Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week ("Charity")
June 1—7, 2024 | THIS WEEK: “Charity”
Opening Line of the Week
It took a second for this opening line to sink in, as the saying goes, but it captured my interest as soon as I realized it was a tweaking of the proverb “Charity covers a multitude of sins.” The proverb is based on a famous biblical passage:
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” — The Bible: 1 Peter 4:8 (KJV)
Early Christians were a scorned and persecuted lot, and in this passage, Peter was urging them to respond to those who mistreated them with love and goodness in their hearts, much like Jesus did with those who persecuted him. The phrase “charity shall cover the multitude of sins” meant that this love thy enemies approach didn’t just apply to occasional acts of wrongdoing but to all manner of transgressions (more on this later).
In Merriman’s The Sowers, set in tsarist Russia in the 1890s, the novel begins with a man named Karl Steinmetz saying to Prince Paul Alexis, “In this country charity covers no sins.” As soon as I realized this was an allusion to St. Paul’s message to early Christians, I realized that this was Steinmetz’s attempt to describe a country governed not by charitable and merciful figures, but by cold-hearted tyrants who employed harsh and oppressive methods to keep people in line.
Some months before Steinmetz made the comment, he and Prince Paul were devastated to see The League of Charity, an organization they founded to aid impoverished peasants, crushed by authorities. The two men also began to be considered political dissidents, and the novel begins with them fleeing the country. The opening line nicely sets the tone for a dystopian tale about decent people struggling to live and function under an authoritarian regime.
For nearly 2,000 memorable opening lines from every genre of world literature, go to www.GreatOpeningLines.com.
This Week’s Puzzler
On May 29, 1903, this man was born (as Leslie Townes _____ ) in a borough of London. In 1908, at age five, he moved with his family to America, settling in Cleveland. From age twelve, he dreamed about a career in Vaudeville, and he demonstrated exceptional early talent as a singer, impersonator, tap dancer, and comedian. He also showed impressive skills as a boxer, fighting for several years under the name Packy East.
When he died at age 100 in 2003, he had forged one of the longest and most successful careers in entertainment history. In addition to his many films—including seven classic “Road To” pictures with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour—he was the star of scores of radio and television specials. And for millions of servicemen and women around the world, he will be forever remembered for the fifty-seven USO tours that began during WWII and continued for decades.
This week’s Mystery Man hosted the Academy Awards ceremonies 18 times. One of his favorite themes was joking about how much he desired an Oscar, but never got one. He even began one opening monologue by saying, “Welcome to the Academy Awards—or as it’s known at my house, Passover.”
In a 1991 issue of Reader’s Digest, he was quoted as saying:
Who is this man? (Answer below)
How Much Charity Do You Have in Your Heart?
The American Heritage Dictionary defines charity this way:
As most of you know, I love dictionary definitions, and this one is particularly comprehensive, with five separate senses of the word.
The first two capture the most common ways in which the word charity is used today. They both use the archaic word alms, which means “a gift of money or goods given as charity to the poor.” I learned for the first time this week that alms derives from—and in fact is a shortened form of—the Greek eleēmosynē, meaning “pity, mercy, or compassion.” If that Greek root looks familiar to you, it’s because it also gave us a word long favored by language lovers: eleemosynary (see pronunciation guide here).
I heard eleemosynary for the very first time during the 1973 Senate Watergate Hearings, when Sam Ervin, the colorful senator from North Carolina, used it to refer to charitable organizations. While it continues to be somewhat obscure, it’s become a word that all—and I do mean all—Spelling Bee contestants learn early in their quests. If you have any Spelling Bee aspirants in your family, you can see for yourself. But remember, when you ask them to spell the word, make sure you pronounce it correctly.
The AHD’s third sense is a concise description of any organization or effort that is known as a charity. The fourth is a crystal-clear statement of what might be called a charitable outlook, a view of the world that is comprised primarily of two well-known qualities: benevolence and generosity. The fifth and final sense presented a real problem for me, though, because I struggled with the meanings of both indulgence and forbearance.
After a little digging, I discovered that the primary meaning of indulgence is yielding to a desire, often one associated with appetite or pleasure. We also see the phenomenon at play with, say, indulgent grandparents, who are quick to gratify the wishes and whims of their grandkids. A related term is self-indulgence, which means giving in to your own personal wishes or preferences, often at the expense of quality or excellence. Both terms are generally viewed negatively, and for good reason.
However, I also learned this week that indulgence has been historically viewed as a readiness to understand, accept, or forgive the faults or wrongdoing of others. Here, indulgence is positive trait, suggesting a kind, generous, and tolerant attitude toward others, especially when their actions are questionable or might even deserve criticism.
