(July 5, 2017 at 10:47 pm)The Valkyrie Wrote: What is often forgotten, with these religious charities, and I've heard a number of cases of this happening, is that they use the desperation of the needy people to push their religion on them. "Here's some food, but before we eat it we're going to read from the bible..."
Conditional charity is NOT charity.
You are using hearsay, here's a fact for you. One of the men I use to attend church with and who spent a lot of out of pocket money in Haiti for food, medicine and even cars so people could get around better in the service of the poor. He told me that people must first be feed and shown that you have their interest at heart before they will listen to anything someone has to say. So no, there is no conditional charity, it's serving God by serving those to whom God sends us. Missionaries have to raise there own funds to go into the field that isn't a bill the churches pay, there's a reason for it but you probably wouldn't care or understand. Raising the money to travel to other countries takes a great amount of time and effort on their part, missionaries sacrifice much to help others and you think lowly of them, sad. Missionaries often sale their homes and most their worldly belongings to serve and when they come back home for a rest they must depend on others to help them, giving them a place to stay and food, it's one of the most difficult lives one could live and most of the rewards they receive come from the thanks of the people they serve and possibly a small gift. Then there is whatever God does for them. These people risk their lives in service of others and they are the real heroes on the real front lines. The modern day church has built schools and educated more people than many countries have. God sends us to the down trodden because He came and lived and die for the down trodden. We care about others because it's what our Savior has done for us.
GC
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.