My curiosity got the better of me. I typically have no interest in any of the reality shows that clog our airwaves these days. The counterfeit, cringe-worthy, narcissistic drama of the typical soap opera masquerading as reality is far from Christian entertainment. But when I saw the advertisement for the new Fox show Secret Millionaire I was intrigued.
The setup, for those unfamiliar, is that millionaires make a show of leaving their plush palaces for a week to go slumming incognito for a week with just $110 to live on for the duration. The object if for these fortunate folks to see how the other 80% live and to seek out those in these depressed communities helping their fellow man. At the end of the week, they dramatically reveal their wealth to the folks they have met and give at least $100,000 of their own money to those in need.
I will admit that my curiosity was tempered by what I expected to be the format of the show. Plenty of forced drama, long takes, and icky condescension. In this regard, my expectations were met. The producers make quite a show of the wealth of the clandestine well to do. Admittedly, my icko-meter really spikes at the view of such public and semi-masturbatory philanthropy.
With all that said, I have found he show riveting in a way I did not expect. I find the journey of the rich from narcissistic bluster to Christmas morning Ebenezer enlightenment rather mundane. What grabbed me is the people they encounter along the way. Last week, A wealthy father and son, while removing items from their shopping cart for fear of running out of money, encountered a woman on the supermarket line who inquired about their situation. They noticed that she was buying a lot of food and milk and they asked her why. She said that she runs a kitchen for the 30+ homeless out of her house. Intrigued, they offered to help her with her home with the groceries.
At her house they saw that she not only fed the homeless but sheltered a few, including families and children as well. This woman did all this without grants or trust funds. She fed and sheltered dozens of people each day with little more than her social security check and the love in her heart. This lady had nothing and she helped more people each day than I probably ever have.
This week we met woman who got hooked on drugs when her child died and spent fifteen years in and out of prison. She finally got her life back on track and henceforth devoted it to sheltering and helping other women, newly released from prison,adjust to life on the outside. She found women dropped at the bus stop straight from prison with nothing but $200. She takes them in and helps them back on their feet. She had nothing, but now gives everything she has, her widow’s mite.
Unmistakable in the lives of these secret saints, albeit not emphasized on the show, is the role of faith. Their faith manifests in their lives as love and charity at levels I thought existed only in books about the lives of saints from bygone eras. People like this don’t exist anymore, right? I, like the millionaires I find slightly icky, just write checks and congratulate myself even while knowing the checks could and should be bigger.
While I am far from a millionaire, I realize more now that there is more to charity than writing a check. I have a lot more to give than just money. I could and should be giving more of myself. If I did, perhaps then I would be more than just a poorer version of those very public millionaires, and I could be more like these secret saints and more like Christ.
December 11, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Great Post, Mr. Achbold.
I just woke up here on the east coast and you woke me again.
December 11, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I second the above. In my experience, writing checks does a lot of good for other people; encountering real poverty and true, unreserved generosity does a lot of good for me spiritually.
December 11, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Wonderful post! I don’t know if this is something that you’d be interested in, but The Nurturing Network has a Nurturing Home program where people can open their homes to women in crisis pregnancy who need a supportive environment to live in. I’m a past client and they, like so many great organizations, can use all the help they can get with the economy being like it is.
Their website is http://www.nurturingnetwork.org
December 11, 2008 at 4:30 pm
The show may be loosely based upon a dramatic series that ran on CBS from 1955 to 1960 entitled “The Millionaire.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire
The show involved stories of unknown people who were given out of nowhere, one million dollars from a wealthy benefactor whom they had never met.
December 11, 2008 at 5:25 pm
See also Percy Ross, philanthropist and his Thanks a Million newspaper column. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Ross
December 11, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Indeed, Mr. Alexander, I remember The Millionaire. I had the same thought when I saw the promos for the FOX show.
I’m not that enthralled by reality television, but I’d have to give this show some credit for fairly positive motives. (And at least there are no stripper poles, hot tubs or other moral grotesqueries.)
December 11, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Then there’s the very recent(as in this morning) article from CNA:
Wealthy couple who ‘lived their faith’ leaves $30 million to Catholic institutions
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14586
December 11, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I don’t mean to be particularly cynical but don’t the donations these people make offset their tax requirements?
If they just gave away the money without that condition it would seem like a more genuine act of charity than the unseemly feel-good (and financially approved by their tax accountant) exercise they are conducting while making it known to everyone on tv how good they are.
December 12, 2008 at 12:40 am
It depends – alternative minimum taxes have meant that my parents, whose per capita salary isn’t that great, have gotten NO child credits (for my six younger sibs) or charitable deductions, and their income is/was WAAAAY below those folks. So, in short, they probably don’t get the write-off.
December 13, 2008 at 3:00 pm
One of the great ironies of liberalism: the high taxes that the liberals insist will build a socialist utopia are precisely responsible for folks not having more money to give to charity, which would alleviate the problems created by the liberal programs that are supposed to build a socialist utopia.