Charity & Justice for All

Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, the word 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮 fell out of favor. The language of 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚 rightfully took its place in how people approached serving one another.

The understanding was like an awakening to the truth that people didn’t need a handout by benevolent do-gooders. The systems and inequalities handed down for centuries demanded justice. 

Justice felt strong where charity felt weak.

Justice felt respectful where charity felt patronizing.

Justice seemed committed to long-term change where charity felt unpredictable, even fickle.

But, there is something missing in the idea of justice without charity.

Dorothy Day, in her radical vision of justice, said charity, like mercy, is twice blessed as it honors the givers and receivers. Ghandi expressed that it’s not the sum given, but the manner in which it is bestowed.

Charity has a place as a lavish means of doing justice. Charity acknowledges the truth that the giver needs mercy. In the oldest traditions of religion, people paid alms before worship, not for the sake of justice, but to show gratitude for the mercy they have received. When I began Thistle Farms, I wrote that if people gave in gratitude for the mercy they have known, we would have enough to love lavishly. 

I do not think it is charity verses justice, I think our charitable alms are part of the work of justice.

Howard Thurman, the grandfather of the Civil Rights movement, dedicated a book to a stranger who offered him charity as a teenager. The act didn’t right the injustices of Jim Crow on his life, but a small gift kept Thurman in school so he could help change the world. Thurman said that it is only in giving that we feel truly alive.