Regarding forbearance, the formal definition is: “Toleration and restraint in the face of provocation.” The word has been out of fashion for quite some time, but it’s always meant pretty much the same thing—not reacting negatively when provoked. Forbearance is a form of self-restraint that, when exercised, helps us resist the understandable urge to condemn, retaliate, or respond in kind.
Learning this, I was able to see the biblical passage mentioned earlier in a whole new way. In 1 Peter 4:8, Peter was urging early Christians to use forbearance to resist the natural tendency to retaliate against those who wronged them. Following the teaching of Jesus to “love your enemies,” the idea was not to mirror the bad behavior of the wrongdoers, but to win them over to the righteous path with the power of divine love.
We don’t see this kind of charity being described—or even manifested—too often these days, but the greatest act of forbearance I’ve seen in my lifetime occurred in 2015, shortly after Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist killed nine African-American parishioners at a Bible study class at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
A few days later, at Roof’s first formal court appearance, many of the surviving family members publicly forgave him. Anthony Thompson, whose wife Myra was among the victims, said directly to the murderer, “I forgive you. And my family forgives you. But we would like you to take this opportunity to repent.” This willingness to forgive, even in the face of such a profound loss, perfectly illustrated a commitment to extend charity in the way Jesus himself might have done it.
If you will excuse my saying so, I’d like to thank you for your indulgence as I engaged in one of my favorite activities—taking a dictionary definition and exploring the many facets that contribute to the meaning of a word. Now, let us return to the question I posed at the start: “How much charity do you have in your heart?”
Remembering that the core meaning of charity is a spirit of generosity toward those in need, it is now common for people to associate charity with the donation of money to charitable organizations. That, in itself, does not make people charitable. In a 1713 essay, Joseph Addison reminded us:
When significant amounts of money are given as charitable donations, it’s called philanthropy. But the root meaning of the word—love of humanity—suggests something that goes well beyond financial generosity. True philanthropy is not about donating money to get a big tax write-off, it’s a form of large-scale altruism.
There are many influential philanthropists in American history, but the one with the most lasting legacy is Andrew Carnegie. After selling his mega-successful steel company in 1901, he was involved in scores of philanthropic efforts, but none can compare to the role he played in financing the construction of over 2,500 public libraries all across the United States.
Two of the most prominent modern philanthropists are Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, co-founders of the Giving Pledge, an initiative that encourages billionaires around the world to commit the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. Buffett, despite his immense wealth, continues to live modestly and has pledged over 99% of his wealth to philanthropy. And Gates, through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is not far behind.
Most people don’t have the money to formally engage in philanthropy, so their preferred way of being charitable is to voluntarily give their time, energy, and skills to helping others. Because they’re doing this without remuneration or expectation of personal gain, volunteering is the very embodiment of charity. Whether serving meals at a shelter, entertaining hospice patients with a therapy pet, teaching ESL to new immigrants, tutoring a dyslexic student, cleaning up a city park, or the gazillion other ways to help people in need, volunteering is all about about selfless love and compassion. In a 1993 issue of Christopher News Notes, a publication of the Christian society known as The Christophers, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said it well:
Bearing in mind Joseph Addison’s earlier words that charity is “a habit of good will or benevolence in the soul,” there are countless numbers of people who, simply by being themselves, are charitable every day of the year. If you’re a cheerful person, for example, this describes you. In The Hidden Power of Kindness (1962), Lawrence Lovasik wrote:
“Cheerfulness is a very great help in fostering the virtue of charity. Cheerfulness itself is a virtue.”
So is kindness, and helpfulness, and thoughtfulness, and the willingness to listen. These are not grand acts of generosity, but they are acts of charity all the same. When we choose to offer someone patience instead of an irritated shortness, a warm smile instead of a chilly indifference, or a few minutes of time and attention instead of a cold shoulder, we are, in essence, practicing charity. And in a world too often marked by annoyance and churlishness, these seemingly small gestures may be the most powerful form of charity we can offer.
This week, spend a little time thinking about how much charity you have in your heart. In particular, think about the times when you were charitable, and the impact it had on the recipient. And also give some thought to the many “missed opportunities,” the times in life you could have been charitable, but weren’t.
You might also want to consider asking a close friend or loved one, “If you were to rate how charitable or uncharitable I am as a person, where would you place me on a zero to ten scale, and why did you choose that number?” When the person begins talking, don’t interrupt or show non-receptive body language if they say something you don’t like. Just listen. And when they say, “That’s it! I’m done,” pause for a second and say, “What else? This is very helpful.” People often need a little extra help in getting to the really important stuff.
If you currently regard yourself as a charitable person, also spend some time thinking about the people you most admire most in life. If they tend to be people with a well-established reputation for generosity of spirit, give yourself a pat on the back for selecting worthy role models.
However, if many of your personal heroes are people who are commonly regarded as negative, dismissive, insulting, and denigrating of people they don’t like, you might want to revisit the question of how truly charitable you really are.
