Gift Hub

Faith, Greed, and Charity - And the Greatest of These is Greed

Was talking to my Life Coach, The Happy Tutor, about Venture Philanthropy and how sterile many of the venturers seem, how unawakened. Tutor had this to say,

Selfishness, Phil, as you know, is important for the Market, but comes at tremendous cost to our humanity.

Two of Ten Commandments condemn coveting.

Giving is one sector in which we can recover the human soul we have lost to commerce.

We need all three: GNP, Democracy (which is a form of government), and Civil Society.

Each has its own dynamic. Those who over-emphasize coveting do good for others through the miracle of the pricing mechanism, but damn themselves to Hell. ("Myself am Hell nor am I out of it" - Marlowe's Faust).

Even the wealthy could (maybe) enter the Kingdom of Heaven by giving all they have to the poor, and following Christ in the way of self sacrifice.

The Social Venturer is half saved and half damned, caught like Lazarus between two worlds, awaiting the healing touch to burst the bonds of market logic.

Surely, this is Biblical?

Well, actually, I doubt it. What is Biblical is will to power, and alibis for wordly gain. God loves a winner.

Greenwash

In the old days the nobility would tip the headsman to make a clean job of it. You could say that was a conflict of interest, but it was fully disclosed, since the assembled mob could see the money change hands, and watch as the severed head bounded down the stairs. In some such spirit I accept Candidia's sponsorship of Gifthub, but I don't feel altogether right about it, even if it is an accepted practice in this, our noble trade.