Christian Charities Research Articles

Generational Perspectives on Homeland-Oriented Diasporic Humanitarianism: Coptic, Assyrian, and Iraqi Christian Charities in the United Kingdom

This article explores generational perspectives on homeland-oriented diasporic humanitarianism by minority diasporas. Through a case study of Coptic, Assyrian, and Iraqi Christian charities in the United Kingdom, it compares the motivations for charity-giving of first- and second-generation diaspora members. The first generation has direct life experiences in the homeland, whereas the second generation has indirect knowledge of the ancestral homeland through collective memory. Despite different experiences of the homeland, the article finds that ongoing crises in the homeland serve as trigger events that mobilize both first- and second-generation diaspora members to support members of their community in the Middle East. Generational divergence, however, occurs over the range of charity beneficiaries. The first generation tended to adopt an exclusive approach to humanitarianism by focusing upon homeland-oriented aid solely to Copts, Assyrians, or Iraqi Christians. The second generation, by contrast, was still deeply committed to supporting members of their own community in the Middle East but also maintained an attachment to Egypt or Iraq, as well as to the United Kingdom, that resulted in support for additional causes in the homeland and the United Kingdom. It is the range of recipients of diaspora charity, rather than mobilization to support the community in the homeland, that was impacted by generational differences. The article's findings imply that the second generation of minority diasporas is reshaping diasporic humanitarianism by reacting to their connections with both the homeland and host state when identifying charity beneficiaries.

Examining Donor Preference for Charity Religious Affiliation

In the United States, most charitable donations go to religiously affiliated organizations, yet the impact of a charity’s affiliation on donor behavior is currently unclear. To better understand this impact, this article uses a laboratory experiment to explore how a charity’s religious affiliation drives donor behavior. In the experiment, participants select one charity from a list of eight, with each charity varying in religious affiliation. Masked and unmasked sessions differ in the inclusion of religious affiliation from half the charities, with masked sessions omitting religious affiliation of the charities. This article finds that adding religious language decreases donation frequency and average donation amounts for Christian charities competing against other religious charities. This drop is primarily driven by participants that are politically liberal. Participants prefer charity religious affiliation to match their own religious identity; however, participant strength of religiosity is more predictive in charity choice than religious affiliation.

The faith of faith-based charity organisations in the voluntary sector

This paper examines faith’s complex role within faith-based organisations, challenging presumed homogeneity. Through a case study of four projects run by Christian charities in Birmingham, UK, it asks whether religion is performed or managed differently within these organisations. Analysing manager questionnaire responses, three broad themes are considered: religion’s organisational role, prayer, and the presence of religious others and nones. It is hoped that faith-based organisation staff are encouraged to articulate the religious dimension of their projects.

Spiritual ambiguity in interfaith humanitarianism: Local faith communities, Syrian refugees, and Muslim–Christian encounters in Lebanon and Jordan

AbstractLiterature on faith-based responses to forced displacement has described, but not fully unpacked or theorized cross-religion humanitarian aid in ‘South–South’ contexts. This article interrogates the various ambiguities, particularly spiritual ambiguities, inherent in faith-based humanitarianism where local providers are the minority religion. In unpacking these, we identify three modes of faith-based aid to Muslim Syrian refugees by local churches and Christian charities in Lebanon and Jordan: hospitality, humanitarian, and spiritual development. These may present successively deeper opportunities for fostering openness to spiritual pluralism. We argue for greater appreciation of what we call spiritual ambiguity in interfaith humanitarianism. While humanitarian space is always shaped by a web of power relations, it is vital to develop new, more nuanced ways of thinking about cross-religious faith-based humanitarianism beyond Western neo-colonialism or refugee strategizing.

Examining Donor Preference for Charity Religious Affiliation

In the United States, most charitable donations go to religiously affiliated organizations, yet the impact of a charity’s affiliation on donor behavior is currently unclear. To better understand this impact, I use a laboratory experiment to explore how a charity’s religious affiliation drives donor behavior. In doing so, I contribute to the understanding of how charity affiliations impact donor decisions. In the experiment, subjects select one charity from a list of eight, with each charity varying in religious affiliation. Masked and unmasked sessions differ in the inclusion of religious affiliation from half the charities, with masked sessions omitting religious affiliation of the charities. I find that adding religious language decreases donation frequency for Christian charities competing against other religious charities. Furthermore, adding religious language increases the average donation size for secular charities competing against Christian charities, but decreases average donations for Christian charities competing against other religious charities. Subjects prefer charity religious affiliation to match their own religious identity; however, subject strength of religiosity is more predictive in charity choice than religious affiliation.