As usual , let your thinking be stimulated by this week's selection of quotations on the subject:
To forgive offenses is an act of charity, because it proceeds from love of God and neighbor. — Thomas Aquinas
For those who are not hungry, it is easy to palaver about the degradation of charity. — Charlotte Brontë
That charity which longs to publish itself ceases to be charity. — Eliza Cook
When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. — Dinah Craik
We are obligated to be more scrupulous in fulfilling the commandment of charity than any other positive commandment because charity is the sign of a righteous man. — Moses Maimonides
In the economy of divine charity we have only as much as we give. — Thomas Merton
Lots of people think they’re charitable if they give away their old clothes and things they don’t want. — Myrtle Reed
As for charity, it is injurious unless it helps the recipient become independent of it. — John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Ah! What a divine religion might be found out, if charity were really made the principle of it, instead of faith. — Percy Bysshe Shelley
Charity begins today. Today somebody is suffering, today somebody is in the street, today somebody is hungry. Our work is for today, yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. — Mother Teresa
For source information on these quotations, and many others on the topic of CHARITY, go here.
Cartoon of the Week:
Answer to This Week’s Puzzler:
Bob Hope (1903 - 2003)
Dr. Mardy’s Observation of the Week:
Thanks for joining me again this week. See you next Sunday morning, when the theme will be “The End, or The Beginning.”
Mardy Grothe
Websites: www.drmardy.com and www.GreatOpeningLines.com
Regarding My Lifelong Love of Quotations: A Personal Note
Thanks again Mardy for your clear exposition on charity. It reminded me of the touching poem by Ellen Bass called, “If You Knew.” She looks at how close we all are to death and the value of simple charity. She begins the poem, “What if you knew you’d be the last to touch someone? If you were taking tickets, for example, at the theater, tearing them, giving back the ragged stubs, you might take care to touch the palm, brush your fingertips along the life line’s crease.” She ends the brilliant poem with these lines. “What would people look like if we could see them as they are, soaked in honey, stung and swollen, reckless, pinned against time?” Maybe we will be most remembered when we are gone not by our riches, but by the charity and love we left behind.
That's a great exposition on charity, getting to the nuance and richness of the concept. Your exploration of the dictionary definitions and the use of the word in the New Testament help a lot.
Let me add a little on the New Testament use of the word charity. Although I'm not a religious person, I have a strong interest (like Thomas Jefferson) in the Christian ethic. Because of that I have studied Koine Greek, which the New Testament was originally written in.
In the scripture 1 Corinthians 13 the apostle Paul discusses charity at length:
Chapter 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
That's a lot about charity, and Paul seems to exalt charity as a virtue above all others, which is odd in the modern meaning of charity. Most Christian churches have little emphasis on charity. And it turns out that the real word in 1 Corinthians 13 should be love rather than charity. That is, a selfless love like the love of Christ for all mankind.
The word love is the usual translation of the Greek word "agape". No normal scholar would translate agape as charity, it would always be love. The first translator of the Bible from Greek into English, William Tyndale, in 1526 used love in 1 Corinthians 13 rather than charity.
So why did the King James translators use charity? They were careful in their translations, and their efforts in writing the King James version resulted in a poetic and powerful English text that few modern translations can match. (For example, the above scripture uses the phrase "through a glass darkly". That phrase has resonated. As one commentator notes: "Wikipedia indicates that it is not only the English title of a film by Ingmar Bergman, but the title of 7 TV episodes, 2 music albums, 2 pop songs, 1 oratorio, 1 song cycle, a chamber symphony, 4 novels, 2 poems, 2 poetry collections, a play, a biography, a short story collection, and a story by Agatha Christie.")
Did the translators make a mistake here? The answer is that they were heavily influenced by a Latin translation of the New Testament called the Latin Vulgate that was prepared by St. Jerome in the late 4th century and had been used in the Christian church for 1,000 years. Back then the Christian church was spreading outside the geographic nucleus that understood Greek so a Latin version was needed.
St. Jerome translated the Greek word agape to the Latin word caritas. That was, and still is for that matter, the best word choice. But since then as the English language evolved but the dead languages Greek and Latin didn't the choice became an awkward one.
By 1611 when the King James translators did their work the word love was already a better choice for agape. But they realized that much of Christian thought and commentary still used the Latin word caritas that was best translated as charity. Back then charity still had the meaning of selfless love toward others, more strongly than it does today, rather than the meaning of giving to the poor.
So I have to agree with all modern translations of 1 Corinthians 13 that use love instead of charity. But I am glad that we have the charity choice of the King James version to think on too. The best charity is when we give anonymously to people we don't know receive our gift. That love is undeserved, but we give it anyway. The pure love of Christ is that way too, undeserved but given anyway.