Today is Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday was established in 2012 to "counter the cultural trend of overspending and commercialism by focusing instead on a cause that you believe in." I suppose because it follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday the two most commercialized gift orgies on the planet. But does it? Or does it just rearrange the gifts that generous people would give anyway, and expose us to less worthy organizations? Is it one more layer of bureaucracy between us and the non-profit, charity or parachurch organizations we've been supporting?

"Giving Tuesday" creates a flood in my e-mail, and I can delete most since I know which agencies and organizations deserve my support. But when one comes through with one Christian group dissing another, I do sigh and pay attention. This is not the usual baptism--dunk, pour or sprinkle--or whether one must speak in tongues, or which Bible translation is authoritative, but did World Vision knowingly fund a terrorist organization with our tax money. This one required some research (although I didn't do much) and it's very messy with charges and counter charges.

Forty years ago we supported World Vision regularly, but then it was a much smaller organization (now works in 100 countries) and I don't think it distributed money from US government for foreign aid. Now it's a mega NGO and the bad guys really know how to manipulate large NGOs. Like many Christian relief groups it depends heavily on various governments--not just the U.S.--for its funding. And it's my belief that you "dance with the one who brung ya," and it's awfully hard to preach the gospel with the government overseeing your funding and hiring. Foreign relief is a tiny fraction of our U.S. budget, but it's a major source of funding for some NGOs who do the on the ground, down and dirty work of cleaning up and health care after hurricanes, floods and famine.

This is an update for November 2018 for a misuse of funding that started I think in 2014 or 2016. https://www.christianpost.com/voice/lost-in-sudan-world-vision-worked-with-and-for-terrorist-funding-organizations.html?

This story is about terrorists in Sudan, but before that it was about Hamas and an employee within World Vision reported by an Australian Christian site. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-faqs-the-world-vision-gaza-scandal/?