Religious Service Attendance, Moral Foundations, God Concept, and In-Group Giving: Testing Moderated Mediation

Studies demonstrate that religious people are more likely to donate money to charity, but these donations are more often given to in-group members (e.g., religiously affiliated organizations). Few studies test mechanisms by which religious attendance affects the bias toward in-group giving. Moral foundations are proposed as mediators of the association between religious attendance and the in-group giving bias, and traditional God concept is proposed as a moderator of the relation between attendance and moral foundations. Data were collected from Christians in the USA. ( N = 311), and participants were given an opportunity to donate their payment to Christian (in-group), Muslim (out-group), or secular charities. The traditional God concept variable moderated the indirect effect of the fairness/reciprocity foundation in explaining the relation between religious attendance and giving. People with highly traditional God concepts and higher religious attendance reported higher fairness/reciprocity scores, and they gave less to in-group charities and more to out-group charities.

'We Will Never Forget You': Christian Charities and the Rehabilitation of Disabled ex-Servicemen in Inter-War Leeds

The unprecedented number of disabled ex-servicemen is one of the evident, but often forgotten, legacies that the First World War left to Britain. For these men, and the organisations created to rehabilitate and reintegrate them back into civil life, the war did not end with the 1918 armistice. By using parish records, this paper will argue that disabled veterans were largely forgotten by religious charities within inter-war Leeds, despite attempts made by clergymen to help servicemen during the war. The impact that this had on male and religious identity is also examined, as any help available disappeared with distance from the conflict. This lack of Christian aid in Leeds challenges the wider historiographical perspective that the Great War favourably altered social attitudes to disability and disability care, whilst supporting the narrative that disabled ex-servicemen were overlooked by the nation they fought to protect.

THE CHURCH AND MENTAL HEALTH: THEOLOGICAL AND PRACTICAL RESPONSES

AbstractOver the past few years, the number of Christian projects and charities working in the mental health sector in the United Kingdom has increased dramatically. At the same time, scientific and medical understandings of mental health have been advancing rapidly. These parallel trends beg a serious question: is the Christian Church's response to mental health authentically engaging with a changing scientific picture? Are theological questions like responsibility, sin, redemption, and reconciliation taking account of a changing landscape? This is not a theoretical question, but has major practical consequences for developing practical pastoral responses.

A Development of Byzantine Christian Charities during the 4th-7th Centuries and the Birth of the Hospital

This study aims to examine the beginning and the development of Christian Charities during the 4(th)-6(th) centuries which would eventually result in the birth of the hospital in modern sense in the first half of the 7(th) century. For this purpose, I looked carefully into various primary sources concerning the early Christian institutions for the poor and the sick. Above all, it's proper to note that the first xenodocheion where hospitality was combined with a systematic caring, is concerned with the Trinitarian debate of the 4(th) century. In 356, Eustathios, one of the leaders of homoiousios group, established xenodocheion to care for the sick and the lepers in Sebaste of Armenia, whereas his opponent Aetios, doctor and leader of the heteroousios party, was reckoned to have combined the medical treatment with his clerical activities. Then, Basil of Caesarea, disciple of Eustathios of Sebaste, also founded in 372 a magnificent benevolent complex named 'Basileias' after its founder. I scrupulously analysed several contemporary materials mentioning the charitable institution of Caesarea which was called alternatively katagogia, ptochotropheion, xenodocheion. John Chrysostome also founded several nosokomeia in Constantinople at the end of the 4(th) century and the beginning of the 5(th) century. Apparently, the contemporary sources mention that doctors existed for these Charities, but there is no sufficient proof that these 'Christian Hospitals,' Basileias or nosokomeia of Constantinople were hospitals in modern sense. Imperial constitutions began to mention ptochotropheion, xenodocheion and orphanotropheion since the second half of the 5(th) century and then some Justinian laws evoked nosokomium, brephotrophia, gerontocomia. These laws reveal that 'Christian Hospitals' were well clarified and deeply rooted in Byzantine society already in these periods. And then, new benevolent institutions emerged in the 6(th) century: nosokomeia for a specific class and lochokomeia for maternity. In addition, one of the important functions of Sampson Xenon was, according to Novel 59, to hold a funeral service for the people of Constantinople. Nevertheless, there is no sufficient literary material that could demonstrate the existence of a hospital in modern sense. The first hospital where outpatient service, hospitalization and surgery were confirmed was Sampson Xenon in the first half of the 7th century, figured in the tale of Stephanos of the The Miracles of St. Artemios. Why was the early Byzantine literary so reticent as to write the medical activities in the Christian Charities? It's because Christian innovation didn't rest on the medical treatment but caring for the poor and the sick, depending on the word of Mt. 25.35-36. In this meaning, I'd like to say that the Early Byzantine history of Christian Charities or 'Christian Hospitals' consists of only a footnote of the verse.

