Begging, A Perspective: Since the last Update that was partially about beggars, I started checking out the government programs in Dumaguete that assist the poor. I plan on making a map with the 3-4 different places that can help needy people get back on their feet with medical aid, food, and job training. When beggars ask me for money I may just give them a map. We'll see.
I also received quite a few email responses with valuable feedback, wisdom, advice, insight, and interesting stories from PCPhilippines Update readers about how to handle the beggars in Dumaguete. Here are two I found particularly interesting and helpful, both a reflection of using our hearts as well as our heads.
Dear Jacques and Alana,
I would first like to start off by saying I love your Philippines updates. Please continue sending them.
Jacques, I too wrestle with the question (almost daily) concerning panhandlers, beggars, and the poor. I can tell you what helps me is, instead of looking at the question in its entirety, break it down to the definitions of what a panhandler, beggar, and poor person is.
A panhandler is defined as a person who asks for money from others through begging. They will 99% of the time refuse any offering of food or sustenance but will instead insist upon a gift of money. Your example of the man who makes $60-80,000 a year falls into this category.
A beggar is a person who for reasons, many times not known to us, solicits help or assistance (monetary or nutritional) in order to survive. Their circumstances for the actual act of begging are dictated by the fact that they usually have mental or physical abnormalities that inhibit or limit their opportunities in society.
And finally, I consider the poor to be defined as, those groups of people who are working and surviving but making the absolute bare minimum in order to survive.
It is certainly a difficult question we all struggle with. Perhaps, the following excerpts will help with your dilemma.
1. I have experienced aggressive, convincing panhandlers in many situations. I have seen many people standing at interstate exit ramps and elsewhere with signs saying they want work. I am as moved by the needs of truly deserving people as anyone, perhaps more so.
2. For several years I did inner city mission projects and worked closely with ministries in inner cities such as Chicago, Boston and Louisville. I learned a lot, and my responses to those people changed as a result.
- Aggressive panhandlers are almost always professional beggars. Many times they are active and wanted criminals. In the right place with the right approach, they can make several hundred dollars a day. (A seminary class I was in proved this. Students lived on the streets for 24 hours and begged for money and food. The results were amazing.)
- Local police and ministries are almost always familiar with these people. Asking them to come with you to a “Help” Ministry or to a police officer will quickly reveal what is actually going on.
- Aggressive panhandlers have very similar stories involving traveling, ill relatives, hospitals, gas, car repair, being lost, babies, etc.
- Aggressive panhandlers will almost always turn down the invitation to buy them a meal. They insist on quick cash.
- Ministries that deal with this are very clear: Don’t give money to aggressive panhandlers. Report them. They hurt the real work of mercy ministry in a community.
3. Another group of people asking for help will be alcoholics and drug addicts. Again, they almost always insist on cash, and generally will refuse to be taken to a shelter, ministry or police station. It is important not to allow an alcoholic or addict to use Christian compassion to further their addiction. True compassion is to put them in touch with help.
4. Dave Ramsey tells the story of working with his church’s benevolence ministry. They put three guidelines into place for all people asking for financial or food assistance. 1) Work an hour or two at the church. 2) Meet with a member of the church to make out a budget. 3) Attend one church service. Ramsey says that over 95% of persons asking for financial help did not return when these guidelines were given to them. This is a good indicator of the actual makeup of most benevolence requests.
If a person does not believe that prudence and wisdom need to accompany generosity, consider this situation: John and Jenny are at the movies. They come out and a panhandler asks for $20 for gas. Jenny gives it to him and they skip dinner together. The next day, Jenny and John are enrolling in college. A panhandler meets Jenny on the steps of the administration building and asks for $2000 to fly to his mother’s funeral in the Solomon Islands. Jenny has the money in her checkbook. Should she write the check?
If not, why not? If prudence and wisdom should come into play with $2000, then it should also come into play with $20.
5. Money given to aggressive panhandlers is money that can’t be given to the truly poor. Go to any ministry that deals with people who are truly poor. They will tell you that almost none of those poor people would be on the streets begging in America today because of the dangers, the criminal element, and so forth. Addiction, mental illness, con artists, and criminal intent are on most of America’s streets. The truly poor will be known to local shelters, ministries, schools, and social workers. There are many opportunities to give to families and children who truly need the money and would never be begging on the streets with a story such as we commonly hear from panhandlers.
6. Every situation of compassion also has elements of wisdom. My son recently asked me for financial assistance to attend a writer’s workshop. I am not going to automatically give him the money in the name of Christian compassion. I am going to be a good steward and a good manager of what God has given me, and ask questions before giving. This is true at every level of giving. I receive hundreds of appeals every year. Dozens of students and missionaries ask for my support. (Many of them make far more than I do!) I am very selective about whom I give to and I ask many questions before giving. I believe this is God-honoring, as much as the generosity itself.
