Josh wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 11:33 am
Ernie wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:09 pm
Josh wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:00 am
As I keep pointing out, most Haitians are very anti-kidnappings and don’t want violent gangsters to keep getting more money and control.
Giving them $17 million is inherently immoral.
Yes, doing so is wrong and immoral and something Christians missionaries should never do.
This is not something that I view the same way. There are many considerations, but four of them are:
1. Are people responsible for their own actions, or others actions?
2. The question at hand here, is the use of money. Is there a uniqueness to the money that may lead to different conclusions than, say influencing someone to do good, or wicked?
3. To what extent is this reciprocal?
4. Am I only responsible for what I do, or also for what happens if I choose to do nothing?
Personally, I lean heavier toward personal responsibility and less on shared culpability. I agree that to some extent, we do have a responsibility for the repercussions of our actions. Things that come to mind, are the verses that teach about the responsibility church leaders have to their flocks well being; and the duty of parents to teach their children right from wrong. But these two examples are both situations where there is an authority & responsibility, which we do not necessarily share in the same way to all people outside the household of faith. The responsibility we have to the broader world is different. For example, we are responsible to share truth with them, but we are not responsible for what they do with that knowledge.
I believe when it comes to money, there is a lot less shared culpability than the examples I gave above. Personally, I don't believe that in the course of daily living, I am responsible for what a person does with the money that I give them after it leaves my hand. From an employee choosing to spend his money on drugs or alcohol, to what a service provider spends his profits on, that is his responsibility. We are not guilty for their spending. We can consider what the Bible teaches about paying taxes. We know that the government will use some of the money for evil. Yet, nonetheless, we are instructed to give them the money anyway.
If we are responsible for the use of money after it leaves our hands, then are people who have paid us for services and goods and wages also responsible for what we do with "our" money? If we do good with the money in our possession, does some...."cosmic magic" happen that somehow bestows....."honor" or something on the person we received the money from? And how many links backwards and forward does this association go? The money I receive all goes into one account. If I do good with some of the money, and evil with some of the money, does the people who gave me the money split the guilt and blessings as well? Exactly how does the accounting work? If the kidnappers already have $10 million in their account and I give them another $1 million.....And they spend 10% of their revenue on their neighborhood in the form of humanitarian aid, do I get to claim that was mine? The truth is, once I give it, the money is theirs. Am I culpable for what happens next? Maybe. Hardly.
If I am responsible for some extent what happens if I give them money, then I am also responsible for some extent to what happens if I withhold money. See the rich man and Lazarus. It is a matter of commission vs. omission. If I keep money, and my neighbor starves to death because I withheld money, it is similar to withholding ransom and allowing someone to be killed.
I think at the end of it all, we can't simply take one side and say that to pay the ransom is wrong, but to not pay the ransom is right. We either bear some responsibility with both options, or we bear no responsibility on either option.
I personally have long ago determined that by and large I am responsible for the money while I am in possession of it and not after or before. I give money to panhandlers too.
I am not saying that I bear zero responsibility for what someone does with the money I give them. But I believe it is mighty small. And in this case pales in comparison to the weight of the other factors in play. I am also responsible for what I don't do.