Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Five Things to Give Your Money to Instead of a Border Wall

Five Things to Give Your Money to Instead of a Border Wall

Last updated on: December 20, 2018 at 7:52 pm by Mary Pezzulo

Five Things to Give Your Money to Instead of a Border Wall 2018-12-20T19:52:45-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I will be back on later with my continuing Advent series on the O Antiphons. I’m getting them up a day early so you can plan ahead, so tonight’s, O Clavis David, is already up if you want to pray vespers now. Tomorrow’s antiphon, O Oriens, will be on later tonight or early tomorrow morning. But I have to take a moment and say something about the latest antics in President Trump’s never-ending push to build a wall across the Southern border of the United States.

For those of you who are mercifully unaware of this lunacy: a person by the name of Brian Kolfage has started a gofundme for private citizens to do what the Republican-controlled Congress has not yet managed to do and fund President Trump’s long-promised border wall. You know, the one Trump said that Mexico was going to pay for. The one he then tried to get funded by American taxpayer money instead, because it turns out that an American president can’t just randomly shake down a neighboring country for money like that, but he swore he’d find a way for Mexico to pay us back. At the time I’m writing this, Congress is standing firm on refusing to fund the border wall even though the president just a moment ago said he’d refuse to sign any measures to prevent government shutdown that didn’t include five billion dollars for the wall’s construction. Starting in January we’ll have a Democratic house, so this represents the government’s last chance to budget for Trump’s vanity project until 2020 or possibly never.

That’s where the gofundme comes in. Xenophobes all over the country, red-blooded libertarians who no doubt think taxation is theft, have given lavishly to the gofundme. They have scraped together about five million dollars, which is not even one per cent of the billion they hoped to raise, which would in turn be just a fifth of what’s needed. It has been pointed out that there is absolutely no way to ensure that the federal government uses that money for the border wall; donations of this kind are legal, but just go into the treasury to be used on whatever Congress wants. Congress could even use it to fund something wickedly anti-Libertarian like Medicaid if they wanted to.

Now, I’m not going to tell you that you can’t give your money to some random stranger who promises that he’ll give it right back if he can’t raise a cool billion to donate to the U. S. Treasury. That’s your business. But I would like to humbly offer some other options you might find more palatable to do with your money at Christmastime.

First of all, I guess you can give some to me. I live on blog tips from satisfied or compassionate readers and I’ve always wanted a Lexus. Just click on the “donate” tab at the top of this post, then click on the yellow button, and Paypal will walk you through the rest. If I don’t get enough for a Lexus, and even if I do get enough for a Lexus, I promise to spend it on actual things I need more than a Lexus such as medicine and groceries and helping people poorer than I am. This is a joke suggestion, for the record, because I’m sure I’m going to be asked. But if you have nothing better to do with your money you can give it to me and I’ll at least have some fun.

Or, way more interestingly, you could donate your money to another gofundme, Ladders to Get over Trump’s Wall. This is a fundraiser trying to see if it can out-fund the Wall fundraiser; the money will actually go to RAICES, an organization that helps immigrants seeking legal asylum.

You could also give your money to Immigrant Families Together, an organization seeking to bail people out of the terrible inhumane prisons set up for migrants at the Southern border and get them back together with their families. Immigrant Families Together then finds housing for the migrants as they await their Asylum hearing and gets them any food and supplies they need until they can legally work in the United States.

You could give your money to Dinah’s Voice, a nonprofit that combats sexual violence at Catholic colleges and universities through education in consent and prevention. Dinah’s Voice is run by sexual assault survivors who were recently attacked in an article by the miserable curmudgeon Austin Ruse, and if you want to make Austin Ruse especially angry you can buy one of the t-shirts they’ve made with a Twitter quote of his on it. Or you can just donate to them here.

You could give to The Friendship Room. The Friendship Room is a privately-run hospitality house in Downtown Steubenville that serves three meals a day to the city’s poor, seven days a week. They keep a cooler of sandwiches on the porch for people to take when they have to be closed. They have showers and a nice warm living room for homeless people to use during the day. They are open all night to provide safe places to sleep during severe cold. They provide an air conditioned shelter, water and popsicles for people in the summer. They host summer movie nights and a little free library. They pass out clothing and supplies to the homeless and bedding and other necessities to the poor who have housing; they also run two safe houses for vulnerable women. When Michael, Rosie and I were desperate, they bailed us out more than once, and now I try to return the favor for them however I can. You can donate money to them on facebook by clicking here, or you can mail them a check made out to Center of Hope/Friendship Room, PO Box 53, Steubenville, Oh, 43952. You can also buy supplies for them and have them shipped to that same address: they always need groceries and family-friendly books for their library; they also always need Dawn dish detergent, laundry soap, coffee, powdered creamer, coffee stir sticks and plastic utensils. In addition they always need fresh produce to hand out, soft produce is best for the teeth of homeless people, so you could bring fruit if you live locally or send them one of those Holiday crates of oranges or a fruit basket. Bear in mind that if you shop for them on Amazon, you can go to smile.amazon.com, select “Center of Hope Friendship Room” as your charity, then shop as you normally would and have the items shipped directly to them, and they will receive a small donation from that purchase at no cost to you.

I think that Christmastime ought to be more about giving generously, than about keeping people out. Christmas should draw our minds to the first coming of Christ, as a homeless infant the world had no place for– and to His second coming which we’re promised will be any day now. He is returning, you know. This is something that Christians cannot deny. When He gets here, I want to run out to meet Him with an armload of gifts, not cringe from Him behind a wall I’ve built with the resources He entrusted to me.

That’s much more important to me than a Lexus. Though I suppose both would be nice.

(image via Pixabay)

Public face of Catholicism

Donald Trump. Friendship Room

fruit

Immigrant Families Together

RAICES

Second Coming

supplies

Previous Post

December 19, 2018

O Clavis David

Next Post

December 20, 2018 O Oriens

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did the devil tempt Jesus to turn into bread?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Sand Fish Stones Wood