“Most churches continually turn the other cheek, and help, time and time again.”
The small church we used to go to got burned several times. We finally got together with the other small churches and got a phone network going where if someone asked for help in a big way they would tell the person to come back tomorrow after they’ve talked to the pastor about how much funds we had. “I need 167.37 to pay the electrical bill or they are going to turn it off and my kids will freeze.”
“Oh - is her name Marge? Yeah - she’s been using that for months now. She’s an addict.”
The secretary also had a bunch of coupons for a couple of the fast food places down in town, so if the people were just asking for a few bucks so they could eat, she gave them $8 in meal coupons or whatever.
We finally convinced the “do-gooders” that wanted to give to everybody that we only had a limited budget for that stuff, and if we just gave to anybody (the druggies or drinkers) then the people that REALLY needed help wouldn’t get it.
Often the people that needed real help we would help out even more. Repairs, monthly grocery trips, etc and built up a relationship with them.
That’s the smart way to do it. Sad, it comes to that but it is what it is.