Outsourcing charity

Every now and then I stumble across a quote that makes me stop and think. The following is one such quote from Dan's blog "On Journeying with those in Exile."

"Unfortunately, just as the outsourcing of blue-collar jobs devastated life in many North American inner-cities, so the outsourcing of charity work has had a similarly devastating impact upon the life of the Church. Generally what we find are Christians who provide others with the material resources that those others need in order to engage in charitable actions. So, for example, instead of feeding the hungry, they make a financial donation to a soup kitchen; instead of clothing the naked, they give some used clothes to the Salvation Army; instead of inviting the homeless poor into their homes, they donate some money to a homeless shelter. Consequently in these (and other) ways, charity is outsourced. Christians have learned how to share material resources with the poor, while also ensuring that their actual lives are well separated from the poor. Therefore, if we are to learn to share our lives together with the poor, we must move beyond this approach to charity." -Dan

This is a pretty powerful thought. I mean sit with it for a minute. Has the giving away of monetary charity become a hindrance to living out the calling in Isaiah 58: 6-10? This is not to say that we are not called by God to be good stewards of our money and to give away as much as we can to those in need...but I'm struck by how often tithing money can seem like enough or become an excuse.

Every month Matt and I write our checks out to various organizations, feel really good about the "good deeds" we just accomplished and then go about our lives grateful that someone else is doing the dirty work of working with the poor or evangelizing. And I think that is what has been so convicting about this quote. It's confronted me with the fact that in many ways I am grateful that there is someone else "dividing their bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless poor into their house; covering those who are naked." Deep down a part of me does believe that by supporting those people monetarily, I can excuse myself%2