Human trafficking is a huge problem where I live yet, woefully, there are very few organizations that serve those victimized by it. I recently had occasion to donate goods to a deserving charity and, having moral compunctions about donating to either Goodwill or The Salvation Army, I looked around for an organization serving people who are coming out of trafficking situations. I only found one.
This organization, which I will not name here, helps women victimized by human trafficking by offering them lists of the legal and physical resources available to them, giving them bags of toiletries and various sundries, helping them with resumes and job searches, offering a limited residential program, and proselytizing to them on the street. At this last bit I shudder. While I would rather have these women receive services than not, my heart grieves that they are only deemed worthy of the service if they are already Christian, ready to accept Christ, or willing to say they accept Christ. It also excludes helping men who are victims of sex trafficking because, in the sect of Christianity that runs this charity, homosexuality is a sin.
While I admire their willingness to put their faith where their mouths are, it angers me to think of them withholding potentially life-saving goods and services from those who are unwilling to conform to their beliefs. I have a similar issue with The Salvation Army.
I want to say this isn’t Christ-like behavior, but I see how it could be construed as such. In his life, Christ healed those who came to him and had faith in him. That I know of, he didn’t randomly heal and offer succor to people who did not seek him out or, once he came across them, offered him their faith. This, I believe, is the basis for organizations such as this that withhold services from nonbelievers.
On the other hand, Christ did preach to minister unto the poor and disenfranchised without reference to what they may believe. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40
Funny how some supposedly Christ-centered organizations tend to cherry pick which of his tenets they wish to follow.
But then, as a non-Christian Pagan who believes in virtue and vice rather than sin and salvation, am I guilty of a similar outrage by withholding my donation from a group of people who I deem wrong-believers?
Probably.
I asked a friend to help me find another organization serving the same or a tangential population that was not religiously affiliated. He found one right away and sent the link to me with this message (paraphrased), “Here’s one with no hint of proselytizing when people are at their lowest.” That was the organization to which I chose to donate.
But he got me thinking: Aren’t there those who would say that the best time to proselytize is precisely when people are at their lowest? Is that not when they need faith and religion the most?
While I see the logic there, to me such a situation reads more like duress. I imagine a believer, and it could be of any religion, standing over a pit into which someone has hopelessly fallen. The victim of the fall cries out for help and the believer says, “I’ll only help you out of the pit if you believe as I do. Have faith, my faith, or else thirst and starve to death in the pit. You really should take my offer because this is when you need to do what I tell you the most.”
Duress.
But again, am I guilty of the same outrage by withholding a donation from those who do some amount of good just because, as a nonbeliever, I believe they are wrong-believers? Do I stand next to the believer near the pit withholding the rope with which they would help the victim while saying all the while, “You’re doing it wrong! You’re doing it wrong!”
Is this such an innately human flaw that none of us are truly immune?
Probably.
More than 12 years ago now, I lived in Oklahoma with my now ex-fiancé and his son. We were poor. We were very poor. We were on food stamps, housing assistance, disability, etc. We had several outstanding loans with family. Come the middle and end of each month, we traded twenties with our dear neighbors because their assistance checks came on opposite weeks than ours. Even with all of this help, some months we still couldn’t manage to make ends meet.
About a year after I moved to Oklahoma, I had to go to a food bank for the first time in my life. My pride smarted fiercely. My ex yelled at me the morning I had to go. My heart broke. My soul ached.
As I am legally blind and cannot drive, our dear neighbor, who was also in need, drove us both to the food bank. The charity was run by a local church of nondescript evangelical Christian denomination. In order to receive food, we were required to fill out an application asking basic questions like our name and address, how many people lived in our house, and our relationship to them. I was honest and answered that I was living with a man to whom I was not married, though I worried my honesty would prevent me from receiving assistance.
On the application, there was also a question asking if we would like them to say a prayer for/with us. I checked “no.” I worried a prayer might lead to proselytizing, which might lead to a requirement to come to church, which might lead to a demand to accept Christ as my savior. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had accepted the offer. Gods know we needed as many prayers from as many people and as many gods as we could get.
Despite my honest yet not ideal answers to the questions on the application, I was not denied food. In no time at all, a church member brought a big basket of food for both my neighbor and myself, (there being four in her family and three in mine, the basket near overflowed). This blessed soul even asked if he could load it in the car for us, which we gratefully accepted.
When I got home and unpacked the goods, I saw they were bountiful. This church had held back nothing. There were the canned goods and dry goods you would expect, but there were glorious extras as well. There was cereal in individual serving cups. There was a sweet Honeybun for each of us. There were two pounds of fresh ground venison, probably donated by a hunter who belonged to the congregation. There was also a huge bag of fresh chopped red bell peppers that must have come straight from someone’s garden.
As I put the items away, I sobbed. We would make it through another month. Praise the powers that be, whoever they may be, we were going to make it through another month.
Above, I wrote scathingly about charity only offered to those under duress with strings of accepting Christ’s salvation attached. I wrote scathingly also of some tendencies I have in that direction. Today, I write about my experience at the food bank in Oklahoma to give an example of charity done right, in the true spirit of Christ or any other benevolent deities.
The goodness and the reward are always in the heart of the giver when the giver gives unconditionally and with both hands open. This is the standard, taught to this Pagan by evangelical Christians, which we should all strive to meet.
-M. Ashley
Head Devotee, Temple Mercury
Temple Mercury 