Tim Keller has said that a Christian is someone who knows that they need to repent not only for the wrong things they do, but for the reasons they do the right things. That is to say, whatever we do, no matter how seemingly altruistic, almost always has some sort of selfish motivation mixed in – as Joey points out to Phoebe in “The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS” (or so my wife tells me). Who would’ve thought that Joey Tribbiani would subscribe to what Calvin (following Sts. Augustine and Paul) called “total depravity”?
Further illustrating this point was a recent episode of the Planet Money Podcast, “Why Raising Money for Ebola is so Hard.” Apparently, even though Ebola is on track to kill thousands of people and has been almost obsessively covered by American media, thus far hardly any money has been donated to stop it. Contrast this with the Haiti earthquake ($1.4B raised from American citizens) and the Indian Ocean Tsunami ($1.6B), and the question arises, why?
According to the experts interviewed by Planet Money, Ebola hasn’t generated any American philanthropy because it doesn’t fit the following criteria:
- It doesn’t entail any galvanizing moment, i.e. Ebola is not an event in the way that Haiti or the Tsunami were.
- West Africa is far away (or at least much farther than Haiti).
- Ebola is complicated. It’s not as easy to understand as a natural disaster.
- Donating to Ebola relief won’t involve building anything. It’s not to make things better, just to prevent them from getting worse.
- We don’t have the kinds of shocking images that we did of Haiti and the tsunami (and ISIS and Ray Rice, it could be noted.)
Wrap all of these factors up, as well as a few others mentioned by the Planet Money crew, and what becomes obvious is that people don’t really give in order to help others, but in order to make themselves feel good about helping others, and they give in very predictable ways. People may not be rational, but they are consistent.
Jesus made it abundantly clear that God cares just as much (perhaps even more!) about why we do things than about what we actually do(see Romans 14). With a bit of self-reflection, we begin to see that almost everything we do is self-serving, if only to convince ourselves of our own goodness. If God’s standard is perfect acts motivated by perfect love, then all of our supposed righteousness is truly like “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64.6) and we are in dire need of our own great Philanthropist.
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3 responses to “Ebola, “Friends” and the Reasons We Give”
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Cool connections made here. I’m not sure that “good deeds do not exist”, that is, I’m not sure about the notion of TOTAL depravity. I don’t think that language, associated with Calvin/Augustine, is very useful. Human beings are a mixed bag. Depravity is a part of that mix. I totally agree that “whatever we do, no matter how seemingly altruistic, almost always has some sort of selfish motivation mixed in.” But I also wonder if that isn’t ok?
“Jokingly but with a great deal of seriousness, Father Damascus would say, ‘Don’t worry about purifying your motives. Simply know that they aren’t pure, and proceed’.” – Brother David Steindl-Rast
Benjamin –
Thanks for reading and commenting! I think that the idea behind total depravity (the name is a bit misleading and I didn’t get it myself for a while) is not that everything we do is 100% sinful, but that 100% of what we do is tinged by sin, i.e. nothing is pure, except, perhaps, for those good deeds we do thoughtlessly, naturally, by the power of the Holy Spirit, “not letting our right know what you left hand is doing.” My hunch is that, when we get to heaven and God says “good job”, the deeds to which He will be referring will be ones we don’t even remember performing, ala Matthew 25.
And I love the Brother David quote, and completely agree. Luther might say “sin boldly”(!).
Thanks R-J!
I do think the “total depravity” notion is a bit misleading, which is why I don’t think that language is very useful. I agree that everything we do is tinged with sin. So I guess I accept the doctrine of “total depravity”. But I also think that everything we do is tinged with the restless longing for God, for what is good, for what is beautiful, for what is just–even when what we do is clearly not good, beautiful, just. We channel that restless longing in lots of unhealthy ways, but we are MADE for goodness, constantly being “drawn by the stronger pull of what we really love”. There is that of God in everyone. Even in our most depraved state, we are still of God. Depravity and goodness are two sides of our nature. So if we go with the “total depravity” doctrine, then we also have to go with the “inextinguishable goodness” doctrine. Calvin describes the human mind as “a sink and lurking place for every sort of filth.” True. But it is also a sink for all that is most beautiful and holy in the human spirit–music, art, poetry, laughter, prayer, love, service. Of course, of the many things M-Bird has to teach us, chief among them is not to overestimate our capacity to choose virtues over vices. But I am simply saying–goodness is a part of human nature. Which of course, you’d agree with. I just feel it needs saying as a caveat whenever we start talking about “total depravity”.