charity, november 2004

as foretold last month, america’s second harvest was this month’s charity of choice.

i suppose i’ve never written why it is that i give so much and so often to charity. what was interesting when getting my taxes done is that the accountant nailed it — it is tithing. but being a non-religious person, i obviously don’t tithe to a church.

it’s the sort of thing that i think is important when people are tithing to churches that preach fear and hatred, and do not have good works as an essential part of their mission — the sort of churches that drove massive turnout and resulted in 11 states preventing gay couples from having the same rights as married couples. (i’m not saying that all churches preach fear and hatred, or that there aren’t churches that have good works as an essential part of what they do. but keep in mind i’m working from a non-secular definition of good works: faith and evangelism aren’t included. obviously i don’t agree with luther here.)