{"id":76110,"date":"2020-12-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=76110"},"modified":"2020-12-13T06:51:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T12:51:18","slug":"obligation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=76110","title":{"rendered":"Obligation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

It’s that time of year.\u00a0 I’m receiving exhortations to Give Back<\/a> such as this one from TCF Bank.\u00a0 They annoy me.<\/p>

Why this time of year, particularly?\u00a0 The message doesn’t explicitly link December to Christmas to Jesus Christ and thence to a duty of Christian Charity, because that would be overtly religious and might offend someone.\u00a0 But if my obligation to Give Back isn’t a religious obligation, from whence does it arise?\u00a0 And if it is a religious duty, what if my religion takes a different view and why are you imposing your religion on me?\u00a0<\/p>

How much am I obligated to give back?\u00a0 10%\u00a0 More?\u00a0 Is it a progressive obligation – the more I make, the greater percentage I must give?\u00a0 Give to whom?\u00a0 My church or mosque or synagogue, because it’s a religious obligation; or some do-gooder group so I can purchase a bit of vicarious virtue?\u00a0 Does ‘shopping locally’ count as ‘giving back’ if I shop at a nearby big box retailer because the little stores were closed by decree of King Herod . . . I mean . . . Governor Walz?<\/p>

I dislike the modern fetish of using Christmas to promote social causes rather than remember Christ.\u00a0 I prefer the old method of soliciting donations for charitable causes:<\/p>

‘At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,’ said the gentleman, taking up a pen, `it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir. . . A few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink,and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”<\/p>

That pitch appeals to me.\u00a0 So do the bell ringers at the Salvation Army kettle.\u00a0 That’s why I never pass one without dropping a buck in the bucket.\u00a0 I made a special point of withdrawing $20 in ones, just to have them on hand.\u00a0 Because they don’t engage in silly virtue signaling, they quietly help people in need.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Joe Doakes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

1000% on board re the Salvation Army. I never pass one of them without dropping in a buck or five (or at least I never pass ’em twice – I grab cash and break the bill on the way out). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s that time of year.\u00a0 I’m receiving exhortations to Give Back such as this one from TCF Bank.\u00a0 They annoy me. Why this time of year, particularly?\u00a0 The message doesn’t explicitly link December to Christmas to Jesus Christ and thence to a duty of Christian Charity, because that would be overtly religious and might offend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,374],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faiths-and-their-followers","category-social-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76115,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76110\/revisions\/76115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}