7. Jesus’ words are meant to underline the compassion and freedom of the Christian. Our generosity is an important expression of our discipleship. At times, we need to give with much less than perfect knowledge, and at times we need to obey the Spirit as he gives opportunity. But we are also to know the “streets and highways” where we are, and we are not to volunteer to be robbed as a witness. Aggressive panhandlers like Sundays, and they like Christians. We need to give them a dollar, a coupon, and a brochure for the local “Help” office. We need to give to the truly needy a gift that will make a difference in their lives.
8. Apply the parenting test. If your child got $50 from grandma, would you tell them to give it to anyone at school who said they needed it? Or would you want some wisdom, prudence, and stewardship to follow their compassion?
9. I know I sound like Scrooge, but I really think stewardship is not just pure generosity. Generosity is an essential component, but it needs to be tempered by prudence, wisdom, and good judgment.
So in short, I hope it helps. Whatever you do, be true to yourself, your heart, and ultimately the Holy Spirit. God bless you both and stay safe!
Love Always,
MTA
Hello lovely you.
I adore your reflections and can't keep up enough on reading them.
Begging. In the US we see this often and usually associated with homelessness. In California after Reagan cut all the mental health institutions the homeless populations increased by close to 80 + percent. There have been other studies that say the majority of the homeless population is caught in cycles of mental illness and addiction. So here in the states, people who are begging may not have the capacity that you and I have to get a job.
Second. I can't imagine how hard it must be to beg for money. I know the times when I had to borrow money, it felt shameful and brought up all my stuff. For those of us that are used to taking care of ourselves begging seems really challenging, maybe harder than working. And basically, beggars are giving off the air of being bottom feeders. They don't get respect, probably don't have healthy connections, and there is such desperation around it.
And. There needs to be all sorts of people. As we all are working out our life lessons and doing what we do and it can be a hard road. I appreciate you knowing that you don't know someone else's experience.
One thing more thing about begging. I think in a moral high ground we think people who are begging must need food, the most basic thing because that is why they are begging. And if they want money but will not take our food we may make judgments about them, i.e., they want money for drugs or alcohol and I will not contribute to that.
What if we open our thinking even more and decided if someone asks us for something, and it is a gift, "Here I am giving you two dollars," then how does it reflect back on us when we decide what they spend it on? "If you want two dollars, you must spend it on food." Well what if their daughter needs medication or they are trying to pay rent, they may not want food. Oftentimes people who are begging are down and out. They might want drugs and alcohol and they might not spend it on food for their kids.
What concerns me across the board it that obviously this begging system is not bringing these folks out of a system of poverty or working with mental illness or addiction. This feels like a huge problem in our culture and obviously in our world. And whether you and I decide to give to it doesn't really solve it, the begging system will continue as long as there are people who are desperate. Begging is a desperate system, stealing is desperate.
Bottom line. What is giving? What is unconditional giving? If I give you a hundred dollars and say you can spend it these three ways, is it a gift or some version of you being indebted to me. I stopped giving presents years ago because I don't want to give people things for the sake of giving (or to feed me in some way). I want to give in a way that is unconditional. And I will continue to ask myself when I hand a beggar $2 from my air-conditioned car, am I doing it for him or for me. Right now I am humble enough to say I do it for me. But there is a second when I look into the person's eyes and tell them to "take care of themselves," I can't explain it, I find my own humanity, and this is selfish.
I was working at the Hyatt one day walking to my shift and a woman walked up to me and said, "I wonder if you could give me five dollars, I am not going to lie to you, I am going to buy vodka with it." I handed her the only money I had which was $5 and walked on. I didn't give it to her because she told me the truth, I just realized at that moment I had more than she did, like a house and food and a job. I guess I still go back to it must be a hard life, begging, living on the streets, and I can't imagine how hard it would be.
Jaco you have taught me a lot about money and abundance. I thank you for that as I live my uber comfortable lifestyle. You have been so generous, and allowed me to understand that giving can be a form of receiving. I don't make 160 a month and usually make twice that on the days that I work. I know for me, I have given up deciding what is best for someone else when I give them money. If it is to support their drug habit or buy them a roll, it doesn't matter. Because when I look at that person begging, I know that they are the same as me, I just happen to be sitting in a car and have the gift of being able to give. And life is a strange odd mix of things, in some years, who knows if they will be in the car and I will be begging.
I love, love, love, your reflections! I miss you like a horse.
much love,
JB
PS. I have heard many stories about the beggars who make $60,000-$80,000 per year. I chalk it up to an urban myth. It would talk a lot of dollars, dimes, and quarters to make that and I don't buy it. Unless the person is stealing or happens to begin the year with $50,000 in their pocket. But you Jaco are the mathematician, I would love to see how many quarters, dimes, and dollars a day someone would have to make.
Another email referred me to a book, When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself by Brian Fikkert, Steve Corbett and John Perkins (Jul 1, 2009). The excerpt of it sounded exciting and I'm looking forward to reading it. Alana got loaded onto her Kindle for $7.50 (PhP 375) just under of 2 minutes after I asked her to get me the book. I just love the Internet . . . and America!!!
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