![\"Fred](\"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-content\/uploads\/fred2.jpg\" "\\"Fred")
<\/a>Along this line, you may have noted the new item I’ve added to the sidebar: The Humanity List.\u00a0<\/em> This is my small way of acknowledging some of the wonderfully compassionate, other-centered people of my time who show what I (or anyone) might accomplish, if I (in my case) had the skills and character and made a more-than-modest effort to apply them.<\/p>\nPeople like these make our world more livable, by their example as much as by their works.\u00a0 The Humanity List<\/em> confers no honor to them — it just keeps their names close by.<\/p>\n My list is sure to grow with time as I add people and groups I’ve overlooked.\u00a0 One person I have not overlooked is Donald Trump, a man who throws cheap insults at others to make himself look grand — and who encourages his supporters to do the same.\u00a0 Mr. Trump will not be listed, nor will the temperate Mr. Cruz, the soft-spoken Mr. Christie or the\u00a0genteel Ms. Fiorina, who recently used pre-school children as unwitting props for an anti-abortion fundraiser<\/a>.\u00a0 These people want power more than they want to do good, any and all pledges to restore American greatness notwithstanding.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u2022\u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n It may be uncharitable of me to continue in this vein, but another group I will not be adding to The Humanity List<\/em> is the Scottsdale (Arizona) Bible Church.\u00a0 I single them out because I stumbled upon them, not because they are unique.\u00a0 Every year, Scottsdale Bible Church sends a team of medical professionals and other volunteers<\/a> on a one-week sojourn to a “mission hospital” in Yucatan, Mexico.\u00a0 The specific goals of the July 2015 mission were to provide medical\/dental care, build a play area, and do outreach in the nearby villages<\/em>.\u00a0 (Their goals for 2016 are identical.)\u00a0 Which of these goals do you think is most important to the members of the mission team?<\/p>\n I’ll give you a few hints.\u00a0 First, this account from the 2014 mission<\/a>: “Our medical team provided care for over 100 diabetic patients.\u00a0 We provided all the supplies and medication needed for them for the next 12 months and the local pastors will be helping us do follow up, sharing the gospel with the patients on a personal level<\/em>.” [Emphasis added.]<\/p>\n Next, one participant’s reflections on the 2015 mission: “Our group comprised many skill sets and avenues of ministry including children’s Bible school, sports camps, eyeglass fittings, a diabetes clinic, and, of course, the medical center, but the overarching goal was to share the good news of Jesus with the local population.”<\/em>\u00a0 [Likewise.] It is not just poor taste to harbor hidden agendas (in this case, personal salvation) while making a show of helping others.\u00a0 It is a deception to pretend to serve someone else when one’s real mission is to serve oneself.\u00a0 People don’t like to be deceived, or used.<\/p>\n Most corporations are wise to this [1<\/a>] and take considerably more care than Scottsdale Bible Church to conceal the baser motives for their social action, lest they alienate their customers.\u00a0 But hold on — when did the idea of doing well by doing good<\/em> become a sin, especially here in the Our Lady of Liberty Capitalist Church [2<\/a>]?\u00a0 Why should I question do-gooding by evangelists or by corporations, as long as the good gets done?\u00a0 Why does motive matter?<\/p>\n ISIS<\/a>, Hamas<\/a> and Hezbollah<\/a> also feed people and provide social services.\u00a0 But those groups, because of their motives, will never be remembered as humanitarians.\u00a0 Enough said?<\/p>\n \u2022 \u2022\u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n One other person who will not make the list is me: I sacrifice too little, moralize too much.\u00a0 Can you imagine how intolerable my sermons would be if I were even a little religious?\u00a0 (May God see to it that such misfortune never befalls us.)\u00a0 In the meantime, it would not be beyond me to find creative ways to help others, instead of simply writing checks.<\/p>\n I probably heard it decades ago in some stone-walled Presbyterian church, the idea that a person should give a gift and then walk away — otherwise it is not a gift but a transaction.\u00a0 This perspective has stuck with me.\u00a0 If you want to exit this world with clean hands and a clear conscience, my concise advice is: do good and be done with it.<\/p>\n Here we are, friends and readers, in the final year of Barack Obama’s quixotic quest to place \u00e9galit\u00e9 and fraternit\u00e9 on equal footing with libert\u00e9 in this republic.\u00a0 Yes,\u00a0racism persists, Guantanamo remains open, and common ground in American politics has … Continue reading
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>The most revealing clue is this list of nine goals<\/a> (Why We Go<\/em>) on the Scottsdale Bible Church website (click image).\u00a0 The objectives for the mission teams are described in 100-plus words.\u00a0 Of those words, only three — heal the hurting<\/em> — refer to doing good for others.\u00a0 And this scant acknowledgement does not even show up until the end, almost as an aside.<\/p>\n__________________<\/h5>\n
[1] Consider these findings<\/a> from a 2015 study by Alexander Chernev and Sean Blair, titled Doing Well by Doing Good: The Benevolent Halo of Corporate Social Responsibility<\/a><\/em>:<\/h5>\n
“A product is perceived to perform better when it is made by a socially responsible firm.”<\/h5>\n
“The positive effect of social goodwill on product performance beliefs is inversely related to the extent to which social goodwill is associated with the product.\u00a0 Thus, the positive impact of social goodwill is greatest when it is unrelated to the product (as in the case of monetary contributions to socially responsible causes).”<\/h5>\n
“The benevolent halo effect is a function of consumer beliefs about a firm\u2019s motivation, such that it is attenuated when consumers suspect that the social goodwill is motivated by self-interest.”<\/h5>\n
Corporations surely take these findings into account when putting together their social-responsibility portfolios. Not surprisingly, it is in a company’s self-interest to conceal from its customers all evidence of its self-interest — otherwise, doing good may not lead to its doing well.<\/h5>\n
[2] “Trust in the Lord, and do good, and dwell in the land, and thou shalt be fed with its riches.” – Psalm 36:3 of the Douay\u2013Rheims Bible<\/a> (1586).\u00a0 Another do-good-and-do-well deal is found in Matthew 6:3 (<\/span>CEV, 1991):\u00a0 “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,<\/span> so that your giving may be in secret.\u00a0 <\/span>And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”<\/span> \u00a0 Sort of like getting cash back on the credit card you used to make a charitable donation.<\/span>
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