Reasons for loss to follow-up of patients with podoconiosis in the Amhara Region, northern Ethiopia.

Podoconiosis is a non-infectious form of tropical lymphoedema characterised by swelling of the feet and lower legs. Treatment is simple and effective yet evidence indicates that a proportion of patients become lost to follow-up. This study was a quantitative questionnaire-based study which aimed to identify the most common reasons for loss to follow-up of patients. A total of 191 participants registered with the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) who had become lost to follow-up were included in a cross-sectional survey based in the Amhara Region, northern Ethiopia. The most common reason was distance, stated by 26.7% (51/191). This was significantly associated with living further from the treatment site (p=0.02). Having had podoconiosis for longer was protective against this (p=0.03). For each additional hour of travel time a patient lived from the treatment centre, the odds of them reporting 'distance' as the main reason for becoming lost to follow-up increased by 1.61 (95% CI: 1.25-2.08). The consequences of podoconiosis are exacerbated by walking long distances, but in most areas, this is currently required of patients in order to receive treatment. We recommend expansion of services to widen treatment availability, since provision of transport to and from treatment centres is unlikely to be feasible.

The humanitarian situation in syria: a snapshot in the third year of the crisis.

Between April and June 2014, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), an International NGO, and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (GOPA) conducted a needs assessment of Syrians affected by the crisis with the objective of gaining a better understanding of humanitarian needs and assistance priorities. Findings suggest that interventions that increase access to non-food items, food, medication and education should be prioritized where cost was the primary barrier to accessing goods and services. Cash transfer programs and direct provision of material assistance should be considered, though the most appropriate assistance modality is likely to vary by sector, location and the preferences and prior experience of donors and implementing organizations. Renewed international commitment to funding humanitarian assistance efforts in Syria and neighboring countries where the burden of refugees is greatest is essential from both a human rights perspective and in terms of maintaining stability in the region.

Barriers to access and re-attendance for treatment of podoconiosis: a qualitative study in northern Ethiopia.

Podoconiosis is a chronic non-infectious lymphoedema affecting individuals exposed to red clay soil in endemic areas. Evidence from International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) treatment centers' registers suggests that a significant proportion of registered patients with podoconiosis fail to re-attend for treatment, putting them at risk of worsening disability associated with the lymphoedema and attacks of acute adenolymphangitis. The aim of this study was to explore barriers to access and re-attendance of patients with podoconiosis in northern Ethiopia. A cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted at three IOCC treatment sites from February to April 2013. Twenty-eight patients and three project leaders took part in in-depth interviews. Three focus group discussions were undertaken with 22 patients, patient association leaders and project staff members. Barriers to access and to continued attendance at treatment centers were recognized by all participant groups. The following reasons were reported: lay beliefs about the disease's causation and presentation, occupational, geographic and financial barriers, stigma and conflicting expectations of treatment services. This study illustrates the multiple, step-wise barriers to accessing treatment faced by podoconiosis patients. These factors are dynamic, frequently interact and result from competing social and economic priorities.

Beyond the Prison Gates: Punishment and Welfare in Germany, 1850-1933

At the end of the nineteenth century, the jurist, legal reformer and founder of the innovative ‘Marburg School’ of criminal law, Franz von Liszt, declared that the ‘best criminal policy is social policy’. According to Warren Rosenblum, Liszt's observation has continued to inform German criminological practices since. In fact, contemporary Germany offers important insights into the treatment of criminals. The 2009 statistics of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, for example, indicate that 9 out of every 10,000 Germans was imprisoned, in contrast to 76 Americans drawn from an identical sample. Moreover, in a twelve-month period over 2004/05, 13.1% of the German population reported experiencing a crime, as a victim or as a potential victim, while 21% of the UK population reported the same. It is against this backdrop that Rosenblum's masterful monograph stands. In Beyond the Prison Gates, Rosenblum argues that a ‘distinctively German’ approach to welfare policy, based on cooperation and competition ‘between private, mostly Christian charities and public welfare offices’, along with the claim of Weimar-era reformers that ‘true punishment is welfare work‘, has shaped that country's penal system, endowing it with an especially ‘mild’ and ‘social’ approach to the treatment of offenders which continues to the present (pp. 3, 4, 232).

