Of
Giving, Greed & Guilt - Americans Are Not "Stingy"
As much as I enjoy giving back some of what the Lord has blessed me
with, I have to confess to a small amount of irritation sometimes.
The Princess and I tend to spread out where we give our help. We donate
to the Salvation Army at Christmastime, of course, but we also donate
to that fine organization at other times during the year, both in
cash and in other donations.
We also donate to Feed the Children from
time to time, as well as to various organizations that are local to
the Texas Metroplex, church organizations that specialize in outreach
of various sorts and types.
Some of the local charities also collect
by using the world famous cardboard can with the slot in the top,
placed in various businesses for the purpose of collecting for the
cause du jour, and we’ve been known to add the odd dollar to that
collection effort, too.
Churches, of course, pass the collection plate,
sometimes more than once in a service, but I understand that running
a religion can be pretty expensive. Especially those that broadcast
over TV or the radio. It seems that a lot of them spend half their
time praising the Lord, and the rest of the time asking for donations
so they can continue to praise the Lord in the manner to which they’ve
become accustomed.
I remember a story about three ministers. They
were discussing how they handled their weekly collections. The first
said, “I draw a circle on the ground about six feet in diameter, stand
at the center, and throw all the collection money in the air. What
falls outside the circle is mine, what falls inside the circle is
the Lord’s, to do His work.” The second said, I do the same thing,
but the money that falls inside the circle is mine, and the money
that falls outside is the Lord’s, to do His Work.” They turned and
looked at their colleague, who smiled and said, “I don’t draw a circle.
I just throw all the money in the air. I figure, what the Lord wants,
He’ll keep.” That seems to be the attitude of a lot of these TV preachers.
We
adopted a child, once. One of those things where you send so much
a month in support of a child in a foreign country. We were told after
a little more than a year that our donation was no longer required,
as the little girls father had found work and the family was getting
back on its feet.
One thing that bugs me about all of these organizations,
even BGEA (The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) is those letters
I receive importuning funds to continue their good work. The request
for money I don’t mind, I understand that it’s needed, but what irritates
me is the form. It has the return address on it, so you can place
the form in the windowed envelope. It has my name and address on it,
although I don’t really care to get credit. And it has those handy
blocks, of which they ask you to check one. Yes, the “Suggested Donation”
box. I ignore them.
Sometimes, I’ll just send them a donation in a
plain envelope, to avoid that silly form. It just bugs me that they
think they have to suggest to me what amount is appropriate. I think
that I can figure that out on my own.
One thing I remember from
the past is that annual horror we went through in the military. It
got worse, the more rank I tacked on, because I was forced to become
more and more involved in the organized extortion of the program.
For those of you unaware, it was called the CFC (Combined Federal
Campaign) and its purpose was to make sure that each and every member
of the military donated his/her fair share of funds to a group of
charities that were banded together in supplication. Every military
organization on an installation had a designated fair share to donate,
based on the number of people in that organization and their pay grades.
Let me repeat that phrase, with a little more emphasis “…and their
PAY GRADES…”. They even had the appropriate documentation prepared
so that you could fill out a simple form and have your fair share
automatically deducted from your paycheck. If you chose not to donate
anything, you could find yourself on the receiving end of a bad experience,
courtesy of your First Sergeant. Believe me, being on the bad side
of the junior LT that was put in charge of the program was mildly
annoying, but being on the bad side of the First Sergeant could lead
to some of the most inventive, depressing, and strenuous details known
to humankind. Eventually, the military grew up a little bit, and there
has not been near as much pressure for donations in recent years,
although I have heard horror stories.
Which brings me closer to my
point.
Back then, how much you were supposed to donate was decided
by your pay grade. If you were an E-5, for example, you might be required
to donate X dollars per month out of your paycheck. It didn’t matter
whether you were married or not. It didn’t matter whether or not you
had children, or how many you had. Your monthly bills were not an
issue, nor were your monthly expenses. The only thing that mattered,
the bottom line, the final decision maker, was your pay grade.
They
could not force you to donate the required amount, but they could
make your life a living hell if you didn’t. Worse, they would sometimes
put pressure on your buddies, to get them upset and angry at you.
You
could end up ostracized.
Sound familiar? Have you seen the same sort
of thing going on in the big corporations? The push to meet your goal,
to be 100%, to get that little plaque to hang on a wall somewhere,
to give you bragging rights for a year over somebody?
Another thing
I noticed over the years is that every time you met your goal, the
next year they raised the bar. More and more was expected from you,
and a lot of the time the money collected was going somewhere other
than where you would have wanted or chosen for it to go. And it didn’t
matter if you donated to what you believed in throughout the year,
when CFC time came, you were expected to cough up for that, too.
One
of the most insidious little tricks they used was guilt.
Making you
feel like you were heartless and cold for not donating was a specialty.
And a lot of people bought into it.
Just like they do now.
Only now,
it’s wormy little socialist jerks, sitting on their butts in Paris,
who’ve decided that it doesn’t matter where else the United States
or its citizens gives their money, they have to meet the requirement
determined by their pay grade, by how much America makes.
It’s about
time we stood up, individually and collectively, and told the world
what the truth is.
We Americans are some of the most generous, caring,
giving people in the world. We don’t give to fulfill the dream of
a socialist utopia, we don’t give out of guilt, we don’t give because
we’re required to, we give because we’re generous.
So back off.
We
don’t give to meet a goal, we don’t give out of obligation, we don’t
give to kiss someone’s butt, we give because we can and because we
care.
But if you keep complaining about the amount of the water you
get out of the well, don’t be surprised if someday it dries up completely.
You reap what you sow.
NOTE: Copyright 01/04/05 by Dave Hoffman
Use
granted to all who identify author.