire communities in order to adhere to the questionable upsides of NAFTA on Mexico´s economy; how national debt and trade policies effect´s Mexico´s sovereignty; and how environmental degradation affects the marginalized and poor first. We - the immersion program - focus on introducing some of the ways our hands as First World Christians are soaked in the blood of injustice and (a very important AND) how we can faithfully live in solidarity with our neighbors around the world. So, we examine structures and injustices, yet turn towards living more consciously and justly in the world. The criticism we identified in this pure pursuit for justice is that, in the mean time - between now and justice - people go hungry, children miss out on education, communities are up-rooted, and the list goes on.
3. Charity is absolutely necessary until people live in a just world. Here in lies the tension: charity vs. justice. Are we to walk by the woman on the street asking for change, with little more than a "Hello," because we know the root causes of poverty? Are we to meet our neighbor in their stick house and leave without a consideration of charity because we are now aware of the evil structures most of us live in and through blindly? Do we, as a global community, witness the hungry child and move on to participate in a march that calls for justice? How is it that we as people connected through the human spirit can live with both an eye on the immediate need for charity, and the vision of a just world?
Our conversation twisted and turned through these three perspectives, leaving us with agreements and disagreements. Eventually, we recognized the 3rd perspective as a good place to begin, even if we found ourselves more in line with seeking justice. I don´t know that any of us left the conversation "convinced," of any one approach, however, we were all thinking. I´m still thinking...
I am still thinking about how to strike the balance between justice and charity, recognizing our conversations about justice often take a back seat to our acts of charity. So, I'm left with these thoughts on the charity vs. justice conversation:
The next time we find ourselves volunteering at the local food pantry handing out food stuffs...
The next time we find ourselves staffing a volunteer shelter...
The next time we find ourselves working at the local recycling center...
The next time we find ourselves building a house in a far off nation...
The next time we find ourselves visiting the local home bound...
...we should extend an open hand of charity - of compassion - but we must not stop there.
We must ask ourselves, "Why."
Why are people hungry?
Why are our neighbors homeless?
Why are some people are literally surrounded by garbage?
Why are more and more people left living in abject poverty?
Why does our society often push loved ones inside?
We must ask why and we must be prepared for what difficult answers will come. These answers will move us towards justice. So, in closing, please continue to extend the important hand of compassion, but do so with every intention to make the important move towards justice.
In Peace,
Luke
The next time we find ourselves volunteering at the local food pantry handing out food stuffs...
The next time we find ourselves staffing a volunteer shelter...
The next time we find ourselves working at the local recycling center...
The next time we find ourselves building a house in a far off nation...
The next time we find ourselves visiting the local home bound...
...we should extend an open hand of charity - of compassion - but we must not stop there.
We must ask ourselves, "Why."
Why are people hungry?
Why are our neighbors homeless?
Why are some people are literally surrounded by garbage?
Why are more and more people left living in abject poverty?
Why does our society often push loved ones inside?
We must ask why and we must be prepared for what difficult answers will come. These answers will move us towards justice. So, in closing, please continue to extend the important hand of compassion, but do so with every intention to make the important move towards justice.
In Peace,
Luke
