Posted on 12/01/2012 5:13:46 AM PST by LoveUSA
Just yesterday I was leaving the food store with my 83 year old mother in my car when we encountered an old woman holding a piece of cardboard that said "homeless" (quotes were included). This old woman made eye contact with me and her scraggly gray hair, her worn clothing, and her pathetic help me expression really stirred up my sympathy. When I stopped at the stop sign near where the begging woman was standing I said to my mother, "Let's give her some something, it's Christmas". We came up with a five dollar bill and my mother waved it out the window. The begging woman took it and smiled with the few teeth she had left.
Then the semi-toothless, pathetic-looking, scraggly-haired old woman said, "Thanks! My grandkids want a video game for Christmas."
John Stossell did a whole show on begging and he did it himself for a day to see how money he could make - very informative.
It’s not idiocy to do something you thought was good, that ends up being a scam.
Last time I felt so inclined to help someone it was a kid. I told him that I wasn’t going to give him money, but that if he were truly hungry I’d by him a meal at the nearby fast food store - BUT - he would have to admit to me what he was using. He denied, I started walking and he then said...yeah you’re right. he was on heroin and something else. I ordered him a meal (he switched the drink to a shake for a little extra money when i wasn’t paying attention, a fascinating thing to me, as i’d have bought it if he asked me).
I chatted with him for a few minutes. Completely hopeless, no way he’s ever going to get off of it, which is what I expected.
I believe my dialog with him was the only honest discussion he’d had that day.
No you're not, you helped someone you thought was in need and that's all you need to know.
Please don’t use the ‘xmas’ term. Spell it as Christmas.
Let the unbelievers have the xmas they so desire. Keep Christ in Christmas. Thank you.
A man approached my husband as he was leaving church one morning and asked for money because he was hungry. Hubby has a policy of not giving money but meeting said need so they went to the very nearby convenience store. Hubby looked in his billfold and all the cash he had on hand was $5 so he told the many to pick out whatever he wanted but it had to be no more than $5. The guy chose some food items including a bag of chips and when the checker added it up it wasn’t quite $5. Hubby was pocketing the change when the man asked “Can I have MY change?”. Hubby was hot and gave him a very stern warning to take the food and move along. A side note: the man was not malnourished in the least.
You gave her cash money with no expectation of how she'd use it in her life. You were NOT scammed, you just don't like what she said she'd use it for.
I find it interesting you and most others, claiming to be Christian, choose to see avarice and deceit where you could've recognized something else.
It took 14 posts before someone said LoveUsa did the right thing. Thank you, Truth 2012!
It took 14 posts before someone said LoveUsa did the right thing. Thank you, Truth 2012!
You mean they are all politicians?
Please tell us that you’re a liberal. Or perhaps a rino.
I shutter to think that a conservative “Christian” would willingly be this foolish.
Agreed.
I don’t remember Jesus using the words “because they’ll spend it on booze” anywhere in the New Testament.
Thanks for the John Stossel Freeloader Program Reference
Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9cWCRn64Ak
Abilene, Texas has a constant presence of beggars at one intersection that leads to Sams Club. It is near the railroad track so some of them could be hobos but a few years ago there was a story about some of these beggars being members of a cult in nearby Clyde. Cult members are dropped off to “work” and picked up at day’s end. That information pretty much ended my desire to donate. There is a wonderful ministry to the homeless in Abilene that people can go to for help. But God knows our heart when we give even if we may be taken advantage of.
You’re not an idiot. I’ve had a similar situation happen with me when our daughter was young. We gave money to a woman and her daughter who said they were stranded and needed bus money home. We later saw them eating at a fast food place. Our daughter was crushed to learn she’d been lied to. I kind of expected it (sorry, not a real funny story).
It always hurts a little bit when someone takes advantage of us, but the truth is, it is on the liars head, not yours. You acted with a good conscience.
Someone mentioned helping the homeless through Goodwill and other organizations. We are involved with a Christian organization that ministers to the homeless on the streets and in the parks of west Phoenix. They do a great service and we have seen street people’s lives change. They are always have needs. Our church is collecting needed items for Christmas gifts. This is another way to help the homeless.
http://www.youmatterministries.com
Merry Christmas and blessings on you and your family. Charity lives on in your heart!
“There are those who say to the poor that they seem to look to be in such good health: ‘You are so lazy! You could work. You are young. You have strong arms.’ You don’t know that it is God’s pleasure for this poor person to go to you and ask for a handout. You show yourself as speaking against the will of God. There are some who say: ‘Oh, how badly he uses it!’ May he do whatever he wants with it! The poor will be judged on the use they have made of their alms, and you will be judged on the very alms that you could have given but haven’t.”
St. John Vianney
My Husband and I stopped at a truck stop and there were 2 young men. I heard them talking to each other about how they only had 2 dollars left and they chose to buy a scratch off lottery ticket in the hopes that they could get more, LOL. They lost.
I told my husband about it in the car and he told me to go back and give them 20 bucks.
Give where you feel led to give. If they are a scammer, that is their problem. I find most people’s instincts are pretty good.
Beggars are scammers. Truest words ever said. A social group I’m in adopted a family for Christmas. Mom and Dad somehow “forgot” to get married. They had 5 kids. He worked part time at the local Good Year plant. Somehow that never got into the paperwork. I didn’t find all this stuff out until the Mom went to work in a cafe where a friend worked. I was really ticked that they used our generosity so badly.
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