Jack’s Winning Words 7/23/15
“A bone to the dog is not charity.  Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog.”  (Jack London)  The word charity means more than giving to the poor; it’s the practice of following the Godly example of showing kindness and love to those who need it.  Jews call it, tzedakah; Muslims refer to it as, zakat.  To the IRS, it’s 501 (c) (3).  We can’t answer every request for help, but it is a virtue to be willing to help some.    ;-)  Jack

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  I once wrote a piece seeking to differentiate between charity and justice.   i.e.,  giving a hungry man a meal in a soup kitchen is charity.  giving a man a job so that he can buy his own soup at the store is justice.  the church does charity quite well.  but good government is often needed to ensure justice for the poor.====JACK:  To understand that we are all poor...in some way, is to understand that we all need charity.  Some call that charity, grace.

FROM HY YO SILVER:  Nice!  FYI: the Hebrew word for charity literally means righteousness.====JACK:  You can tell that I never studied for a bar mitzvah.  I'm pleased to see that you have remembered some of what you learned at age (  ).

FROM GOOD DEBT JON:  I like the Aquinas view that charity is our chance to act in God's place. As inadequate as we are at times, we are the body, hands, and feet of God...My wife said it relates widows mite, the spirit of giving from the heart not duty. She's probably right, as usual.  From Wikipedia:  In Christian theology charity, Latin caritas, is by Thomas Aquinas understood as "the friendship of man for God", which "unites us to God". He holds it as "the most excellent of the virtues".[1] Further, Aquinas holds that "the habit of charity extends not only to the love of God, but also to the love of our neighbor".[2]  Some[who?] delineate charity to mean only benevolent giving, while others, such as Roman Catholics, have multiple interrelated meanings (i.e. charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God[3]).====JACK:  With all the charity requests that we receive these days, I think that the root meaning of the word has been lost in the shuffle.  Both you and your wife have re-captured it.  The widow was putting into action what God would (and did) do.

FROM TARMART REV:  Well, then-- I will always have a bone to pick with you, John Jack Freed!!====JACK:  I don't believe it's sanitary to gnaw on the same bone.  But, I guess, if you're hungry enough, you don't care about such things.

FROM HAWKEYE GEORGE:  Thanx for the WW today. It will be in today's CBS.====JACK:  It might be interesting for your Study Group to discuss what charity means to them.  Is it a religious, moral, political action?  Is need the only requirement...without asking too many questions, trying to justify the action?

FROM RS IN TEXAS:  From what we heard while we were in Canada, there are very few truly poor people there.  Not sure all the reasons why, but it seems we are moving toward a larger and larger share of our population living below the poverty level, while the super rich get richer (at least in terms of money).====JACK:  Sometimes statistics (or unsubstantiated examples) can be used to justify inaction, as we see too often in today's political arena.  Wherever there are the "truly poor," there is need.  The question is...What shall we do about it?

FROM RI IN BOSTON:  Many people have a dog (or dogs) these days, and with most of them the care and love for the dogs is unbounded.  Let's hope that those same people are equally willing to share care and love for the humans around them.====JACK:  US News calls your new dog "A Money Pit," with expenses averaging $1500 a year.  Now let's take a look at what we spend each year on human charities.  That much?====RI:  You bring up a good point.  I wasn't mindful of such costs.  My neighbor did tell me he spent $2500 for his dog's cancer treatment prior to the dog's death.  ====JACK:  We each make our choices.  It’s said that when you point a finger at someone, you have 3 pointing back at you.

FROM DR JUDY:  Loved your humor on this one!====JACK:  I like my humor, wry.

FROM SBP IN FLORIDA:  Musing about today's WW. Paul, in Corinthians 1.13 used the phrase "and now abide faith, hope, and love these three; but the greatest of these is love." And in some versions the word "charity" is used in lieu of "love". So many ramifications of these two words used interchangeably. And I'm comfortable with that.====JACK:  I think that "Main Street" misses the meaning of both words...in the etymological sense.  But, I guess the choice of words and the meaning of them is up to the user.