http://www.motherjones.com/news/exhibit/2005/12/exhibit.html

The link is to Mother Jones, an aggressive and progressive magazine out of San Francisco.  They have been publishing for thirty years.

The article that the above link takes you to, among other interesting things, points out that ‘Operation Blessing’, one of the faith-based charitable organizations listed by FEMA (and our great leader, President Bush) as a good place to donate aid to Hurricane Katrina victims, sent one-half its money to Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, *  not to any victims at all.

You know, I kind of liked the idea of being able to give direct to charitable organizations to spread relief to the needy, organizations like ‘Salvation Army’ and ‘Sacred Heart Community Services’ both of which spend over 80% of their funds on the people that they funds were intended for, namely the needy or victims of some disaster.  Private organizations are so much more efficient at getting things done than the government!

But, of course, some organizations mis-represent themselves, and take advantage of the trusting goodness of the public in general.

Many Christians wonder why they are not taken seriously as ‘good people’, when in fact they are.  But it is the Rolex-wearing, Private Jet owning people like Pat Robertson, in his four-thousand dollar suits, who give the rest of Christian Americans a black-eye, you know?

Why are people of his very slimy ilk put up with?  Why don’t the churches unite and throw this greedy money-changer out of the Temple?

* A funny observation by Numerologists:  re:  The 700 Club, Pat’s spotlight on TV; if one takes the number ‘700’, then takes ‘P’ the 16th letter, and ‘R’, the 18th letter of the alphabet, (Pat’s initials) and subtracts those two numbers from 700, one gets, yes:  ‘666’

Who Gives A $%&t?

News: Are Americans charitable? Or chintzy?

By Clara Jeffery

December/January 2006 Issue

2 IN 3 American households say they give to charity, at an average of $1,262 a year. But only 1 in 3 households report charitable deductions to the IRS.

Dan, doing what he is good at, namely wondering about things

Yeah, a lot of charities and relief organisations and programs work a bit differently than people think (I’ve been on both ends of such programs quite a few times, as well as in the middle).  One of the times I helped with the American Red Cross, I was organising the collection of donated foodstuffs for relief efforts after some flood.  People were coming up and donating food to the Red Cross. . .and the Red Cross was then selling that free food to the disaster victims.  Granted, they were selling it at. . .ummm. . .whatever the cost is called that stores buy their products at before adding on their profit margin, but even so they were making a considerable profit.  I have no idea what that profit was used for.

And of course, donated money can end up going to all sorts of interesting “relief efforts”, like relieving a Hawaiian resort of a couple empty rooms for a week so that the charity’s head can go “conference” with people.  At least with products, you can be pretty sure of the range of uses they will be used for (if not of who the users will be).  Which is why it wasn’t money that I directly donated to the Katrina relief programs.

I don’t donate to organized charities and I haven’t for years.  Except for one local charity.  It’s the only one I trust and seems to run mostly or completely on volunteers.

And I usually keep some ones on me for panhandlers.

Bebelicious - 30 June 2007 12:29 PM

I don’t donate to organized charities and I haven’t for years.  Except for one local charity.  It’s the only one I trust and seems to run mostly or completely on volunteers.

And I usually keep some ones on me for panhandlers.

I’m with you.  I haven’t had a good experience with organized charities and have found that they usually have some other purpose commonly determined by whoever is on the board or in charge at the moment.  My mother on the other hand sends money to almost anyone who asks for it.

Can I have your mum’s address Gray?

lol   I forgot to qualify that statement.    I check her mail and manage to sift out most of the stuff.  it’s when I’m away they get her.

gray - 30 June 2007 02:33 PM

lol   I forgot to qualify that statement.    I check her mail and manage to sift out most of the stuff.  it’s when I’m away they get her.

DOn’t worry, we’ll just keep sending all year round until we get a result.

And I wish I could see the look on Pat Robertson’s face when he gets to the Gates and sees a very pissed Jesus and 50,000 very wet, very angry New Orleansians.

Reminds me of a story my father told me about when he participated in the Berlin Airlift. Although he was on one of the crews that was in from very early on, he noticed that the American contingent already had organised parties waiting to unload the planes the moment they came to a halt.

His appreciation of Yankee efficiency fell somewhat when he noticed that it was one of each party’s job to paste a prominent sign on each unloaded container bearing the words “Donated by the United States of America”. He never forgot that.

Very likely, the blameless stevedores had been ordered to do this as part of the US Operation Vittles and had merely continued to do so even when unloading the planes of other nations. Though one does wonder why this task was considered important enough to be worth flying in the posters, paste and brushes needed to carry it out?

I hate when people revel in a good deed. It removes the charity and goodness from it and males it an event as opposed to an act of kindness.

Renquist - 01 July 2007 12:02 AM

I hate when people revel in a good deed. It removes the charity and goodness from it and males it an event as opposed to an act of kindness.

That’s exactly why I always cringe whenever my parents do us a favour. 

JOHN TRAVOLTA piloted his 707 filled with 5 tons of food and 450 tetanus doses to New Orleans, where he met fellow Scientologists providing