There seems to be a false humility when it comes to giving to the poor. I have heard the saying a thousand times, “they should not give money to this wealthy footballer, they should give it to the poor.”
“That Christian with a large house is a greedy pig he should sell it and give it to the poor.”
“That Church should not have a 40,000 seat stadium, they should build a large homeless shelter and worship in the rain.”
“Every Church should be a homeless shelter at night.”
It’s been said before
In the gospel of John, Mary took a pint of expensive perfume, that was worth about a year’s wage which is about $60,000 in our culture and poured it on Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.
But one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver asks, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?” (John chapter 12 verse 5, NIV).
It then says in verse six, that he did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief.
Whenever I hear someone that say that, I just want to say, “You don’t care about the poor.” Because the truth is if they did care about the poor, they would not talk about other people giving to the poor, they would just do it themselves.
If I hear someone saying, “they should sell their house and give to the poor” I would say they don’t care about the poor unless THEY have sold their own house and given it to the poor.
We saw this on national display.
This was revealed on a national display when the Australian Christian Lobby spearheaded Israel Folau’s fundraising efforts for his Federal Court case against Rugby Australia. They raised over $2 million in just two days.
The outrage was sensational, ‘how dare people give money to a wealthy footballer, when there is the homeless or farmers that can use the money more.
In other words, they who have money should give to a cause I should support simply because I don’t like what they are giving to.
What gave anyone the right to decide what a person should or should not do with their money?
I tell you what, the people that gave to Folau’s legal expenses are the sort of people that don’t like people told what they can or can’t say.
They also don’t being told what they can or can’t do with their money.
My advice to those telling people what they can or can’t do with their money
If you are one of those people who believe you have a God-given gift to decide what someone should spend their money on let me ask you something.
What causes do you support and what have you given to?
If you truly believe that the poor (which most people would agree) deserve a hand and that we should raise $2 million to fight homelessness instead of giving it to Israel Folau, then get on Go Fund Me and start it.
Go Fund Me will not shut you down, you will have a lot of work on your hands so you will have no time to tell people what they should or should not spend their money on.
I applaud what comedian Magda Szubanski did in response to the Folau saga.
Being a gay rights activist she would have been appalled by Folau’s comments but instead of vent her spleen over him asking for money for his cause, she just kept quiet and united different faiths and no faith people, in a cause designed to promote housing services, health and legal services to people of diverse sexualities and gender identities.
Should you be of a mind to follow Magda’s example, do so. As stated above there are thousands of such Go Fund Me sites.
Ben Kruzins is the Campus Pastor of The Hub Baptist Church in Ocean Shores on the North Coast of New South Wales. He is also a Journalism graduate who has written articles in The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.