Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 1 Peter 3:8
John Agresto comments. “Accounts of those offering “help” to the homeless provide pleasant glows, but they end up harming the poor.”… “Unlike compassion, sentimentality makes us feel good. We feel warm all over and lumpy in the throat. We can get rid of it with a good cry. Through it we enjoy a glow of feeling without incurring a debt of obligation. Unlike compassion, sentimentality is often easy and pleasant.”…
Marvin Olasky adds. “They lead good-hearted citizens to offer medicine more likely to harm than help. Those who want to help the homeless often work hard, sometimes as volunteers, to open new shelters.”
But Gina Kolata notes. “Shelters only make the drug problem among the homeless worse. Although shelters are supposed to be drug free, drug use is often open and widespread… Many shelter residents actually have jobs, but they spend all their money on drugs.”
John Agresto in “Educating About Compassion” in American Education (Summer, 1982: 20) and Gina Kolata, New York Times (22 May 1989: Al) as referenced by Marvin Olasky in The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky (Washington DC: Regnery, 2022) 213.
As I near the end of this book, I discovered an important distinction from Agresto.
We must avoid sentimentality and pursue compassion. The former makes us feel good but as little impact. The latter may be hard work that does not feel very good but promises long-term impact.
It feels good to set up a shelter and let someone else help the needy.
All over the world I see sentimental handouts creating unhealthy dependency. As Olasky and Kolata added pointedly, these handouts also promote abuse and the opposite behavior we hope to nurture.
Please only support ministries that give a compassionate hand up to build disciples.