(MENAFN- The Conversation) Saturday, August 19 is – a time to remember the tremendous humanitarian need around the world.
The stark reality is that the world is facing the since 1945: are threatening millions of people in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, while an continues in Syria.
World Humanitarian Day is also a time to remember the sacrifice of those who risk their lives to serve. What often gets ignored, however, is the role that faith plays in people's desire to give and serve. This is where I focus my research.
Philanthropy and religion
Let's first look at available data to understand how much giving is tied to one's faith.
According to , the leading annual report of philanthropy in America, (narrowly defined as giving to houses of worship, denominations, missionary societies and religious media) made up 32 percent of all giving in America in 2016.
Another study found that 73 percent of all American giving went to a .
Many of these organizations make up the world's largest NGOs. For example, three of the top 10 biggest charities by total revenue last year (Catholic Charities, Salvation Army and National Christian Foundation) are explicitly religious. Religious agencies make up charities in the U.S.
It is true that factors such as wealth, income, education and marital status are all predictors of giving. But religious belief and practice are one of the best predictors.
Overall, religious Americans volunteer more, give more, and give more often not only to religious but secular causes as well. Among Americans who give to any cause, claim religious values as an important motivator for giving.
What religions tell us
These values of giving are deeply rooted in the texts, traditions and . Take, for example, the messages within the three Abrahamic faiths.
In Judaism, the Hebrew Scriptures refer to 'tzedakah,' literally meaning justice. a commandment and a moral obligation that all Jews should follow. The commitment to justice places a priority on their giving to help the poor. Beyond giving just time and money, rabbis even spoke of 'gemilut chasadim,' literally meaning loving-kindness, or focusing on right relationship with one another as the prerogative of religious giving.
Even more broadly, an ancient Jewish phrase, 'tikkun olam,' meaning to repair or heal the world, has been . , when he was president, would often refer to the phrase. So and 2016 presidential candidate . President George W. Bush of tikkun olam in his second inaugural address.
Similarly, the Christian tradition has considered giving a key religious practice. Many Christians still look to the Hebrew Bible and the tithe (giving one-tenth of an individual's income) .
In the New Testament, Jesus spoke of giving not only a tithe but challenged followers to give far beyond it. For instance, in the Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions. Pursuing those values, a long monastic tradition has seen men and women taking vows of poverty to . Today, while the tithe might not be practiced by a majority of Christians, most understand the practice of giving as a .
For Muslims, giving is one of the five pillars of Islam. 'Zakat' (meaning to grow in purity) is an annual payment of 2.5 percent of one's assets, considered by many as the minimum obligation of their religious giving. A majority of Muslims worldwide .
Above and beyond the required zakat, many Muslims make additional gifts (referred to broadly as 'sadaqa'). Interestingly, the word shares the same root as the Jewish 'tzedakah,' meaning justice. also focuses primarily on the poor.
Of course, charitable giving is not just for the rich. For those with no money to give, the Prophet Muhammad considered even the to be charity, a gift to another.
Building a community An aid worker in Addis Ababa. ,
Religious traditions are clear that the value of giving does not simply rest with those receiving the gift. Givers themselves benefit. As sociologist makes clear, there is a – in giving we receive and in grasping we lose.
At the same time, the goal of religious giving is not just about what it brings to individuals. Rather, it is more a focus on human interaction and a vision of community.
Perhaps most famously, the 12th-century Rabbi Maimonides outlined – the lowest being giving grudgingly and the highest to sustain, but also to empower a person to no longer need charity.
Maimonides made clear it is not so much the amount of giving but how one gives that is important in establishing a relationship between the giver and the recipient. Giving should avoid humiliation, superiority and dependence.
With the majority of global citizens belonging to a religious tradition, it should be no surprise that religion often becomes the greatest asset in humanitarian work. Whether fighting AIDS, malaria or poverty, the development community has realized that the success of local programs so often turns on . The engagement of the local imam or priest is essential.
Just a few years ago, the humanitarian industry was convinced of the truth of this view when they found that a majority of the health care workers left on the ground in the midst of the . Faith was the chief motivator for those both funding and serving in some of the most difficult parts of the world.
The positive side to faith
It is true that too often, faith also appears to serve as the motivation for exclusion, bigotry and hate: Brutal terrorism by the , , of mosques, synagogues and churches across the United States and even the , illustrate how religions can also be used to promote violence.
When it comes to humanitarian aid, there are certainly of religious aid agencies whose work does not follow – for example, the prohibition against discriminating or proselytizing before giving aid.
But returning to the centrality of religious giving, evil in the name of religion does not have the last word.
A priest and a nun work together to send aid supplies. ,
Take the case of the United Nations staffer Michael Sharp, working for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo this past March. Sharp had worked earlier with the , a humanitarian organization set up for alternative military service by the Mennonites, a historic peace church. Sharp's faith guided his call to peacemaking.
There are many such examples around the world where people of faith were moved to shared solidarity. It was their faith work that to protect local Coptic Christians at this year's Easter services after repeated attacks on the Christian minority by Islamic terrorists. It was the same with this past June who hid fellow Christians in their homes to protect them from Islamic State fighters.
In working through the mandate of our various religious traditions towards the healing of the world, we often come to understand that we have more in common than we had initially realized. And perhaps, we might want to remember this, as we commemorate World Humanitarian Day.
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