Charity, the Judeo Christian Tradition
Charity typically refers to "acts of benevolence and mercy for the poor and suffering," according to World Book Encyclopedia. World Book adds, "In a larger sense, it is a feeling of good will for all mankind.." In the Wayne State course we treat charity as a dimension of philanthropy, voluntary action for the public good. We consider benefit to the bereft and needy individual as a benefit to the larger society in that improvement of each person’s lot cumulatively improves the lot of us all.
We know that the ancient Hebrews levied a tithe (tax) to benefit the poor. In the Old Testament this "blessed obligation" translates as mercy (the Hebrew word is "hesed") and the corresponding word in the New Testament translates as charity. In the Judeo-Christian context the tithe translates as the giving of a tenth of one’s resources but over time the term charity has come to refer any act of benevolence for individuals in need.
The concept has been around a long time, indeed. For example, in 2300 BC an Egyptian noble named Harkhuf had the record of his charitable acts inscribed on the walls of his tomb.
And, more than 2,000 years before Christ, at the time of the "Five Rulers" in China, it was recorded by a chronicler named Li Ki that oriental families recognized the needs of the fatherless child, of the old man with no wife or sons, and of the elderly woman with no husband; and regular allowances were provided for them.
We find in the Torah that the duty to be charitable is paramount. It takes precedence over all other duties. And, in the Torah it embraces more than simply providing alms (resources or other aid to the unfortunate). It includes an injunction to show concern for the dignity of the recipient.
Thus we find in the Judeo-Christian tradition that charity is merciful giving sanctified by the institutions of the faith and chiefly directed to the immediate needs of the hungry, the sick, or the otherwise suffering individual.
Within Christianity the obligation to be merciful was carried out as a personal or possibly congregational matter prior to 325AD. Concurrently, such social services as there were fell to the state. (However, social services as we know them did not exist. The state did provide free or heavily subsidized grain to help feed the poor. Taxes supported the acquisition of the grain.)
In 325 AD Constantine recognized the Church as the State Religion and (to save money) explicitly mandated that much of the burden for the public welfare be transferred to the Church, where it largely remained to the Reformation.
We find evidence of this state of affairs throughout the Middle Ages (roughly the 1000 years from sometime in the AD 400s to sometime near the end of the AD 1400s). Throughout the Middle Ages charity (welfare for the poor and distressed) was the province of the Church. Church institutions were the focus for much of this care.
The medieval Church supported hospitals and orphanages, both of which evolved from monasteries or were operated within a monastery complex. The early hospitals were known as "Hotels Dieu." These were monasteries that had evolved to serve the specialized purpose of caring for the sick. Other monasteries evolved to institutions ministering to the elderly (nursing homes), to pregnant women (specialized hospitals), and to abandoned children (orphanages).
It was in this period that St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182AD) established the first lay movement to help the poor, the sick and the aged. The son of a rich merchant, Francis was very worldly as a youth. However, following an episode during which he was imprisoned (during a dispute between his town Assisi and Perugia, a neighboring community), and a period of illness, he renounced his father’s wealth and turned to a life of prayer and service to the poor.
Recognized by the Pope (and ordained a deacon), Francis developed a substantial following. Called friars (meaning "lesser brothers"), these new Franciscans lived a life of poverty, served the poor and preached on moral topics (as they were licensed to do by the Pope). With St.Clare, he founded (1212 AD) a branch of the order for women which continues to exist as the order of Franciscan nuns. Later he established a Third Order for lay men and women (1221 AD), which likewise continues to exist.
The Capuchins, too, are a Franciscan order. Disagreements about the ideal of poverty caused a split in the Franciscan orders in the 15th Century and in the 16th Century one of the original two divisions split again, creating the more strict, independent order of Franciscans we know as Capuchins. The good work of this order in providing basic human services today is well known.
During the 12th and 13th Centuries, the period of the Crusades, the activity of the Knights Hospitaler led to the formation of many hospices, facilities providing respite for travelers and care for the sick. Although they were a religious military order as well, a mark of the Hospitalers was their continuing concern and care for sick and needy pilgrims.
During the 14th century charity care took a new twist. It was the period in which one of every three people died as a result of the Bubonic Plague. It was a period of heroic individual acts of mercy and ministry to the dying.
For example, Catherine of Sienna in Italy and countless other religiously inspired individuals there as well as in France, Germany, Poland and elsewhere served to alleviate pain and provide spiritual comfort.
In addition, it was the period in which cities emerged and with them a new class of free citizens, free from serfdom and bondage to the feudal system. This new group, needing systems of social and economic support, established guilds. In these guilds, which tended to center on areas of economic activity, we see the precursors of today’s member benefit societies. They provided care for their own, even to levying assessments for life insurance to provide for widows and orphans.
During the Middle Ages the institutions of the Church did much to serve the needs of people. But there were more in need than facilities to care for them. Many were left on the streets and rural by-ways to fend for themselves. These unfortunates were those to whom the Church said it was charity to give continuing the ageless Judeo-Christian ethic.
This was the situation at the time of the Reformation. Martin Luther (1483-1546 AD) led the way in efforts to deal with the problem of the poor by urging creation a "common chest" in each community from which food, clothing and money would be distributed to the needy. The "common chest" concept did find acceptance and similar plans for providing for the needy were set up in other countries in Europe.
