“The crowds asked him, ‘What should we do?’ John replied, ‘If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.'”
John the Baptist wasn’t a difficult fellow to understand, as this account from the third chapter of Luke makes clear. Generous giving has always been a part of the Christian ideal, especially to the poor.
In this season of generosity, powered as well by year-end tax planning, most charities pray that their donors remember them. 2009 has been a particularly tough year for the nonprofit world. Just last week we learned that the American Civil Liberties Union was coping with the loss of tens of millions in annual donations from a single benefactor, David Gelbaum, who had given $380 million to the ACLU and two other groups, the Sierra Club and a fund to benefit veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, in just the past four years. Suddenly these groups are facing enormous shortfalls.
Though I doubt we agree on much when it comes to politics, I have to applaud Mr. Gelbaum’s past willingness to put his money behind his beliefs, and especially his generosity toward the military. Would that the conservative movement had more such benefactors, though it does indeed have some who, like Mr. Gelbaum, prefer a low profile.
The truth is that conservatives give more money than their liberal counterparts, with much of it going to churches, which in turn fund relief and mission work across the globe. Only a small subset of church givers also donate to activist organizations.
There are many para-church and secular groups that deserve the support of people of faith in these tumultuous times. The counterpart to the ACLU is the Alliance Defense Fund ( telladf.org). If the ADF had even one Gelbaum supporting it with anything close to the $50 million he was sending the left-wing lawyers at the ACLU, religious liberty, unborn life and traditional marriage would at least be fully represented in the courts.
If Young Life ( younglife.org) had a Gelbaum, the teenagers of America (and now the entire globe as YL reaches out across the continents) would have friends and advocates for them and the person we honor this season.
If Children International had a Gelbaum, the effect on the deeply impoverished families in the Dominican Republic, Zambia, the Philippines and the dozen other counties in which CI works would be society-wide in those nations. (There is a link to CI at my Web site, www.hughhewitt.com.)
And if everyone who truly felt gratitude toward the troops would make a donation at either the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund ( semperfifund.org) or Soldiers Angels ( soldiersangels.com), then the center-right would at least be matching the generosity of Mr. Gelbaum.
It’s been a tight year for Mr. Gelbaum, so he has had to cut back. Perhaps his example will prompt others to step forward, even if the beneficiaries of their giving only somewhat overlap with his. It is, after all, the season of miracles and unexpected, happy endings.
Examiner columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.
