Euangelion
Over at The Punch, journo Miles Heffernan has a piece on Our Churches Should Not Be a Law Unto Themselves, which raises concerns how (in Australia) religious groups can discriminate against employees in non-core areas of their work. His main target is the company Sanitarium owned by the SDAs who only hire “Christians”. But what stood out for me was his observation about who actually does the major of charity work in Australia. Read this:
This weekend one of the country’s biggest fundraisers, the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal, was in full swing targeting $80 million. I have been a healthy skeptic of them and other faith-based charities. I learned recently while doing research that little old ladies from the Salvos stay up all night manning the needle exchange on St Kilda’s infamous Grey St. When not reducing the risk of HIV infection, Flo and Dot are next door at the battered women’s shelter. There are thousands of other examples that show Christian workers doing good deeds without prejudice. My research also took to me to Centrelink. They provide “welfare referrals” for those in crisis. I covered half of Sydney. In nearly every case, the only groups accepting those referrals were Christian. So while church-based charities may offend some people with their contribution to public policy, when it comes to what they do on the ground, it is hard to be offended. I haven’t seen too many secular groups driving the mobile soup kitchens.
Amen! Without religious based charities there would be a social welfare melt down in our society. So stick that in your secular humanist pipe and smoke it!
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