Review: Toxic Charity
Mixing justice and mercy
Many of the reviews written of Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help by Robert Lupton state that the book is controversial. As I read many of these reviews I noticed they still gave the book 4/5 or 5/5 stars. It seems that this may be the case because reading Toxic Charity is a wake-up call for many. Lupton proposes that our short-term mission trips or charitable donations could be hurting more than they are helping. No one likes to hear that what we have done for centuries is hurting.
Lupton’s thesis is that freely giving through charity or mission trips encourages a state of dependency upon those whom we are striving to serve. Lupton demonstrates this point in several ways throughout the book. One of the primary discussions is about our apprehensiveness to give money to strangers on the street because of a fear of being conned. Lupton states, “Could it be a righteous response in our spirits cautioning us to avoid irresponsible giving that harms both recipient and giver?” (44).
In regards to short-term mission trips, Lupton asserts that we should simply admit that mission trips are more for those doing the serving rather than those being served. He recounts a village that has a well built for them and year after year the same group comes back to fix the well. The people in the village have water but they also have a dependency on this group to fix and maintain their well year after year. Whereas a neighboring village had a mission team come in and teach them how to dig the well and run the water. This village now profits from giving water to other villages and can pay workers to fix the well.
Lupton is a proponent of teaching a man to fish instead of simply giving a man a fish.
This book is controversial because people do not like hearing the way they have done it is not the best way to do it. It must be noted that while I believe Lupton’s concerns to be valid; his research is not. The largest frustration I have from this book is that Lupton gave many statistics and did not give a source for any of them. It is difficult to know how much weight should be put into his proposed problems when we can’t know for sure if his research is true.
This book is useful in creating a dialogue with others on the best ways to serve others in the community. Unfortunately, it also deals primarily with what is wrong with charitable giving but only offers abstract ideas of how to fix them. This could be because each community and case is different. Nonetheless, it would be beneficial to have been given concrete ideas of ways to turn toxic charity into life-giving charity more than the abstract stories that were told.
Lupton’s point is that we should serve and love those who need to be served and loved but our greatest way of love is helping others grow into self-sufficiency.
Main Take-Away
Early on in the book Lutpon creates a discussion about justice and mercy. His premise is that charity is often misguided because it deals heavily with mercy but fails in the area of justice. Whereas people are often turned off to charity because they are focused on justice and fail to show mercy. Lupton asks, “What good is a sandwich and a cup of soup when a severe addiction has control of a man’s life?” (41) Are we truly doing justice for that man if we are only focused on mercy? Furthermore, can we truly have mercy without any justice? Lupton asserts that the Bible places equal emphasis on both mercy and justice (41).
I did not fully grasp the idea of this discussion until a few days ago when I was listening to “Turn Your Eyes” by Sovereign Grace Music.
VERSE 1
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
VERSE 2
Turn your eyes to the hillside
Where justice and mercy embraced
There the Son of God gave His life for us
And our measureless debt was erased
Justice and mercy embraced.
This song looks not only to the past where Jesus died for us but also the present and future where we are daily being transformed and saved by the sacrifice of Christ. Where justice and mercy are embraced on the cross. Where the sin debt was paid by our savior so that we don’t have to face the eternal consequences of sin. Also, where mercy was seen in full where what we deserved was taken away from us.
While this is a past event, it has eternal ramifications. Now, because sin is still in this world we look for the day where justice and mercy are balanced for good by the God of this universe. This is the problem that creates toxic charity. We are trying to balance justice and mercy and we aren’t very good at it. We get bogged down with life and no matter how hard we try we inevitably want to show mercy to those we like more than those we don’t and show justice to those who have wronged us more than those we see as innocent.
In the end, I have an appreciation for this book because it helped me process justice and mercy and encouraged me to look towards the return of Jesus.
Notable Quotes
“There is no simple or immediate way to discern the right response without a relationship.” (48)
"Supporting immorality, laziness, or destructive behavior is simply irresponsible and clearly not a loving act." (46)
“Justice without mercy is cold and impersonal, more concerned about rights than relationships.” (41)
“When a church makes decisions about serving others, are the ones being served the urban poor or the church?” (74)
“A hunger-free zone may be possible, but developing the dependency-free zone is the real challenge.” (101)