United Way and the Gospel

In work today we had the mandatory United Way meeting. All the big companies have them. When I worked at UPS we had to go and now while at Target. They say it is their way about caring for the community. It sounds like a lot of PR to me. In those meetings you watch a stirring video, replete with needy children, which lets you know what an impact you can make on your own community. It is very simply an emotional appeal. And it often works. Many people sign up to give a dollar a week or sometimes even more. After all this helps ease their sin-stricken conscious. Many see it as a way to “be good”; to work or in this case buy their way to heaven. But of course this doesn’t work. Even if they sacrificed their whole paycheck they would not reach eternity with Christ. Yet, sadly it has the effect of easing their troubled hearts. It makes them feel better about themselves. It makes them believe that they are good persons. The Gospel speaks otherwise. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All good works are mere filthy rags. There is no one who is righteous not one. A dollar a week does not get one into heaven. Only by the power of the gospel, the work of Jesus Christ, will people be saved. Another thing struck me about United Way. Why is there even a United Way? There shouldn’t be. To me this only highlights the failure of the Church. The United Way is doing the mission of the Church. It is the Church, which should be taking care of the sick, poor, and needy. Widows, orphans, the homeless, and the abandoned elderly, etc. are to be taken care of the Church, not the United Way. Sadly, the Church has failed to live out what James calls pure and true religion. I pray that the Body of Christ will begin to care for this world again. Lastly, I just wanted to briefly note why I will not be giving a dollar a week out of my paycheck. There are a few reasons why I will not support the United Way. First, as a Christian I believe it is an irresponsible use of God’s money. There are much better organizations to give to. How about Voice of the Martyrs or Samaritan’s Purse to name a few. Secondly, I will not support the United Way because of their muddy relationship with Planned Parenthood (there are other organization of which I am not that happy about either, but Planned Parenthood is the most obvious). Their website says that their money does not support abortion yet still millions of dollars is given each year to Planned Parenthood. Their website states: “No United Way funds are currently used, or have ever been used to support abortion services.” Maybe not directly, but they still support abortion organizations who service abortions. Their relationship is just to muddy for me. It is my hope that one day the Church will grow into such a gospel-caring community that the United Way will become unnecessary and pass away.