[Magdalen] whose theology is this?

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

There's a saying out there somewhere:
"every person has a scheme to get rich that will not work."

One might as well say that some church leaders have developed their own
theology that is built on air and won't pass muster.

Now within that stated narrow theology, I did think I caught sight of a god
idea, which is to look first to local needs for your giving, but this is
NOT because you don't care about others in other places, and it certainly
does not mean you ONLY give locally. No, the big strength of giving locally
is that you see what the people are doing, so you can better judge what is
and what is not working, and you also bypass all those charities which
funnel a good percentage of the take for fat paychecks for the leaders.  I
looked at some evaluations of various charities at web sites that do this
sort of thing, and was surprised to find that the ones with a good
reputation also have a large amount of money going for salaries, and it has
modified my giving.  It is not difficult to find ways to give that bypass
the fat cat.

I will not name names simply because everyone has to make their own
decisions in these matters, and no source of information is perfect anyway,
and to get a huge organization to function, one has to have a highly
skilled manager at the helm, and they cost a lot of money.

With predators out there doing all they can to fleece us, it is especially
important that all of us donate with care.

With a local charity, not only can you keep an eye on them and actually
participate in the work; you can even get on the board and help make it run
well.



James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 4:56 PM, Ginga Wilder <gingawilder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Our supply clergy this morning was from another diocese...a very liberal
> diocese....but I don't think this is liberal thought.  He taught Adult CE
> and preached.
>
> His premise this morning, among other things was that 'we really cannot
> change the world.  We do not need to concern ourselves with the world
> beyond our neighborhood.  Rather than give money to support ministries like
> ERD, we should simply walk across the street and meet the need of our
> neighbor.  (His example was giving money to a particular person in a 3rd
> world country, rather than my ERD example, but the point is the same.)  He
> went on to declare that from a theological perspective, we do not need to
> concern ourselves with politics...or even care about politics because we
> cannot make a difference or change the world.  It was a one way
> street...meet the need before you and ignore/don't care about anything
> beyond.
>
> I behaved badly.  He spoke down to us as of we were the Episcopal bumpkins
> in SC and I called him on it.  Now I'm having a major shame attack, even
> though more than a few people thanked me....that has just made it worse
> because my behavior was so similar to how nack in the mid 2000s, I
> confronted the the teaching of the ultra conservative priests at St.
> Paul's.  I'm not sure this makes any sense and I am still upset.
>
> So, what think the theological gurus in the pub (all of us) about this
> theology??
>
> Thanks,
> Ginga
>