Fairly often I see a TV commercial soliciting $25 to buy a food box for
Holocaust Survivors. I don’t mind the thought that my contribution will show
these elderly people that someone cares. However, a couple of their assertions
cause me pause. “You can bring the
blessing of God back into their lives…You will show them that God cares about
what they have endured in their life.” I just can’t think that God would be
pleased by those statements. If God’s blessings have gone out of my life, a $25
food box will not bring it back. It seems to me that those who came through the
Holocaust would recognize that God cares about what they have endured in their
life…their survival alone is proof of His caring.
3 comments:
As I keep working through Proverbs there are many calls to help the poor but it seems that the Bible standard is more personal. We are to share our food, not send it off to an organization with high paid executives.
Grace and peacce
Gail;
-----Test the logic. Put the organization’s argument into the form of a syllogism. People having a hard time physically surviving are people not having God‘s care about what they‘ve endured. Holocaust survivors are people having a hard time physically surviving. Therefore, Holocaust survivors are people not having God‘s care about what they‘ve endured. The argument is valid according to its form. But valid and true are not the same. The argument itself is false because its facts are false. That all people having a hard time physically surviving are people not having God’s care about what they’ve endured does not hold up to the simplest of observation. The simplest of observation shows that everybody dies. Dying is having a hard time physically surviving. Therefore, if God’s care about what people have endured is evidenced by their not having a hard time physically surviving, then He does not care about anyone. Right! Twenty-five bucks wouldn’t help anyway. That a syllogism can be valid while its argument is false might be why Merriam-Webster’s second definition for syllogism is, “a subtle, specious, or crafty argument.” God’s care about what we have endured is evidenced by His becoming a mere man having laid aside His position as God, having excruciatingly died regardless of His having lived entirely without sin, having quickly kicked the teeth out of the law of death for sin by raising Himself from the dead, then granting the same escape from death to anyone who desires Him in spite of what they’ve done, and topping it all, promising to share His throne with all who have endured both the worst and the best to their final time of physical survival. That shows God’s care. Twenty-five bucks shows your own care.
-----The IRS shows the organization’s care. This showing is the organization’s Form 990 made public. Google “public access to form 990”. You will find a variety of websites helping you to locate any non-profit organization’s Form 990 filed with the IRS in the last three to five years and showing you how to understand it. Basically, it will reveal an organization’s use of its funds, who is directing it, with what other entities it might be affiliated, and much more. I’ve prepared many 990 forms for several non-profit organizations over the years. In the past, I have bemoaned the scope and detailed level of information the IRS requires on these filings. Recently, I have come to appreciate and admire the assistance they give to anyone being diligent in sorting beneficial organizations from the sea of scammers. 990’s work. Try them. You’ll like them.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
I think God cares more about what we become from enduring our trials rather than the trial itself.
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