Categories
Books

Essential reading before mission trips and service projects

While Americans are very generous in charitable giving, much of that money is either wasted or actually harms the people it is targeted to help, according to Robert Lupton in his book Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (and How to Reverse It). The author has been serving the poor for more than 40 years, and he wants to see giving and practical help delivered in a way that actually produces positive outcomes.

Compassion is such a virtuous value that it is almost sacrilegious for someone to question whether it is achieving its desired aims. People dig wells in Sudan or send food to Haiti or serve in a soup kitchen and simply assume that they are helping people out of poverty, without considering whether they are creating dependency, destroying personal initiative, and disempowering the recipients of the aid.

The problem is not the motivation. The problem is the unintended consequences of rightly motivated efforts. The book details a broad range of unintended consequences of mission trips, service projects, public housing developments, international partnerships, Christmas gift distributions, foreign aid projects, foodbanks, and other activities designed to help the poor.

The author proposes that there should be an oath for compassionate service, similar to the Hippocratic Oath, but including such elements as:

  • Never do for the poor what they have the capacity to do for themselves
  • Limit one-way giving to emergency situations
  • Listen closely to those you seek to help
  • Above all, do no harm

I do not entirely agree with the author’s position on the evils of one-way giving. For example, most countries offer free education to children who cannot afford to pay for it. This creates dependency, because the country has to keep paying for free schooling year after year. It is a form of one-way giving, and it is not an emergency situation, but most people would say it is a good thing to do. Similarly, in my opinion it is often a good idea to provide free feeding programs in schools to help ensure that children are alive, healthy and educated by the time they graduate.

Notwithstanding these minor differences of opinion, I consider this to be an outstanding book, which should be read by anyone who wants to serve the poor, either locally or in other countries.