In the fundy worldview, there is nothing worse than a happy, healthy, and contented sinner. For unless the lost are miserable, sick, and hungry how are they to understand how very bad they have been and turn to the fundy for help? Far be it from the fundamentalist to get between a sinner and the perceived punishment for his sin.
Understanding this desire for sinners to live in misery and squalor is key to understanding the fundamentalist view of how charity should be dispensed. For what does it profit to feed the hungry or bind up the wounded if all if does is permit them to go back to their godless existence with a full stomach and freedom from pain? Sinners should suffer until they at last come crawling into the fold, with words of sorrow on their lips.
Any act of charity that is not bait for a gospel trap is all but worthless in fundyland. God may send rain on both the just and unjust but the fundamentalist is often loath to dispense kindness and mercy in the same fashion.
It’s the time of year when people are in a giving spirit. Whether they’re in pursuit of good karma, tax breaks, or just old fashioned goodwill toward men, folks are breaking out the check books and giving of their time. For the average fundamentalist, however, attempting to give to charity is a sticky situation. For to them, giving of one’s money is tantamount to an endorsement of everything that organization has ever done, said, or created in macramé.
So what if there is not a fundamentalist organization working with the homeless in your town? Sorry, fellas! Until that homeless shelter gets right and stops using the NIV in its devotionals, you’ll get no soup from us!
Thinking about giving some time at the local pregnancy crisis center? You can’t do that because it’s run by Catholics! What those pregnant women really need is an old fashioned altar not some dress-wearing papist priest, amen?
Out of options for where to give? There is always the local church building fund…
A silly blog dedicated to Independent Fundamental Baptists, their standards, their beliefs, and their craziness.