Measurement of Physical and Chemical Properties of Cinnamonic Calcareous Soils to Establish Fertilization Requirements for Perennial Pastures and Legume Crops in the Country of Georgia

In 2006, the International Organization of Christian Charities (IOCC) began a program in the country of Georgia to establish an improved dairy enterprise in the villages of Minadze and Ghreli in the Akhaltsikhe district. To correctly determine the fertility requirements for the use of either mineral or organic fertilizer materials for improving soil fertility for legume grain crops (beans, peas, soybeans, etc.) and perennial pastures (a mixture of perennial cereal grasses and perennial legumes) and for the proper management of these soils, it was necessary to understand the geomorphic, chemical, and physical characteristics of the soils of this region. Soils of this region belong to a subtype of Cinnamonic Calcareous soils. The characteristics of these soils as well as their fertility and soil management needs were ascertained. Appropriate amounts of mineral and organic fertilizers needed for the proper growth of legume crops and perennial pastures as well as timing of application are presented.

Childcare Dilemmas: Religious Discourse and Services among Jewish and Christian ‘Orphanages’

This paper explores the goals of Jewish and Christian sponsored orphanages in late nineteenth and early twentieth century England and identifies ways that religious institutions served the needy, constructed their self—identify, and that of their ‘inmates’. Christian charities, especially evangelical institutions such as Barnardo's and the National Children's Homes (NCH), focused not only on the rescue of children, but their salvation. Policy at Norwood, the Jewish orphanage, reflected a combination of Jewish charitable tradition, alongside a self—consciousness about reputation and anxiety over anti—Semitism, and anti-alienism. In response, Norwood developed an extensive programme designed to raise respectable, anglicised Jews who would remain members of Britain's Jewish community.

Letters

Stuck for topical school assemblies linked to all the latest films, TV and music to keep children riveted? Christian charities, Send a Cow and Damaris are offering a new resource for primary schools, called Assemblies Online.

The Helderberg Advocate: A Public-Nuisance Prosecution a Century before Near v. Minnesota

