I stopped donating to Samaritan's Purse for the same reason -- I didn't want my money going toward proselytization. I now donate to non-religious charities.
I'm not a Christian myself. I consider myself agnostic or maybe even a pragmatic agnostic going towards atheism. However, world vision Australia does do a lot of good work. I can understand why you don't want to donate to world vision Australia but it is an organization that does a lot of good work [maybe even more so than other charities and organization] maybe it's better to donate?
Just out of curiosity, have you actually donated to other charities you have mentioned?
This post reminds me of a Christian friend who told me that she refuses to purchase the prosh newspaper at uwa because it was "not Christian" and being "vile and disgusting" even though the money from the newspaper goes to several charities. She said that she would rather directly donate to those charities. I saw her several months later and asked her whether she had actually donated to those charities. She said she was "a bit busy "but she was going to do it soon. I saw her several months after that and she told me the same thing.
Anyway, keep up the good work on your blog. I read it every day
Fair question -- I was wondering if anyone would ask!
The day I had this conversation, I set up an automatic monthly donation thing to both MSF and Oxfam. Before then, I'd been a somewhat sporadic donor to MSF and Non-Believers Giving Aid, mostly when there were emergencies. Now it'll be a regular thing, like World Vision was.
I agree that WV is doing some good things. Maybe some not so good things too. We're lucky that we can be so selective about our charities. We can fine tune our donations to target exactly the causes and motivations we want to encourage. What I'd like is for people to think about some of the effects of their donations, and make good choices.
Thanks for commenting. If you're reading every day, I guess I better write something.
I stopped donating to Samaritan's Purse for the same reason -- I didn't want my money going toward proselytization. I now donate to non-religious charities.
ReplyDeleteHi mate,
ReplyDeletelong-time lurker, first time poster :-)
I'm not a Christian myself. I consider myself agnostic or maybe even a pragmatic agnostic going towards atheism. However, world vision Australia does do a lot of good work. I can understand why you don't want to donate to world vision Australia but it is an organization that does a lot of good work [maybe even more so than other charities and organization] maybe it's better to donate?
Just out of curiosity, have you actually donated to other charities you have mentioned?
This post reminds me of a Christian friend who told me that she refuses to purchase the prosh newspaper at uwa because it was "not Christian" and being "vile and disgusting" even though the money from the newspaper goes to several charities. She said that she would rather directly donate to those charities. I saw her several months later and asked her whether she had actually donated to those charities. She said she was "a bit busy "but she was going to do it soon. I saw her several months after that and she told me the same thing.
Anyway, keep up the good work on your blog. I read it every day
Hey, Tony.
ReplyDeleteFair question -- I was wondering if anyone would ask!
The day I had this conversation, I set up an automatic monthly donation thing to both MSF and Oxfam. Before then, I'd been a somewhat sporadic donor to MSF and Non-Believers Giving Aid, mostly when there were emergencies. Now it'll be a regular thing, like World Vision was.
I agree that WV is doing some good things. Maybe some not so good things too. We're lucky that we can be so selective about our charities. We can fine tune our donations to target exactly the causes and motivations we want to encourage. What I'd like is for people to think about some of the effects of their donations, and make good choices.
Thanks for commenting. If you're reading every day, I guess I better write something.
Thanks Daniel :-)
ReplyDeleteI got your blog as an RSS feed! So as soon as you write something… BANG… I'm reading it ;]