Boycott the Band Aid 30 Single - If you care about giving - Part 1

Did that get your attention? Well all I ask is for your time to explain why I believe it. 

To this point, I have spent the majority of my working life working and volunteering for charities. I believe in the spirit of charity and giving. For me, giving is a very personal thing, done respectfully, in the understanding of a need, done with purpose and joy and where possible, sustainably. 

It seems to me that in the last 20 years the very nature of giving has changed for many people in so many ways. We have allowed ourselves to become accustomed to telethons and charitable events that tickle our fancy and entertain us, or tug our heart strings with sad music and images, ultimately, so that we will open our wallets and give cash. We have become used to massive charitable brands that we associate with goodness and a sense of wellbeing, Children in Need, LiveAid, Comic Relief. All cleverly designed to winkle out another £10 from your hard pressed wallet. 

Tonight on X-Factor, which should tell you all you need to know, you will be subject to the world premiere of the new Band Aid 30 song. A rehash of a rehashed single from the 1980’s hastily thrown together by a bunch of millionaire musicians who have ‘donated their time for free’ to get you to raise more cash for the fight against Ebola. Well that is a good cause, but here’s my rub. If it is cash that is needed to combat Ebola then here are some stats that might make you think again about letting yourself be manipulated into downloading the new single, especially if you have already given. Here are just 6 artists featuring on the new single and their total estimated worth. One Direction - £70m; Rita Ora - £1.3m; Paloma Faith - 1.9m; Olly Murs - £3.2m; Emilie Sandi - £5m and to top it all U2 worth an estimated £535m. Here they stand before you, worth over 600 million pounds between them asking you to give cash to save the poor people of Africa. You know what, do one. I am sick and tired of the arguments justifying the percentages of their wealth that rich people give each year. We live in a time of austerity and ultimately £1 is £1. If you still have over 1,000,000 of those pounds and you’re asking people who have no, or very little, savings to give, then you’re a hypocrite. If it is cash that will save Africa, then between them, these guys, and the others on the track, could do it; tomorrow. 

The thing is, the British public has already donated over £5,000,000 to the fight against Ebola, we have sent medical resources worth more than that, and some of our brave troops and medics are over there right now fighting it. The British public - YOU - already donated over £35million to Children in Need this weekend. 

I am not saying don’t give. I’m saying give in a responsible way to a charity that you think is meeting a need you believe in, in a way you believe is right. Be empowered, the money that comic relief raises, is the money you raise. Take back the initiative from celebrity / popularist culture.. Use your cash wisely, don’t be conned into giving by being made to laugh or cry by millionaires and soap stars, it demeans and patronises you as a person and despite what they may try to make you think, charities don’t just need cash, they need you too. 

Give from your head and your heart, charities need your time and a relationship. Charity usually works best small and local. Instead of giving once or twice a year to these behemoth charity brands (who then distribute your money through a wasteful bidding process and with targets that tie up time and resources - Pt2) and give regularly to a locally based charity undertaking work you care about. A youth or community agency, a library, a charity in a different community abroad that works in a way you believe in. Get to know the people and I guarantee your giving will  mean more to you, even if it’s only a couple of pounds a month. 

So go and give, but be involved, Don’t fall for the myth that money alone is the cure. Money is always needed, but you are too. Don't let the rich make you feel guilty about giving, they have their own issues to deal with. You are of worth, when you can, give, but get out and get involved. 

Choice

Thinking about the role choice plays in our lives. The more you follow the paths it takes in your thinking, the more you realise how important it is.

Choice is the difference between democracy and dictatorship; employment and slavery; sex and rape; sacrifice and theft; faith and religion; freedom and oppression; hope and hopelessness; forgiveness and bitterness; relationship and not.

There is always choice. Even when we are not in a place, or empowered, to change all our circumstances, we can still choose to begin to change the things we can and, for now, accept that which we can’t. We can choose to change the way we think about our circumstances, or at least, choose to think about the way we think about our circumstances. We can choose to seek others advice and then choose whether to take it. We can choose to expose ourselves to new experiences not knowing how they will change us.

True relationship and community are individuals mutually making the choice to sacrifice or modify their own choices for the benefit of those they are committed to. If forced into this sacrifice, its not relationship or community.

It is when we can’t see or don’t know what to do with our choices that we can become depressed and frustrated. It is then that we should choose to seek others for advice or perspective.

I believe that God is pro-choice, He invented it. He created us independent and laidened with choices. If He didn’t, that means no relationship, no faith, no freedom, no forgiveness and no hope. All these things are rooted in choice.

Many of the questions and challenges about God are rooted in the freedom of choice He gave us. Why is there war? – Someone’s choices: Why doesn’t God step in and stop suffering and bad things happening? – It takes away choice: Why doesn’t God make people love Him? - That’s not love: Why is there evil in the world? – Well, strangely, that is what gives us the choice.

Jesus lived by choice. He chose to submit His choices to what God wanted, that’s relationship. God didn’t make Jesus do anything; Jesus chose to be in community and relationship with God. We can do the same.

Why are people who choose to be in relationship with God described as free? – Because God believes in choice and provides the best options for those choices - If you choose to take them.