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Growing up, there was always a strong emphasis on charitable giving in our Christian community.  That value continues to this day, with the small rural church representing the most significant source of our missionary support.  It is a value that we hold to very strongly ourselves as best we can.  All of this to say that I believe in charitable giving as an important aspect of Christian life.  That being said, I believe that it must not become the central “economic” emphasis as missional people.

Drawing centrally from Stuart Murray’s response to this issue in his book “The Naked Anabaptist”, here are a few of the dynamics of this issue:

-First, most of the the suffering in the world which inspires charity stems from systemic injustice.  While the immediate need for relief through charity might be a necessity, as Christians we cannot be satisfied with treating the symptoms while ignoring the causes.  This is not an easy, as we are often unwittingly participating in the very injustices we are then called to confront.  It requires us to not only do the work of uncovering the injustices, but to pursue the changes (including in ourselves) to address the injustice.  Charity, while essential in the right context, can often be used as a means to avoid our truer responsibility (or relieve our sense of culpability).

-Second, responding justly requires the unified action of community, not the noble efforts of individuals, important as they may be.  This speaks to the first point in that charitable giving too easily allows for isolated and unaccountable action by individuals.  Further, the pursuit of a just life is overwhelming, perhaps even impossible, from an exclusively individualistic perspective.  Justice calls us to community, reinforcing the missional necessity of being transformed together into the Body of Christ.

-Third, while charity speaks to the condition of the recipient of the giving, justice speaks to the hearts and lives of everyone involved.  To live justly requires that we look at why there are those who “have” and those who “have not”.  It is this commitment that is at the heart of the Anabaptist commitment to simplicity and contentment.  While justice might be somewhat “popular” in Christian circles these days, I believe it will be this dynamic that will most clearly distinguish the true willingness of our commitment.

-Finally, justice is about mutuality.  It is rooted in our mutual and absolute dependency upon God.  Further, it flows out of a shared lifestyle where we are also in deep need of one another.  Charity can too often become about “us” giving to “them”, reinforcing the very injustices we seek to overcome.  We too often articulate the ideal of becoming servants, but what that truly costs us is often lost to us.  However, this discipline of mutuality is essential.

Again, I want to reinforce that I am not rejecting charity completely.  Rather, I am convince that, as a central emphasis, it fails to embody the nature of the Christ whose Body we are to become.  For more on this theme, read Stuart Murray’s excellent book “The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith”.