ONWARD ~ and ~ UPWARD Judith Florian, R.N.

Featuring articles and discussion of diverse topics and issues, including:

Disabilities, Home Health Care, Sexual Abuse of Children, and Advocacy

The Impact of Churches
in Chronic Illness and Disability
The Development of Community Outreach Programs

Discussion of Charity

Too often today the word "charity" is associated with people taking advantage of the kindness of strangers.  "Charity cases" implies that those persons supplying the needs are better than the person who receives the help.  And the negative association is nation-wide, when good people feel that their assistance has been abused by those in need (or supposed need).  The fact that some people have taken advantage of offers of food, money, or products creates a wariness (and weariness) in the hearts of givers. 

The United States has suffered terrorism and numerous natural disasters where there have been numerous immediate and long-term needs.  But, what stood out for me as I watched those scenes unfold on television was the sheer numbers of ill and disabled men, women and children.  I vividly remember the almost cold reporting of about 30 nursing home patients left to drown, stuck in their beds, while the home's owners and staff evacuated.  I saw how some family members had put one elderly black woman, obviously too ill to walk or unable to do so, into a rectangular plastic upturned tub of some kind, where she rode while several male relatives pulled her along in the make-shift boat.  "Good for them," I thought, "they value her so much they are willing to wade through chest-high floods to pull her to safety, semi-protected inside that plastic tub.  I remember crying with the New Orlean's images of wheelchair-bound persons with family and friends pushing them through flood waters.  But, I cried harder when I saw other wheelchair patients left at the arena, slumped over, covered with blankets - dead - and only a few scenes showed loving family who stayed by the deceased.   Then, I was heartened again with scenes from the bridge where young people lifted wheelchairs with people in them, to get them over railings or onto buses.  And then sobbed to see rescuers carrying an old black man in their arms, the man dehydrated from many days inside his flooded and sweltering home where he had laid on the side of an upturned couch while he waited for rescue (he died).  Still today, searchers continue to find the bodies of those who had been too ill, too infirm, and too alone to safely evacuate.  One mentally ill woman's body was found under her couch, which had probably trapped her during the flood.  One old man was found in his attic, with evidence that he had probably been alive some time there before succumbing to the heat and dehydration.

All our hearts were ripped up watching these scenes and hearing the stories.  But, we only saw many of those disabled persons because of the disaster.  Most people watching television probably never wondered about those people's lives before the disaster.  HOW did they live?  WHO helped them day-to-day?  

In absence of family, friends, and good outreach from churches, most of the ill and handicapped are on their own.  In houses and apartments, they survive across this nation.  In some areas they have good services from mostly public agencies, but in many areas, the ill and disabled receive little hands-on help of any kind.  Where services are lacking from public sources, these people are basically on their own.  And in many minds, those persons who are on their own readily fit the idea people hold about being a "charity case."   

If you research the phrase "charity case" on the internet, not surprisingly it is linked as a synonym to a "welfare case" (defined as someone in need of a welfare worker).  The idea then is that any "charity case" is someone who is poor financially and has medical or social needs (social needs meaning "social worker" type needs, such as better housing, placement into an institution etc).  And although there are NO websites that are specifically about "charity cases," the list of results is almost totally for social workers or case management services!  Does it make you wonder how "charity" is defined?  I wonder.

Interestingly, die.net has almost a full page on the definition of charity, which I quote here:

Source: WordNet (r) 1.7charity n 1: a foundation created to promote the public good (not for assistance to any particular individuals) 2: a kindly and lenient attitude toward people [syn: brotherly love] 3: an activity or gift that benefits the public at large 4: pinnate-leaved European perennial having bright blue or white flowers [syn: Jacob's ladder, Greek valerian, polemonium caeruleum, polemonium van-bruntiae] 5: an institution set up to provide help to the needy

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Charity \Char"i*ty\, n.; pl. Charities. [F. charit['e] fr. L. caritas dearness, high regard, love, from carus dear, costly, loved; asin to Skr. kam to wish, love, cf. Ir. cara a friend, W. caru to love. Cf. Caress.] 1. Love; universal benevolence; good will. Now abideth faith, hope, charity, three; but the greatest of these is charity. --1. Cor. xiii. 13. They, at least, are little to be envied, in whose hearts the great charities . . . lie dead. --Ruskin. With malice towards none, with charity for all. --Lincoln. 2. Liberality in judging of men and their actions; a disposition which inclines men to put the best construction on the words and actions of others. The highest exercise of charity is charity towards the uncharitable. --Buckminster. 3. Liberality to the poor and the suffering, to benevolent institutions, or to worthy causes; generosity. The heathen poet, in commending the charity of Dido to the Trojans, spake like a Christian. --Dryden. 4. Whatever is bestowed gratuitously on the needy or suffering for their relief; alms; any act of kindness. She did ill then to refuse her a charity. --L'Estrange. 5. A charitable institution, or a gift to create and support such an institution; as, Lady Margaret's charity. 6. pl. (Law) Eleemosynary appointments [grants or devises] including relief of the poor or friendless, education, religious culture, and public institutions. The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless, Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers. --Wordsworth. Sisters of Charity (R. C. Ch.), a sisterhood of religious women engaged in works of mercy, esp. in nursing the sick; -- a popular designation. There are various orders of the Sisters of Charity. Syn: Love; benevolence; good will; affection; tenderness; beneficence; liberality; almsgiving.

 

Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary Charity (1 Cor. 13), the rendering in the Authorized Version of the word which properly denotes love, and is frequently so rendered (always so in the Revised Version). It is spoken of as the greatest of the three Christian graces (1 Cor. 12:31-13:13).

Ah, yes, charity is regarded as the greatest of the three Christian graces.  It's in the same league with The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  

So I ask again, where are the churches of every community in showing charity (love) in action towards the ill and disabled, those who are homebound, not just those in hospitals or nursing homes? 

 Where is your church investing your charity?

Charity

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