I always give something. It may not be much, but I always give -- because as Pami said, you never know why someone is in this situation. And it's not my place to judge them, anyway.
Sure, there are scammers -- but I'd rather give to a dozen scammers than fail to give to even one person who really needs help. I mean... how could I sleep at night, wondering if that person went hungry?
And as for jobs... well, I myself have been unable to work on any regular basis for a few years now. So there but for grace go I. If not for my parents, I truly don't know what might have happened to me by now. I could easily be one of those people on the street... and if I didn't have a serious mental problem to begin with, I'm sure I would have developed one after living on the street for awhile. And with so little help available for the mentally ill in this country, that's a very hard place to come back from.
I'm an odd person to be quoting the Bible, but... "Whatsoever you do for the least of these, that you do also for me," right? To me, that means that every fellow human on this planet is unconditionally worthy of whatever help I can offer. So I offer it every chance I get.
Sure, there are scammers -- but I'd rather give to a dozen scammers than fail to give to even one person who really needs help. I mean... how could I sleep at night, wondering if that person went hungry?
And as for jobs... well, I myself have been unable to work on any regular basis for a few years now. So there but for grace go I. If not for my parents, I truly don't know what might have happened to me by now. I could easily be one of those people on the street... and if I didn't have a serious mental problem to begin with, I'm sure I would have developed one after living on the street for awhile. And with so little help available for the mentally ill in this country, that's a very hard place to come back from.
I'm an odd person to be quoting the Bible, but... "Whatsoever you do for the least of these, that you do also for me," right? To me, that means that every fellow human on this planet is unconditionally worthy of whatever help I can offer. So I offer it every chance I get.