Also during the Reformation, the French Priest, St.Vincent de Paul (1581-1660 AD) , founded numerous charitable organizations including the important lay organization, the St. Vincent de Paul Society. In addition, with St. Louise de Marillac, he founded the Daughters of Charity (1633 AD), an organization made up of peasant women who ministered to the needy and were the first sisters to carry out their work outside the confines of a convent.
During the 14th and 15th centuries in England legislation known as "poor laws" were passed largely to stem vagrancy. One such act in 1572 authorized each parish to levy a tax for relief of the poor in the event charitable contributions were inadequate.
However, following the reign of Henry VIII, during which all convents and monasteries had been secularized and their properties confiscated by the state, a new solution was needed to address the needs of the poor. Previously, care was provided by the Church. Now the responsibility rested with the secular authority, a state of affairs not known since the time of Constantine in 325 AD.
In 1601 the Elizabethan Parliament enacted new poor laws known as the Statute of Charitable Uses. This codification of charity set the stage for our modern understanding of charity and were the basis for relief and welfare payments in England (and in Colonial America) from then to the 19th Century (with the emergence of social legislation and the Welfare State).
The Statute of Charitable Uses provided:
- that responsibility for the poor was now recognized as belonging to the government;
- that funds for care of the poor were to be provided by a general tax;
In addition, three classes of the poor were designated:
- The Able-Bodied. Such individuals were to be sent to workhouses or, if they refused to work, to jail;
- The Impotent Poor (those unable to work). Such individuals were sent to almshouses or, if it should be less expensive, left in their homes and provided food, clothing and fuel;
- Dependent Children. Some were placed with any person willing to keep them. Some were sold or indentured to learn a trade (boys to 24, girls to 21 or when married).
Overseers of the poor were appointed in each parish to enforce the laws; they were to give relief to those unable to work and set up the workhouses for those who could. Those unwilling to work were punished.
With modifications, these laws prevailed into the 19th Century in England. Although it was intended that the state take care of the needs of the poor, we do know many "fell through the cracks" and private charity continued to be an important dimension of such care as was available.
Many charitable organizations were formed and some from the past continued to operate. By 1869 so many were functioning that it became necessary to form in London what was known as the Charity Organization Society. It’s purpose was to coordinate the activities of the proliferation of charities, both public and private, in a sense paving the way for modern casework.
In Colonial America, and later in the new Republic, similar charities were formed, although they tended to be located in the cities along the Atlantic coast. Elsewhere, a frontier society existed, a society built on an ethic of mutual aid (as well as rugged individualism). Voluntary activity and association existed before organized government came on the scene. (To a great extent this fact explains the innate suspicion Americans exhibit in their dealings with government and the tendency to seek local solutions, frequently through voluntary action, to local problems.)
However, in the more settled areas of the original states, we know, for example, of a number of hospitals (some of which evolved from "almshouses") and specialized institutions such as the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, the Asylum for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut and the School for the Mentally Deficient in Germantown, Pennsylvania.
In addition, major institutions such as the Salvation Army and the Red Cross were formed for charitable purposes. The Salvation Army began as a mission of "General" William Booth in London’s East End in 1878 and was established in the United States in 1880.
The Red Cross was established by Jean Henri Dunant, a Swiss philanthropist, in 1863 and Clara Barton Brought it to the United States in 1881. Each was moved by horrifying wartime experiences to bring forth the idea---Dunant in the Austrian-Sardinian War of 1859 and Clara Barton in the American Civil War.
By the way, it is important to know that the Salvation Army remains a church, not the typical 501 (c) 3 charity as recognized by our tax laws.
Finally, a defining development took place in Chicago starting in 1889 when the great social reformer and pacifist, Jane Addams, founded the first settlement house in America. Influenced by precedents in England, she and other social reformers lived in the house and worked in the surrounding "slum" neighborhoods to improve conditions. Modern case work and the contemporary notion of social work began there.
It is most significant that Hull House became the model for many other settlement houses in the United States, including the Franklin settlement house in Detroit.
Later, in the section "Philanthropy and the Third Sector" we will examine more closely the relationship between private charity (philanthropy) and the role of government in the American Welfare State. It is important to keep in mind that the system we have in a very real sense is a partnership involving all sectors of our society, and that the role of philanthropy in providing charity care, while important, and in many ways vital, falls far short in terms of being the major supplier of resources. In our society that honor belongs to government.
Also, it is important to know that "Giving USA" reports that as a share of total giving from private sources, that devoted to human services is less than 10% of all the money donated in the United States and, if we add health care, the amount is less than 20%. Of course, this isn’t the whole story. There is an amount given to Religion which flows to charitable purposes, and this data does not (indeed, cannot) tell us how much is given directly from individual to individual (that is, in response to observed need or begging). Nor do the numbers quantify gifts of goods, or shelter, or teaching, or encouragement, or respect.
Well, so much for this look at the notion of charity. Next we will turn to a closely related matter, also very much a "front page" item in contemporary political discourse, the matter of coping with beggars and of dealing with those who could be contributing members of society but who choose the dole.
