{"id":10660,"date":"2013-07-23T11:17:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T15:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/?p=10660"},"modified":"2017-01-26T17:30:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T22:30:00","slug":"if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html","title":{"rendered":"If I Don’t Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2026 I\u2019ll admit it; I like facebook. Probably a bit too much. I contend it\u2019s not all bad. People request prayers, post nun pictures, and share inspiring quotes (yes, even trite cliches). You just have to take it for what it is and remember to stay out of comment battles and no one gets hurt. <\/p>\n

So anyway, Elizabeth Scalia<\/a> was sharing quotes about the Church and posted this; <\/p>\n

One of the good things about a Catholic church is that it isn\u2019t respectable; you can find anyone in it, from duchesses to whores, from tramps to kings. \u2013 Rumer Godden, In This House of Brede<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gregory Popcak<\/a> replied with another quote, one of my favorites regarding the universal nature of the Church; <\/p>\n

\u201cHere comes everybody.\u201d \u2013 James Joyce<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which reminded me of the first time I started attending mass as a non-Catholic in Nashville, TN. Some amazing things were experienced in that church, one being the welcomed attitude towards the city\u2019s homeless. I had never in my life walked into a church with such a bizarre mix of congregants. The only other experience that comes close was attending mass in Rome where penitents crawled on their knees from end of the church to the next while a group of pilgrims prayed the rosary in Spanish over a man in the wheelchair at the back of the church.<\/p>\n

In my old Pentecostal<\/a> church in Birmingham, Al, someone homeless and scruffy would have been chased out with a broom as a loitering vagrant. In the Catholic Church no one batted an eye or asked them to leave. <\/p>\n

Which brings me to gentrified Charlotte, NC. A Southern city full of charm with it\u2019s fair share of the homeless, who can often be found pan-handling in church parking lots. I never even gave their presence a pause. Some one needs money. I have some extra money in my wallet. What\u2019s there to think about? You give. <\/p>\n

Imagine my surprise one week when I saw in the bulletin an announcement discouraging us from giving them money. We were instead to direct them to the parish office who will then direct them to the Society of St. Vincent DePaul. When did acts of charity become so bureaucratic? Never mind that on a typical Sunday the parish offices are closed. Whatever their immediate needs are would just have to wait. <\/p>\n

Um, no. Look, I appreciate the sentiment of the local Catholic community. I completely understand that some people prefer to give to organizations directly then to the homeless at the corner because they fear that money will be used on drugs and booze. <\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the God\u2019s honest thing about that; sometimes giving a few dollars to the beggar in the church parking lot is the only chance I\u2019ll get all week to do something decent for another human being. Don\u2019t take that away from me and don\u2019t condescend the homeless by making them jump through hoops to get a handout. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nBartholomeus van Bassen, The parable of the rich man and Lazarus<\/p>\n

What they do with the money you give isn\u2019t really your business anyway. In the end, you\u2019ll be judged by your actions alone, whether you chose to help or not. And as terrible as I am, I need for God to see me slipping that homeless guy a $5. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026 I\u2019ll admit it; I like facebook. Probably a bit too much. I contend it\u2019s not all bad. People request prayers, post nun pictures, and share inspiring quotes (yes, even trite cliches). You just have to take it for what it is and remember to stay out of comment battles and no one gets hurt. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,248,655],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-personal","category-true-story"],"yoast_head":"\nIf I Don't Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"... I'll admit it; I like facebook. Probably a bit too much. I contend it's not all bad. People request prayers, post nun pictures, and share inspiring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If I Don't Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"... I'll admit it; I like facebook. Probably a bit too much. I contend it's not all bad. People request prayers, post nun pictures, and share inspiring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Crescat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-23T15:17:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-26T22:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/files\/2013\/07\/Bartholomeus_van_Bassen_The_Parable_of_the_Rich_Man_and_Lazarus_ca._1620-30..jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katrina Fernandez\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katrina Fernandez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html\",\"name\":\"If I Don't Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-23T15:17:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-26T22:30:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/c9dc4618a6b6ed3f289501dad3a031b2\"},\"description\":\"... I'll admit it; I like facebook. Probably a bit too much. I contend it's not all bad. People request prayers, post nun pictures, and share inspiring\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"If I Don’t Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/\",\"name\":\"The Crescat\",\"description\":\"Fortified with vitamin BXVI. Not a substitute for regular mass attendance. Side effects may include mackerel snapping.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/c9dc4618a6b6ed3f289501dad3a031b2\",\"name\":\"Katrina Fernandez\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63fb79a49cad186031168f8db7e7abe1?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63fb79a49cad186031168f8db7e7abe1?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Katrina Fernandez\"},\"description\":\"Mackerel Snapping Papist\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/author\/thecrescat\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"If I Don't Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested...","description":"... I'll admit it; I like facebook. Probably a bit too much. I contend it's not all bad. People request prayers, post nun pictures, and share inspiring","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"If I Don't Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested...","og_description":"... I'll admit it; I like facebook. Probably a bit too much. I contend it's not all bad. People request prayers, post nun pictures, and share inspiring","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html","og_site_name":"The Crescat","article_published_time":"2013-07-23T15:17:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-26T22:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/files\/2013\/07\/Bartholomeus_van_Bassen_The_Parable_of_the_Rich_Man_and_Lazarus_ca._1620-30..jpg"}],"author":"Katrina Fernandez","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katrina Fernandez","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html","name":"If I Don't Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-07-23T15:17:36+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-26T22:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/c9dc4618a6b6ed3f289501dad3a031b2"},"description":"... I'll admit it; I like facebook. Probably a bit too much. I contend it's not all bad. People request prayers, post nun pictures, and share inspiring","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/2013\/07\/if-i-dont-give-to-beggars-how-will-my-charity-get-tested.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"If I Don’t Give To Beggars How Will My Charity Get Tested…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/","name":"The Crescat","description":"Fortified with vitamin BXVI. Not a substitute for regular mass attendance. Side effects may include mackerel snapping.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/c9dc4618a6b6ed3f289501dad3a031b2","name":"Katrina Fernandez","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63fb79a49cad186031168f8db7e7abe1?s=96&d=retro&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63fb79a49cad186031168f8db7e7abe1?s=96&d=retro&r=g","caption":"Katrina Fernandez"},"description":"Mackerel Snapping Papist","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/author\/thecrescat"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thecrescat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}