Post-Postmodern Charity?

(Please be warned that this blog may cause you offence)

One of the areas I've been doing some reflecting in is what charity has become in recent years. This is from my observation of some of the larger campaigns, including "One" (called "Make Poverty History" in Canada), the RED campaign, and the very recent Windows IM campaign. I'm deeply saddened because chairty seems to have become nothing more than mere transactions (no strings attached), meriting only a check on one's to-do list.

Before I continue though, I'd like to bring up the origins of the word "charity". In Christian theology, the Latin translation ("caritas") was of the Greek word agape, which is understood as brotherly kindness, and unlimited kindness to all others. In the King James version of the Bible, charity can be found here, used by Paul:

"And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:3

In other versions of the Bible, the word "charity" is usually "love", which I find to be particularly interesting. The idea of charity, from a historical and theological perspective has everything to do with LOVE - real brotherly love that extends to all our neighbours. Not money, not even food, but the act of genuine, Christ-like, love.

My peeve with the current "popular" campaigns is how it disconnects us from the true essence of charity/almsgiving. Instead of being encouraged to offer our time and efforts, we are instead told to act like passive bystanders to issues of social, political, and economic importance. Our democracy has been so broken down and injected with market-driven mentality that even in the act of giving, we are asked to consume. Involvement with our communities has become so grotesquely depoliticized that all we know of the world around us is through media images. And surely it's easy to go along with this framework: we'd hope that it'd be as easy as that. When millions of Africans are dying of AIDS, when child prostitution is rampant, when communities affected by Katrina are still fighting for their right for housing, and when the homeless remain cold and uncared for on our Vancouver streets...perhaps it's easier just to give a buck or two here and there, sign a petition somewhere else, and believe that it would all go away.