Comments on: Jerry Falwell is Wrong About the Poor

By: pc

pc — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 18:34:33 +0000

I’d add that many of the poor folks volunteer their time and share their wealth and housing and food with others. Much of that doesn’t translate into monetary donations but it if did it would equal quite a bit of money. Think of all the wealthy folks who live two people per McMansion and go on lavish vacations and hire caretakers and nannies rather than share or volunteer their time.

By: seashell

seashell — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 14:51:08 +0000

I’m guessing that in his world, “charity” is a 501(c)(3) that provides a comfortable middle-class income to it’s founder and employees…

Kinda curious as to how many people with ‘middle-class incomes’ fly around on their own private jets, like the Falwells and other 501(c)(3) recipients?

By: Tacitus

Tacitus — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 09:34:22 +0000

In reply to buddyglass23.

Don’t really see the bad rap here. Yes, you can certainly argue that a rising tide lifts all boats, and the more wealth we have to spread around the better, but there’s a dozen different ways to say that without it reading like it was taken directly from the prosperity gospel playbook.

He’s also just plain wrong, as Warren says. Indeed, it’s very likely that the charity given by poor people has a much greater immediate effect than the donations from the wealthy, given much of it is likely given from one poor person in a community to another — a neighbor, friend, or family member.

By: Richard Willmer

Richard Willmer — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 18:31:02 +0000

In reply to MyPetSlug.

Love the satire!

I should, of course, have said “the Bible” or, better still “the [Holy] Scriptures”, not “his Bible”.

By: buddyglass23

buddyglass23 — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 18:16:16 +0000

Trust me when I say I’m no fan of Falwell, but I think he may be getting a bad rap here. While the poor can (and do!) give money to charity, simply by virtue of their being poor the “reach” of their giving is limited. The error Falwell may be committing is to conflate “impact of giving” with “significance of giving”. In one sense the widow’s mite was just a mite; it didn’t do much. In another sense it was huge.