Operation Christmas Child

[tribpot]

I found out on Friday that someone from my team at work had been prevented from sending out an email to the office at large, letting them know she was organising the shoebox collection for Operation Christmas child .

She was told that people in the office might be offended to be informed of a Christian charity, doing charitable work. At Christmas.

I am completely appalled; to be honest, had I known about this beforehand I would have sent out an email myself, and let them sack me for it if deemed appropriate. (This the NHS we're talking about).

Why would a non-Christian be offended by this? I am a non-Christian (an atheist) and I see absolutely nothing wrong in it. The organisation, Samaritan's Purse, might be slightly dodgy in some way, i.e. they have a Christian agenda (hardly unreasonable for them)? But this seems to have been a knee-jerk reaction to ensure the non-Christian members of staff were not offended. I obviously don't know them all, but the ones I do would not have given two hoots about this and would probably have been happy to contribute.

here from the chat thread

DD and DS came home with leaflet about samaritans purse. I'm not happy, do you think the email is ok to send to the school?

Dear Head Mistress

I am contacting you regarding the leaflets brought home yesterday regarding Samaritans Purse/Operation Christmas Child. I have to raise my objections regarding the charity chosen. Whilst I agree that the making and filling of shoeboxes for children abroad is a lovely act I believe that the charity through which they are being distributed are not exactly as the appear to be.

Over the last few years there have been many campaigns agains The Samaritan's Purse shoebox appeal. Not because of the boxes themselves but in the way they are distributed and the behaviour of the leader of the charity, Rev. Franklin Graham. He is an evangenical preacher who has described people of the Hindu religion as 'bound by Satan's power' and that Islam is a 'wicked religion'. The statements are just a small part of his preaching - if you are able to read the information in the following links it will give more examples of his evangelism:

www.humanism.org.uk/humanism/humanism-today /humanists-doing/charities/samaritans-purse

www.inminds.com/occ.html

pursestrings.ca/

sites.google.com/site/occalert/

Whilst I understand that some of these sites are American I still feel that the information is relavent

I can understand that the children enjoy making and filling the shoeboxes and that the sentiment behind them is one of charity and compassion I feel that the organisation used is suspect and feel the school is misguided in their support. The are alternative organisations that also collect filled boxes for distribution abroad, but do so with equality and without an underlying objective. I have listed a couple underneath that I feel would be appropriate:

www.rotary1280.org/shoebox/

www.linkromania.co.uk/shoebox-appeal

www.aquabox.org/filling.asp

I completely agree that the school wish to help children and families less fortunate than themselves but I feel the choice of organisation used is misguided. I would hope that you would consider alternatives - the children would still be able to send aid but in a more ethical way. I feel a true Christian would want to help others regardless of race, creed or religion. The previous behaviour of Samaritan's Purse has been neither.

Thank you for taking the time to read of my concerns and look forward to receiving your reply.

King Regards
Blushingm

Not very Christian behaviour from the founder.

I think rather than including all the links to sites criticising Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child (which are easy to dismiss as biased) you should just include some links to pages on the Samaritan's Purse website, eg Every Shoebox a Gospel Opportunity or include some quotes from them to show how clear the link between shoebox distribution and missionary activity is. Then ask if the head feels it is appropriate to ask all the families of all different religions at your school (assuming that it is not a 100 per cent evangelical Christian school) to support it. Including the links to some alternatives is a good idea.

How about writing off Samaritan's Purse and giving the money, gifts to a charity that doesn't regard other faiths as 'bound by Satan's power'

Jesus didn't make these distinctions so why should Samaritan's Purse

well I think it's not about the money but they are well-organised and provide a nice activity for children to decorate, fill and wrap the shoeboxes. It's a nice thing for children to do, and they needn't get into the 'satan's power' stuff to do so.

Can I suggest Wateraid as an alternative?

It's agenda is nothing more than to provide clean water.

I used to give to OCC/SP until a friend who is muslim explained their true aims.

MmeBlueberry, am I right in assumming you are Catholic? If so you might be interested to know that my DC's Catholic school withdrew from OCC/SP ! you would do well to read more about them before criticising others on here.

Oops I didn't mean to post my friend email address there at the beginning of my post. It was just stuck to the notepad I was using by mistake! Can moderators remove it please?

Thanks

Click the 'report' button to have your post removed.

I am not Catholic, serin.

Nor do I have anything to do with OCC. That wasn't what my posts were about.

Hiyamama, shoeboxes were never intended to replace real aid. They are simply gifts for the enjoyment of them. We all enjoy receiving Christmas gifts, and it is good to teach children that there is must as much joy in giving as there is in receiving.

Mme Blueberry - but shoe boxes do replace real aid, in the sense that a school chooses OCC as their Xmas appeal they are choosing it over something else.

Of course it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of aid flows, but it is a big deal for the children involved. As you say, the children enjoy it and it becomes a formative experience in how they think about compassion towards those less fortunate.

'there is more joy to give than to receive' is a message that applies to personal gifts, a better message to give children about charity is 'it's not about us'.

It's not either/or Hiya. If people are convicted to give money, then they will.