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Charity Detox: What Charity Would Look Like If We Cared About Results Kindle Edition
The veteran urban activist and author of the revolutionary Toxic Charity returns with a headline-making book that offers proven, results-oriented ideas for transforming our system of giving.
In Toxic Charity, Robert D. Lupton revealed the truth about modern charity programs meant to help the poor and disenfranchised. While charity makes donors feel better, he argued, it often hurts those it seeks to help. At the forefront of this burgeoning yet ineffective compassion industry are American churches, which spend billions on dependency-producing programs, including food pantries. But what would charity look like if we, instead, measured it by its ability to alleviate poverty and needs?
That is the question at the heart of Charity Detox. Drawing on his many decades of experience, Lupton outlines how to structure programs that actually improve the quality of life of the poor and disenfranchised. He introduces many strategies that are revolutionizing what we do with our charity dollars, and offers numerous examples of organizations that have successfully adopted these groundbreaking new models. Only by redirecting our strategies and becoming committed to results, he argues, can charity enterprises truly become as transformative as our ideals.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateJuly 7, 2015
- File size2072 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Lupton is one of the sharpest, freshest, sassiest community developers out there. He is helping us all become wiser so that we don’t settle for charity when we could have justice.” — Shane Claiborne, author of Irresistible Revolution
“When Bob Lupton speaks of the inner city, the rest of us ought to sit up and take notice... [His work is] deeply disturbing―in the best sense of the word.” — Philip Yancey, author of What Good Is God?
“Throughout reading Charity Detox the lyrics “How can it be wrong when it feels so right?” were buzzing in my head. That is the tension Lupton describes so deftly with practical illustrations of how we can change the dependency creating relationships formed by well-intentioned servers.” — Fred Smith, The Gathering
“His enthusiasm for this method is evident throughout the text and brings hope to readers that if more organizations adopted these practices, there really could be a better future ahead for all of us, not just the poor.” — Kirkus Reviews
“In Toxic Charity, Bob identified a weakness with charity as a tool for poverty reduction. In Charity Detox, Bob addresses the more complicated question of what might work better. Bob reaches the conclusion that wealth creation must replace wealth redistribution if poverty reduction is the goal.” — John Coors, Former CEO of CoorsTek
“[Charity] efforts, while necessary in a crisis, do little to improve people’s socioeconomic status. Lupton uses this well-worn critique of churches’ charitable activities as a springboard for positive action… all readers will find in this book a useful way to reexamine outreach programs.” — James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC
“Lupton uses [his] critique of churches’ charitable activities as a springboard for positive action…the author advocates that churches need to be more involved in communities by living and investing in them… all readers will find in this book a useful way to reexamine outreach programs.” — Library Journal
“Lupton continues his mission to transform the way charities operate. Most efforts to help relieve poverty are ineffective, he says...The road to charity hell has been paved with good intentions, but Lupton provides an inspiring roadmap for an alternate route.” — Spirituality and Health magazine
“Lupton weighs the future of effective efforts to reduce poverty . . . confronting popular practices and assumptions. . . . Inspiring.” — U.S. Catholic
“Lupton offers a roadmap for turning short-lived good intentions into lasting transformation [and shares] his vision for a new way of doing missions.” — Christianity Today
From the Back Cover
In his previous book Toxic Charity, Robert D. Lupton revealed the truth about modern charity programs meant to help the poor and disenfranchised. While charity makes donors feel better, he argued, it often hurts those it seeks to help. At the forefront of this burgeoning yet ineffective compassion industry are American churches, which spend billions on dependency- producing programs, including food pantries. But what would charity look like if we instead measured it by its ability to alleviate poverty and needs?
That is the question at the heart of Charity Detox. Drawing on his many decades of experience, Lupton outlines how to structure programs that actually improve the quality of life of the poor and disenfranchised. He introduces many strategies that are revolutionizing what we do with our charity dollars and offers numerous examples of organizations that have successfully adopted these groundbreaking new models. Only by redirecting our strategies and becoming committed to results, he argues, can charity truly become as transformative as our ideals.
About the Author
Robert D. Lupton is founder and president of Focused Community Strategies (FCS) Urban Ministries and author of several books, including Toxic Charity; Theirs Is the Kingdom; Return Flight; Renewing the City; and Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life. He also writes the widely circulated Urban Perspectives newsletter. He has a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia.
