Unfettered Charity - The Methamphetamine of Developing Nations

Lest you think I'm being hyperbolic with the title of this post, let's look at what happens to healthy, capable people when they get hooked on meth. Here's a before and after picture of an actual meth addict. They say it only takes one hit of meth for you to be hooked. From there you quickly abandon any healthy pursuits and your life becomes consumed with doing whatever you can to get your next fix. You'll betray family and friends, commit crimes and even sell your own body to get the money for meth.

Eventually you're so lost that you can't take care of yourself. You have no capacity to fend for yourself or get out of the addiction that's killing you. Someone has to intervene and get you on the road to recovery. Often for this to happen you have to hit bottom and be willing to accept help. Immediately after that the source of your addiction has to be taken away or you have to be taken away from it.

Unfettered charity...and by that I mean charity without any limitations, expectations, boundaries, or accountability...is exactly like methamphetamine. It takes very little to get people hooked. Once on it they become so dependent that they soon lose any sense of self-respect and will do anything to keep getting it. If you don't believe that's true take a few minutes and research the leaders in many African countries that today are allowing the Chinese to plunder their resources and enslave their own people as long as the money pours in. And the Chinese are just the latest in a long line of benevolent nations looking to take advantage of Africa, the United States included.

Meth addicts don't give up their addiction easily and the victims of our charity won't either. They will need help. In this analogy what I'm proposing is not only risky but, for some, may be impossible. I'm asking the meth pusher to stop supplying the drug to the addict. More than that, I'm saying the pusher must not only take the drugs away but must then hang in there with the addict as they go through withdrawal and then walk with them into recovery. Help them restore their sense of self, rediscover their capabilities, and re-engage as fully functional members of the global society.

This will be hard because at every step along the way the pusher, driven by a misbegotten notion of compassion, will be tempted to bring out just a little hit to get the addict over a rough patch. If we who have created this problem can't overcome our natural inclination to throw money at people who are in need then there is no hope for recovery. My prayer is that God will give us the strength to make this switch. If we can't we're no better than a dealer cooking up another batch of meth.