Reply #3: It isn't much more than patting oneself on the back, is it? [View All]

[Shadowen]

Still, something (things, actually) always niggled me about the "charity in private" thing. I realized what it was a while ago.

1) Conservatives, in particular conservative Christians, don't seem to obey this. Or, more often, they don't do charity at all.

2) Encouraging people to be quietly charitable seems almost like encouraging people to act like charity is something you should be ashamed of. Like, "Yeah, I'm gay, but I haven't told my parents, or they'll disown me" or "Yeah, I gave $500 to the SPCA, but I'm not gonna tell my buddies, or they'll call me a sissy"--you can do dirty things in private, just don't tell anyone about it.

I mean, it's one thing to wear a sign saying, "I'm a good person and I give money to sick impoverished homeless kids." It's another to tell people about the good feeling being charitable gives you.