The Helderberg Advocate: A Public-Nuisance Prosecution a Century before Near v. Minnesota Ralph Frasca (bio) Ralph Frasca Ralph Frasca is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Marymount University. ENDNOTES 1. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Helderbergia; or, The Apotheosis of the Heroes of the Anti-Rent War (Albany: Joel Munsell, 1855). 2. The Helderberg Advocate, May 25, 1842. 3. The best source on these episodes is Fred W. Friendly, Minnesota Rag (New York: Random House, 1981). See also Reed L. Carpenter, “John L. Morrison and the Origins of the Minnesota Gag Law,” Journalism History 9 (Spring 1982): 16–17, 25–28; John E. Hartmann, “The Minnesota Gag Law and the Fourteenth Amendment,” Minnesota History 37 (December 1960): 161–173; Paul L. Murphy, “Near v. Minnesota in the Context of Historical Developments,” Minnesota Law 66 (November 1981): 95–160. 4. Near v. Minnesota, 383 U.S. 697 (1931). 5. Ibid., 707. 6. Ibid., 718. Other than the prosecution of The Helderberg Advocate in 1842, the only other known case of a newspaper being declared a public nuisance was Ex parte Neill, 22 Southwestern Reporter 923 (1893). A Texas appellate court overturned a news dealer’s fine for selling a Chicago newspaper that the Seguin, Texas city council had banned from within its corporate limits. However, the newspaper itself was not prosecuted. 7. The literature about the patroon system and the resulting antirent war is extensive. See, e.g., Martin Bruegel, “Unrest: Manorial Society and the Market in the Hudson Valley, 1780–1850,” The Journal of American History 82 (March 1996): 1393–1424; Edward Potts Cheyney, The Anti-Rent Agitation in the State of New York, 1839–1846 (Philadelphia: Publications of the University of Pennsylvania, 1887); Henry Christman, Tin Horns and Calico (New York: Henry Holt, 1945); David M. Ellis, Landlords and Farmers in the Hudson-Mohawk Region, 1790–1850 (New York: Octagon, 1967); Jay Gould, History of Delaware County (Roxbury, NY: Keeny and Gould, 1856); Arthur B. Gregg, Old Helleburgh (Altamont, NY: Altamont Enterprise, 1936); Reeve Huston, “The Parties and ‘The People’: The New York Anti-Rent Wars and the Contours of Jacksonian Politics,” Journal of the Early Republic 20 (Summer 2000): 241–271; Albert Champlin Mayham, The Anti-Rent War (Jefferson, NY: Frederick Frazee, 1906); S. G. Nissenson, The Patroon’s Domain (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937); Eldridge Honaker Pendleton, “The New York Anti-Rent Controversy, 1830–1860” (Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1974). 8. Indenture of Arent Van Der Carr to Stephen Van Rensselaer III, May 25, 1797, manuscript collections, Town of Berne Historical Society, Berne, New York. 9. He was eulogized as “emphatically a good man” in The Albany Argus, January 28, 1839. On the same date, The Albany Evening Journal identified him as “the liberal benefactor of all those noble Christian charities which adorn the age in which he has lived.” 10. Christman, Tin Horns and Calico, 2–11. 11. The Helderberg Advocate, December 8, 1841. 12. Cheyney, The Anti-Rent Agitation, 19–20; platform of the Blenheim Hill Anti-Rent Society, 1843, in Mayham, The Anti-Rent War, 31–32. 13. Blenheim Hill Anti-Rent Society, in Mayham, The Anti-Rent War, 31–32. Mayham’s grandfather was one of the leaders of the antirent movement, and he had access to documents not publicly available. 14. The Albany Argus, December 6, 1839. 15. “Libertymen’s Declaration of Independence,” June 8, 1844, in manuscript collections, New York State Library. 16. The Helderberg Advocate, May 25, 1842. 17. Christman, Tin Horns and Calico, passim. 18. ? to Silas Forbes, January 1, 1845, manuscript collections, New York State Library. 19. M. E. Lintner to J. Albert Lintner, May 29, 1845, manuscript collections, New York State Library. 20. Charles Hathaway to ?, July 12, 1844, manuscript collections, New York State Library. 21. See, e.g., The Helderberg Advocate, December 8, 1841; May 25, 1842. 22. The Helderberg Advocate, May 25, 1842. 23. Ibid.; Christman, Tin Horns and Calico, passim; Donald F. Cameron, “The Helderberg Advocate,” The Journal of the Rutgers University Library 15 (December 1951): 19–21. Christman and Cameron both had the opportunity to see a complete run of The Helderberg Advocate. However, this set has long...

Offensive attack on christian charities

Offensive attack on christian charities

Chinese Buddhist and Christian Charities: A Comparative History

There is no Buddhist-Christian dialogue in modern China. But it is not, as I once thought, because of a lack of ideas (Lai 1986b, 1989). It is rather that the real issue, at least since the late nineteenth century, is works. To wit, not faith but works. That is, social work, social service, or charity. This is an area where the new Protestant missions may be said to differ from the Jesuit missions of old (Ocho 1979, 208). Social service was not the new missionaries' first priority. And perhaps it never should be. Evangelism should come first. But Timothy Richard came to see the pressing need for it (Bohr 1972). He was the first; he would not be the last. The Buddhists had not thought much about social service either. The leader of the so-called Buddhist Revival (Welch 1968), the monk T'ai-hsii, was contented with the old way. He also became a convert and a social activist late, only after reading the works of the 1898 reformers, K'ang Yu-wei and T'an Ssu-t'ung (Jan 1990), whom Richard just happened to have tutored. Yet Christian social work might well be the modern missions' greatest triumph. The number of Chinese converts to the new faith would remain low, but the lives touched by the likes of the YMCA, the Christian colleges, and the church hospitals were many (Garrett 1972; Lutz 1971; West 1976). These modern expressions of Christian charity impressed the Chinese. They impressed all Buddhists-so much so that all modern Buddhist leaders, from Dharmapala in Sri Lanka, through Buddhadasa and Sulak Sivaraksa in Thailand, to the movers of the New Religions in Japan, all copied the Christians and set up Buddhist counterparts of the YMCA (called the YMBA, in fact), the Christian colleges, and the church hospitals. Of all the Buddhist revivals, those within the New Religions of Japan are the success stories. They succeeded not because of great ideas (some of them are plainly shamanic) but because they could provide their members the kind of care and service, quite literally from cradle to grave, that the new urban population of Japan wanted but that even the Japanese state could not yet provide. The difference between Christianity and much of Buddhism lies here. The