Product details
- ASIN : B00LZXBLCW
- Publisher : HarperOne; Reprint edition (July 7, 2015)
- Publication date : July 7, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 2072 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 208 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #608,985 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #56 in Philanthropy & Charity (Kindle Store)
- #114 in Poverty Studies
- #292 in Philanthropy & Charity (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Robert D. Lupton is founder and president of FCS (Focused Community Strategies) Urban Ministries and author of Toxic Charity; Theirs Is the Kingdom; Return Flight; Renewing the City; Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life; and the widely circulated “Urban Perspectives” newsletter. He has a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Georgia.
To learn more, visit www.fcsministries.org.
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Robert Lupton, a Presbyterian, believes that a chief part of the Church’s mission in the world is to relieve and reverse world poverty. I reject this remise as unbiblical. At the same time, we know that helping the poor is to be a norm of our Christian existence as God gives opportunity.
The author is also a revolutionary who champions radical reform in the world of charity and the aid industry. Lupton sees the vast majority of aid work in the world as unprofitable, even destructive, both materially and spiritually, to its recipients. To this my experience heartily agrees.
While criticism of the status quo is a point of this volume, it is not the main point. He has made that point elsewhere (Toxic Charity). This book is more about how to help the poor in ways that lead to genuine economic long-term benefit. In short, his book is a call to Christian businessmen to go into the world and use their business acumen to help the poor by creating jobs and teaching job skills. This, Lupton says, is what really works.
I found it very helpful to think through what the author is saying. It helps our family think through how to best help others who are in need.
Here are some quotes from the book that give a taste of what he communicates:
“Giving to people in need what they could be gaining from their own initiative may well be the kindest way to destroy them.”
“The fact is, we cannot serve others out of poverty, no matter how much we may want to. That is a core concept of both my mission and this book. And the reason I am so passionate about broadcasting this bad news about the status quo is that I care deeply about charity’s goals and results: I want to move people out of poverty. That is my life’s work.”
“The only effective charity is the kind that asks more from those being served, rather than less. Asking for more sends an affirming message to the recipient that he or she also has something of value to offer.”
“IS HURTFUL CHARITY BETTER than no charity at all? The answer is no.”
“One of the most significant, rational decisions that determine the outcome of our charity is distinguishing between crisis and chronic need. An emergency response to chronic need is at best counterproductive and, over time, is actually harmful.”
“The Creator has entrusted to all of us certain abilities that, when rightly employed, align us with our created purpose. That’s how we gain our lives. It is not unloving to expect people to do their part. Just the opposite. It is cruel to send the message that a person has nothing of worth to offer. Being needed is the ultimate affirmation of human worth. The compassionate volunteers of “compassion central,” in their zeal to help, have tragically missed this fundamental truth.”
“The only thing that will enable the poor to emerge from poverty is a decent job. And the primary creators of decent jobs are business people who believe deeply in the free - enterprise system.”
“The reality is that without for - profit, wealth - generating businesses, the poor will remain at a subsistence level, scratching out an existence, their hopes and dreams shackled to the daily pressures of survival.”
“We could offer to the poor our most valued talent: business acumen. Making money with the poor, after all, is the highest form of charity.”
“Only living - wage jobs can move the poverty needle — jobs that local residents create through their own hard work and ingenuity, and jobs produced by for - profit businesses created by outside investors and operators.”
Often our well meaning charity work and donations have done just the opposite. The author,who has been involved in successes and has seen many failures, provides examples of each and provides some direction to change our thinking. Whether you are an individual, a business person, on committees or boards that make decisions about charity, this book will stimulate thought provoking discussions about charity. Are we as a society willing to invest in the relationship building and job creation that illustrates that we truly value the poor and want to use their strengths and ours to better their lives and ultimately our own?
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of this book to hand out to new recruits in my non profit. Can’t afford it yet but I still refer them to this book.
My own example Mr. Lupton’s points: In pre-pandemic 2019, about 55% of our high school graduates were not grade-level proficient and were not career or college ready upon graduation. Why do we keep pouring billions of dollars into our education system that works for the 45% (who we need to keep progressing), but wastes the potential of the lower 55% (who obviously need something they are not getting—like a thriving job path)? We have to ask what do these 55% need, want and what they can or will to to help themselves if given the opportunity.
You can’t coach somebody who doesn’t want to play.
The 4 stars is because, even though the book is a good read with valuable insights, it’s very repetitive to me. He could have written the book in one chapter, but then it would not have been a book.