The charities I have regularly given to have included Oxfam, Children in Need and Christians Against Poverty [CAP]. Of those, I've only recently been passionate about Oxfam and CAP. Children in Need was one of those instances of being caught in the high street by someone with a clipboard, and after one year I stopped the money going out from my bank account.
I will buy Fairtrade products if they are available, and I was going to buy one of the items anyway. I don't often drop spare change in the plastic collection containers next to shop tills, and I have almost never given spare change to charity reps or homeless people in the street.
There are definately some conflicting items on this list, but I'm thinking here about what I'm passionate about, because that is what usually fuels my decision to act on the variety of good causes available.
There isn't a shortage a good causes to donate to, or get involved in, in the world. An example that I've never had any link to at all is the RSPCA. I think their cause is good, but I'm not passionate enough about it to adopt a puppy. I've seen some people, however, who wouldn't understand why I haven't.
I think it must be possible to be so passionate and informed on the subject of a cause, that you fail to see how it could not be a concern to everyone. In fact, if you were to question someone, you may find yourself confused that they agree that a cause is important, yet they are not moved enough to change their lifestyle because of this. This apparent contradiction might lead you to the belief that when they agreed that it was important, they must have been lying!
Or, have you ever felt harassed by someone who has ended up repeating the facts about their cause or belief, as if they expected you to 'get it' at any moment and leap at the chance to help their work? As you left them, can you imagine them thinking that you didn't sign up because you must not have understood what they said?
I think that there is a difference between knowing in your mind that something is important, and feeling in your heart a passion for it. The latter is more likely to inspire action. I also think that a single human being can only be passionate about a limited amount of causes.
Knowing that something is important could mean knowing that it is important to someone far removed from you. It would follow, in that case, that it might be very unimportant to you, and therefore there might not be much sense of urgency in the situation. If someone wailed at me through tears "But WHY won't you adopt the poor ickle puppy from RSPCA?? He's so lonely!!" "Well, he might be lonely, but I'm not. Sad for him, I know. Try next door..."
Sometimes, you could buck the trend and decide to act on something you have agreed is important but that you feel no particular passion for. The decision might have been based on knowledge instead of direct feeling for the issue (although I think this is pretty rare!) This would be the case for my brief Children in Need donating period. (This same decision, though, can often have the effect of creating passion for the issue. I'll probably write more about this another time...)
If trying to rally people to your cause, you are physically limited to throwing information at them. You cannot directly influence their hearts or feelings. You just have to hope that the information informs them of something that their hearts will react to. But that's all you have- Hope.
I believe that you can make someone informed, but only God can make them passionate. Nothing physical, not even ourselves, are able to control our passions. The influence must be external.
See another post about Love...
Image source: http://adorablay.wordpress.com/2007/02/06/
