Matthew 6.1-4 -'publicity giving'

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
One of the things that comes to mind for me as I reflect on this passage is corporate charitable giving. There were plenty examples of this on the recent Red Nose day where plenty of firms and plc's were making sure that they raised money or gave money and that their branding was part of it. So how do we assess this in the light of the passage we're considering?

I suggest that we first recall what the passage says and be realistic about what happens in corporate giving. The passage tells us that practising piety in order to be seen and approved of earns no reward from God because the reward of being noticed is gained. THen we should notice that corporations are legally bound to maximise profit for their shareholders and that really is their bottom line. They are not doing things ultimately to please God but their shareholders. There is no shame in this, at one level; that's simply what they are supposed to do, it would be odd to expect them to aim to do something beyond the scope of their deeds of their creation. [Now I actually have issues theologically with this but for the time being it'll do]. The plc's give money to charity and put their brand on it in the hope that the feelgood factor we have about a good cause being helped will rub off on them and so help their brand image and ultimately contribute to their profits; a fairly cheap piece of advertising in fact.

I don't think that we should read the passeage as having a down on this; it is simply pointing out that if they are looking for the reward of being noticed practising charitable giving, then they have that reward. What the passage is saying further is that we should not confuse this behaviour with pleasing God: if pleasing God is the aim then it could well be and probably is better being practised in secret so that it really is for God's eyes and the fact of other eyes seeing it doesn't subvert piety into showing-off.

I think that we should be careful too of disparaging the raising of money for good causes by such means. There is no doubt in my mind that it is better to use money for the improvement of human welfare than not to: every human institution should serve human welfare in God's economy and wherever money is recalled to this aim, it should be celebrated. We are simply being reminded that we shouldn't invest any more significance in it or simply attribute godliness to it. It's not to say, either, that there may not be goodwill involved: it may be that Christians, for example, have worked within an organisation to convince them to do this and perhaps even to propose particular good works because they have a sense of the good that it would do. This is part of recalling money to its purpose of serving human welfare.

Where I think that we need to be alert is how such fundraising affects our attitudes. Firstly, in the light of this passage, we should be wary of imitating the corporate [or sometimes individual] attittude of using charitable giving as publicity; as a means of gaining good regard by others for ourselves: that way lies spiritual dangers of being more interested in reputation than in the things of God. This passage is an application of the idea of seeking first God's agenda placed in the realm of almsgiving. In fact the important thing for us as individuals is to cultivate an attitude of almost-instinctive generosity [where right hand doesn't know what the left is doing].

Another thing we need to take into account is the thing about not being overly impressed by 'publicity giving': let's celebrate that good is being done but let's also be wary of transferring too much kudos to the giver so that we become uncritical of the ill that corporations can do in pursuit of profit.

The point of Jesus's observation here is not to make us into grumblers always casting a cynical eye over fundraising events [I can't see how God's agenda is furthered by doing this constantly] but rather to encourage us to go about things differently; to make sure that we don't make a paradigm out of what we see so often and the celebration of 'goodness' that often accompanies and is implied in publicity-giving.

What publicity-giving is doing is taking something which is good and turning it also into an opportunity for self-advertising. This endangers purity of heart. However, since corporations are not strictly speaking the subjects or objects of personal salvation, this doesn't apply to them strictly. I think that leaves room for Christians to work with the coprorations to try to direct their money in ways that serve human welfare; just let's not give this corporate behaviour more signicance than it deserves. We actually doing something of a Robin Hood when we redirect corporate money like this.

Crosswalk.com - Matthew 6:1 - 4:

Link: http://bible1.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=Matthew 6%3A1 - 4§ion=0&version=nrs&new=1&oq=&NavBook=mt&NavGo=6&NavCurrentChapter=6