Should I Give to Starving Kids If the Cash Is Going to Terrorists? My Response
— Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 —
A while back I posted this emailed ethics question and invited you to think through it with me. In the meantime, some providence interrupted my life (more on that later) and I’m just now getting to it. Here’s the question again, and my response.
Dear Dr. Moore,
As a missionary in a West African country, I’m in a difficult situation. Here poverty is everywhere, and many people sell their young boys to the Taliban leaders at the various mosques. These half naked boys are sent into the streets to beg with a large tomato can and a stick. They are truly hungry and afraid; that was obvious to me. The Christians here have explained that if the boys do not collect enough money, they are not fed and beaten—sometimes worse.
What should I do? Should I give the boys money for the Taliban hoping they will be safe? Should I refuse to support a group that proudly murders knowing that the precious eyes you are refusing could be beaten without my help?
Sincerely,
On Mission
Dear OM,
Now that’s a hard one.
It’s a hard question because I’m not sure, first of all, whether it is known that all of these children are being used by Taliban leaders in this way or just that this does happen from time to time. If the latter, it could be similar to the kind of “He’ll just use it to buy liquor and drugs” argument against giving to the homeless in the United States. Let’s assume, though, the assessment here is exactly on target: these children are being raised and profited from by Islamic terrorists.
Scripture tells us we are to care for the widows and orphans in their distress (Jas. 1:27). You’re face to face with a lot of them, right now. In caring for orphans and widows, Christians should work for justice on both the macro and the micro levels. These levels aren’t ultimately in conflict with one another, though they may seem to be in the short term.
On the micro side of things, these children are going to grow up, typically, with a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. They’re going to see their captors as sympathetic figures because these terrorists are the ones who fed them and clothed them (all the while brutalizing them). Here is a perversion of the design God has embedded in the creation, that children should identify with those who feed and clothe them.
If all these children see, when they think of followers of Jesus, are the people who avert their eyes from them in need, such will only fuel their suffering and their identification with these oppressive terror cells.
When faced with individual children in need, I think you should give money when you can. All the while telling them that you’re doing so in Jesus’ name. But that’s no solution to the problem.
At the macro level, though, you don’t want to prop up the kind of satanic economy that is enabling this. Why are parents giving their children to these terrorist groups to rear? It’s because they are economically without options.
It seems to me, if this situation is systemic in your area, that God is calling followers of Christ to start some Christ-focused children’s homes and orphanages. Counter the terror with homes the West Africans around you can see are clearly kind and loving to children. Invest your time, long term, in building a ministry that includes skill training, vocational counseling, agricultural support.
If you don’t have the means to do this, appeal to your sending agency to give you help. If they won’t, go around them and appeal to the churches.
And pray for the day when radical Muslims are asking why they don’t have children left to exploit anymore.
What about you? Do you have a question for me to answer about some ethical decision? Email it to me at questions@russellmoore.com.
Years ago, my mother was in China and encountered a similar situation, only the money the kids got begging would go to fund drug and prostitution rings. A group of Christians tried to skirt the problem by giving the children food, but since well-fed children aren’t as pitiful on the street as gaunt, hollow-eyed ones, the children’s “pimp” took the eldest sibling and broke his legs. The day that child was returned to the streets to beg, a group of Christians kidnapped all the children and spent the next few months hiding them and finding homes for them. That’s an extreme course of action but, in that case, I think, a necessary one.
Praise God for people who wrestle with how to be godly in every context and refuse to allow their consciences to be seared.
Wow, that is quite the question. It seems issues like this come up often though, even if perhaps not to the same extreme. I’ve found in my personal giving, it’s usually best to give with liberality, trusting God with the consequences. Still, it can be extremely difficult, and often “trusting God with the consequences” can turn into an excuse for a lack of responsibility.
Thank you for writing about it. It’s certainly thought provoking (and makes me wonder why I don’t give more since I don’t usually have such extreme stakes in the decision).
-Marshall Jones Jr.
May stories like this bring us to our knees in prayer, ” give me children to love Lord, give me people to give my money to, Lord. Have mercy on these children”. As Christians may we rise up and support missionaries in these situations and may we jump to action ourselves. There are so many needs, and so few helpers! May we weep for these litle ones who need our help, and may our weeping move us to action!
Although I live in Australia now, I grew up in Africa and trained as a social worker there. I have not been back in 15 years but I am still in touch with work there and I am continually shocked by the stories of the detoriation of services to orphans- the exception….there are two lots of well run orphanages in Southern Africa… ones run by Christians, the others run by Muslims. In Southern Africa the Muslims seem to put far more money into ‘their children’ than we do. Something is not right. The Muslms put heaps of money into communties and schools too, but then ‘their children’ are being taught everything of their religion. The Christian orphanages always struggle financially. We do indeed need more Christian orphanages in Africa. And I believe we need find a better way of providing for them though. I think buying functional farms that will fully provide for a 100 kids or more can be a solution , with widows are real mothers is a solution. That way ongoing fundraising is not necessary. It is expensive initially but good use of money in the long run. Lets get more passionate about helping and supporting missionaries at ground zero…their hands are tied unless we ‘back home’ do more giving!
@Joy Murray,
Further, see an very sad article about Muslim work in South Africa in the March/April edition of this magazine.
http://barnabasfund.org/AU/Resources/Barnabas-Aid-magazine/
An interesting article in an Istanbul [Turkey] english-language newspaper:
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-198387-demand-must-be-curbed-to-stop-kids-working-in-streets.html