Fear of Clowns

Recently I've read Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the Gospel of Matthew, and the news. Also recently, I took part in a stunt that involved eating at 22 restaurants in a single day.

From these and other experiences over the last several months, I've begun to believe I ought to be doing more in the service of others, particularly concerning those who have the least. How is it moral for me to have any luxuries at all when hundreds of millions of mothers across the world can't find for their babies a cup of water uncontaminated by mud or human feces?

I don't have the answer and I don't have the skills to directly help people who lack basic sanitation and medical care, all I can do is try to help from afar. I do have to "live on a budget", but can still frequently afford myself luxuries. A month or so ago, I thought perhaps I ought to keep a jar in which I would place a bit of money each time I buy some sort of thing I don't need: $2 each time I go out to a bar, $1 each time I eat in a restaurant, some coin change when I get food to go, something like that. Donate the money to an international relief fund occasionally. Last night, after taking the picture of my sandwich and chips from the convenience store, I started my piggy jar,

A few nights ago I brought up the "millions of children without clean water" observation during a conversation with a friend about religion. She thought a function of religion was to make people feel guilty so they could be controlled. Maybe so, maybe that is a function of a lot of organized religions. I know that a decade or so ago when I went in to talk to my parent's pastor about my decision to stop going to church, he kept on talking about sin. Why would I want to follow a religion that emphasizes that I should feel like a "sinner"?

Within the last year, I've revisited the canonical Gospels around which Christianity is allegedly based, and I don't see any evidence Jesus wanted his followers to feel guilty or sinful. Rather, he gave an example of a moral life, asked that everybody love one another as he loved his disciples, admonished attachment to worldly riches, and counseled to help the poor and sick out of compassion. Following that example ought not lead to feelings of guilt, but quite the opposite! This is a message useful to all, even apart from a god-belief. It's simply a fine humanitarian message.

Being charitable ought to be done of rational compassion: we all have a conscience and we all are rational. In our interconnected world, there are many whose very basic needs are simply not being met. If I put a small amount of money aside when I purchase a luxury good or service, it's not an atonement for guilt, but an acknowledgment that "I have plenty, many have want," and an action based upon that understanding.

If I didn't live on a budget, I could probably just write checks to charities, but by keeping this jar, I now won't just think "Ought I be spending money at a bar tonight?" but instead, "Do I have enough money to be spending some at a bar and contributing a little to those who have less?"

Anyway, maybe more later, but now I have to get ready to go out for sushi in celebration of a friend's birthday ... probably put tonight on my credit card as I don't really have enough to be spending $30 on a meal right now!

// posted by Erik @ 3/31/2005 05:00:00 PM
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