@FBM,
My only quibble with what you wrote was that the organizations of the Catholic and Lutheran churches enables a more effective deployment of resources for charitable purposes, and also enables economies of scale. Without organized religion, i don't see private, compassionate philanthropy being as effective. I worksed for several years in the charity industry, and i learned two things. One is that organizations such as the Salvation Army and other stalwarts of the charity industry (i worked for one of the others, which i will not name) most often find ways of spending someone else's money, while sending as much cash to the national organization as possible. That enhances the career opportunities for the local directors.
The other thing i learned is that private individuals are generous in numbers which i think would astonish a lot of people. They don't make a big deal of it, they just do it. The organization i worked for would sell donated clothing in their more than 20 local thrift stores, but we got clothing vouchers from Lutheran Social Services, so we could get clothing for our clients from the single thrift store they operated. When i worked the night shift, if someone called in to ask about donating clothing, knowing i wouldn't be overheard, i would advise them to drop the stuff off at Faith Mission, wile advising them ti was in a dangerous part of town and to be careful. Faith mission was run by a holy roller who had made it big in regional televangelism. But he lived in a modest apartment in that bad neighborhood, (no mansion with solid gold bathroom fixtures like Jim and Tammy Fae Bakker). He devoted his considerable financial resources to helping the homeless. He fed thousands of people every day. He prayed over the homeless while they ate the free meal, but he didn't make them wait while the food got cold the way the Baptists at the Open Shelter would do. On Grubb Street there was a Catholic priest who fed lunch to thousands of people every day. The tough guys from Faith Mission would come there to act as security--the elderly and families with children ate first. Nevertheless, the operation, supported entirely by private donation, never ran out of food at lunch time. One of h is suppliers was a woman in her 70s who got in her station wagon every day, and drove around to the super markets to collect bread which had reached it's "best by date" on that day, and would otherwise have ended up in a dumpster. She then delivered it to places like Grubb Street (where the "gangsters" from Faith Mission handed it out to the elderly and the families with children as they left after eating) and to other soup kitchens and food banks in town.
Private charity is enormous, and it benefits from the organization of religions (except for the Baptists--what a bunch of mealy-mouthed, stingy holy rollers).
Thanks for pointing that out.
