The danger of critiquing something like the Hope for Haiti Now telethon is that people will conclude I am saying it was a bad idea and that we shouldn’t give financially to the poor and needy. That of course is ridiculous; I have a lot of admiration for the celebrities who pooled their fame and raised far more than they could have if they had simply pooled their money.

But, the danger of not critiquing it is also great.  If we don’t have a true understanding of the complexity of disaster and poverty we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment, cynicism and a hardened heart.

Those of you who are old enough will remember the famine that hit Africa in the 1980’s and the great outpouring of compassion and money that flowed towards the needy of that continent, much of it spurred by celebrity involvement.  Band Aid, USA for Africa and its recording of We are the World, and Live Aid raised more than $100 million dollars to bring aid and relief to a devastated area.

The cynic will say that little has changed in Africa in the last 20 years.  The cynic will say it was a waste of time and effort that could have been poured into more fruitful humanitarian endeavors.  And, if Haiti doesn’t turn a corner, a corner it has never turned in its history, what will the cynic say about Hope for Haiti Now?

A well known celebrity gossip site had this to say about the earthquake, “Of course I wasn’t all that sad to begin with because Haiti has sucked for 300 years and I’m tired of waiting for all these crappy countries to get their act together.”  Then later,

Look, I don’t even really know where Haiti is. I have no animosity towards them. I hope the telethon is a big hit, I hope people give, I hope Haiti gets back on their feet, but what’s the deal here? Are they trying to fix it like it was before, or does Haiti need a whole new country? Because even before the quake the buildings and roads look like Earth on that ‘Life After People’ show, except Haiti has people. What have they been doing for 300 years? How do we know what buildings to fix?

The purpose of that site is to be funny, but there is also a deep vein of cynicism that is simply a reflection of what a lot of people think.  The argument goes, “It’s terrible what happened to them, but if they weren’t so (lazy, corrupt, incompetent, wasteful, insert your own adjective) and if they’d just try harder maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.”

And then, if we pour a couple of hundred millions of dollars into the country, and in five or ten years they are still poor, all it tells the cynic, or the person who quickly becomes the cynic, is that we never should have given in the first place. So, when the opportunity to give to the everyday poor pops up they remember the money they “threw away” to Hope for Haiti Now and just mutter “get a job” instead.

So, what do we do?  Do we send the celebrities home?  Do we decline to give and pop in a DVD instead?  The answer of course is no.  There are people dying today who will live if we give of our financial resources.  I personally think there are some great organizations that will be more effective than the ones I see scrolling at the bottom of my screen, but if Reese Witherspoon is going to get you to give when you normally wouldn’t then by all means call with your credit card in hand.

But, we need to realize this:  The reason the earthquake was so devastating was poverty (see the post Choose to Live for more on that).  And, poverty is not simply a matter of a lack of money.  Therefore, simply pouring money on the problem will not solve it.

That’s not an excuse to not give.  Money today means food, water and medical care for people who needed it last week and are unable to get it.  But, it also means that giving our money is not all we need to do.

Next time we’re going to talk about what real and effective change requires and I pray God is moving in the Church to make a real difference instead of a Band Aid.

Response:

–Heart check time.  What’s your reaction to a telethon like Hope for Haiti Now?  Do you get caught up in the community of celebrity giving?  Or, do you feel a twinge of cynicism and disdain and ask what the real motive is?  Pray the Lord will reveal any misplaced motivation, judgment, comparison or identity that will help you align yourself with Him.

–What is poverty?  In prayer, examine your heart and the Word and ask the Lord to reveal what it means to be poor or one of “the least of these”.

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