Do you agree with the statement 'charity starts at home'?

[Ineeda]

I've always been brought up to 'look after my own' and help myself (I.e family), before anyone else. Granted, I can probably say I do just that 99% of the time.

I was also brought up Christian, and I've been taught by the church that charity doesn't start at home because the world are your brothers and sisters.

Do you agree with my original statement? If so, how far?

Thank you for reading

[scaevola]

I agree with it, because to me charity comes from the desire to give and share (ie starts at home, with us) irrespective of who the recipient is.

I support a range of charities, ranging from the local to the global.

[Ineeda]

Interesting

[Cel982]

In my experience it's a phrase usually used by people who think that foreign aid budgets should be cut. I don't agree with it. Charity should go to whoever needs it the most, regardless of who or where they are.

[CheekyMaleekey]

Absolutely not.

Charity should be prioritised for those who need it the most.

I'm surrounded by purple who think the PTA is the most important charity there is. Very small-minded and self-centred.

[LoisWilkersonsLastNerve]

Absolutely not.

Charity should be prioritised for those who need it the most.

Sums up my view too really. Giving £10 to the DEC after an earthquake even though I could use it for myself for example.

[Ineeda]

But don't our own country's people come first, regardless?

I know I'd rather give, say, my daughter another £40 to buy yet another leotard than another girl on the gymnastics squad who has nothing.

Then again, that's a first world problem, no one is starving or fighting for life.

[TaliZorah]

No, I don't.

Your family are related to you and you look after each other.

People who by chance are born in the same country as you share no such bond, and there is no need to prioritise people who were born here over people who were born elsewhere

[Ineeda]

Tali I can understand your feelings towards that entirely, but, I'm making the assumption of that you don't feel like a unity with fellow British people, then?

[TaliZorah]

Ineeda no I don't. I feel a unity with people in general but happening to be born somewhere isn't really something I notice

[CrotchetQuaverMinim]

Giving your daughter another £40 to buy a leotard isn't really charity, though. It's either providing something she needs, or giving her a gift of something she wants but doesn't need - both perfectly valid choices, but not what I'd call charity. To me, charity is choosing to give up something that you might want, and give it to someone who needs it more. You might rather give it to your daughter, because she's yours and you like to see her happy with gifts and she probably likes to get them, but if you/she chose to give it to someone else who really needed it, then that would be charity.

'Charity begins at home' sounds like a good phrase to suggest that people should start by doing small acts of charity that they can easily see in their daily lives, to encourage them to be more charitable - you can be kind to each other, donate to local charities, help people in need that you see, etc, without it having to be big or expensive or well-publicised charities.

I don't think it should mean that we should only give to those who are e.g., British or local, in preference to those abroad, even those people often use it to suggest that. I don't really see why we should consider a stranger who happens to be born in the UK to be more or less deserving of help than a stranger in poverty who happens to be a refugee from some other country, for example; where they were born is a matter of luck.

[Silverstones]

Well, apparently it's a phrase first written by the philosopher and theologican Wycliff in 1340, and seems to mean something entirely different and slightly baffling.

It actually comes half-way through a discussion on corrupt/inappropriate priests, and says something like that a corrupt priest's prayers are worthless because God won't listen to them, because charity begins at home.

In that context, it might mean something like 'if you can't do right yourself, you can't tell others how to do right'.

[Reiltin]

Interestingly, I seem to have different understanding of the phrase. To me, it means that, as parents, we should model charity for our kids - giving money/stuff, helping others, etc. we learn charity from our parents. To me, the phrase doesn't have anything to do with keeping money in the country or similar.

[JumpandScore]

Interesting about being taught differently in church OP, as the original quote/sentiment, now paraphrased, is from the New Testament (so not about foreign aid )

1 Timothy 5:8 "But if anyone does not take care of his relatives, especially the members of his own family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever"

I doesn't however, say that you should look after family and do nothing to support others. I think, in modern life, there is something to be said for it, as so many of the issues that have to be dealt with by charities (in the West) are the result of people not looking after their own enough.

[Seriouslyffs]

Charity means love in the bible doesn't it?
'Faith Hope and Charity, the greatest of these is Charity', meaning Love.
yy that it's often trotted out as as excuse for cutting foreign aid.

[Ineeda]

Seriously this is why I left the Catholic Church.

[Seriouslyffs]

ineeda, I'm not following you?

[Pseudonym99]

You need to look after yourself first in order to be able to look after others. there's no point giving to others and leaving yourself stuck.