Community Conversation - Healing our World: Tzedakah, Zakat, and Charity: What’s next?

Remarks by Rev. Russ Dean

In anticipation of my 40th birthday my wife determined that the best way for me to have a "mid life crisis," was, as she likes to tell it, for her to give it to me. She had been scheming for many weeks before the morning of this auspicious occasion, when she handed me an envelope whose message invited me to join her and the boys on the front sidewalk. When I opened the door, I found a red and black Harley Davidson motorcycle waiting for me. It’s the most foolish thing my wife has ever done. And I approve of it wholeheartedly!

I don’t get to ride often – though if gas stays at $4 a gallon, my congregation is going to have to get used to the look of one of their pastors in black more often! No, I’m not really into all of the Harley garb. (I’m pretty comfortable on mine in a tie!) If you’ve noticed bikers around, you may have noticed that adorning one’s helmet with stickers is a common look. I have only one sticker on my helmet. I’m not particularly found of that trashy multiple-sticker look, and I’ve been hard pressed to find any sticker that a self-respecting Baptist minister would dare apply! My sticker says simply: "Jesus called – and he wants his religion back!"

I was raised the son of a Southern Baptist pastor, in the south, in an era which has, I am afraid, hijacked the religion of Jesus to a great extent, in its own self-righteous zeal. My understanding of faith, as an eager and enthusiastic young disciple, was that it is primarily about what we believe. Revival preachers talked of coming to a "saving knowledge" of Jesus, as if all that is important about faith is to be contained within the gray matter between our ears. It is a faith which celebrates "orthodoxy" (right thinking) over "orthopraxy" (right practice).

Through the critical thinking and careful nudging of many faithful mentors, I have come to believe that this emphasis is wrong – even detrimental to the expression of the religion of Jesus. I have come to see salvation as not a decision of the mind (what I believe) but as a life long process of seeking after that greatest commandment: Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength – a commandment which can perhaps really be shown only as we keep that second command which Jesus likened unto this one: And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The love of God, which expresses itself in the love of neighbor, is the heart of Jesus’ religion. Of course, it is a Jewish ethic, and, as our Muslim brothers and sisters also share a reverence for the Hebrew scriptures, it is an ethic which should draw the Abrahamic religions together.

The Apostle Paul said the heart of faith was a "more excellent way" of living, a life given to faith and hope and love. And the greatest of these, is… as I learned this verse as a child, "the greatest is charity." It is unfortunate that we have largely turned love into a sentiment, a mere feeling. And charity into a "handout," which depresses the giver, and disenfranchises the one who receives.

If my etymology is correct, charity is related to the Greek work "charis," which means grace. Charity becomes more than a handout when the giver realizes the many ways that he or she has been a recipient of grace in this life, and giving becomes a genuine response to that grace. God forbid that we each get only what we deserve in this life, or what we can rightfully earn. Every life of success and fulfillment is a life filled with grace – each of us is a recipient.

Christian faith is built on the conviction that in Jesus, we have come to know a God who goes far beyond the legalisms of what is earned, and what is deserved. We have known a God who charity, whose charisma, whose grace – and whose grace, alone – is sufficient.

If Jesus were here tonight – perhaps he would have arrived on a Harley! – but I am sure that he would call us back to a religion built on that more excellent way… The way of faith, and hope, and charis – charity – which is mutually a beneficial way of life. Giver and receiver, together, knowing God’s abundance.

What is the view of your faith regarding money and wealth?

For the love of money is the root of all evil.

(Not money, but the "love of money")… money is always cast in a suspect light… Jesus had little good to say about the rich… yet I do not believe he threw a blanket of criticism… You cannot serve God and mammon/money

Do you believe tithing/giving is an important part of religion? If so, do most people follow this principle? Why or why not?

Fully! And most don’t follow! Give 10% SOMEWHERE!

What percentage of your congregation’s budget goes to charity?

Aim of 10%... biblical goal…

Is there a moral inconsistency when people of faith live in million dollar homes while 5,000 people in Charlotte remain homeless?

Moral inconsistency… yet always difficult to criticize… Is a $200k house any different? A $50k house? Faith should call us to live with the tension of what we have in light of those who do not have.

Is there a difference in our responsibility to provide assistance to those in Charlotte versus those in Dafur, Myramar, etc? How do you prioritize local versus national and global needs?

Need global vision…

Is charity an interfaith issue or an issue for congregations to address individually? What do we get by making it an interfaith effort?

A primary cause for working together…