CHARITY IS NOT EASY

I had a couple of lessons in charity this weekend.

The first came from one of my church leaders, a quietly unassuming but brilliant man, who said, “We find it easy to show charity towards others in their times of need. Can we also show charity to them in their times of weakness?”

They reckon one of the sure signs you’ve given a good kauhau is when the congregation is left wondering how you knew so much about their peccadillos. That was a good sermon President.

The second lesson came from my dad who said, “I see you gave poor old Mate hell.” He was referring to a letter I wrote to the editor of this paper last week over the way Council had mishandled (or more accurately, not handled) my complaint of misconduct against Councillor Radich.

Anyway, it struck me that what Dad wasn’t saying was that I may have been uncharitable in some of the things I’d written.

The truth is that that there is a fine line between turning the other cheek and being a doormat. The first is charitable, the second is merely masochistic. However, upon personal introspection, I can see that some of what I wrote was not necessary. I should not have used the word ‘Nazi’ in reference to Mr Radich. That was uncharitable.

That got me thinking about the balance between charity and masochism in recent events on the national scene.

A protest Hikoi against the Crown’s latest planned theft from Maori of the takutaimona left Te Rerenga Wairua 5a.m. yesterday. Originally scheduled to leave last Thursday, it was delayed because the kaumatua of Te Hiku o Te Ika had asked the rangatahi organisers to be sensitive to the Crown’s need to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake in Otautahi. Charitable of them.

They also wrote to the Prime Minister asking for the readings of the Marine and Coastal Bill to cease while grieving families mourned, and while Ngai Tahu, who are strongly opposed to the Bill, were preoccupied with taking care of its own people as well as nga iwi ke within its rohe. Charitable again.

Their letter was ignored, and on Tuesday 8th March the second reading of the Bill was passed by 62 votes to 56. Instead of hanging their heads in shame, the Crown and its supporters in and out of the House, puffed up their chests, stretched their throats and crowed that Hone had failed to vote against it. Gee, call Hone dumb, but his vote wouldn’t have defeated the second reading anyway, right? What price charity huh?

Clearly it was not good form of Hone to have messed with the protocols of Parliament like that. However keeping Parliamentary rules is not why Taitokerau sent him into that den in the first place. Rather it was to accurately and strongly represent what his constituents think, say and feel. He did that when he stood up, faced the thieves, bullies and cowards in the House and said in effect, “My constituents are never going to be doormats for you lot on this one.” To do otherwise would have been merely masochistic.

Indeed there is a charitable balance to be struck when dealing with the bully, the thief, the abuser or anyone who has let us down and shown weakness. The time will come when, unless they repent and humble themselves, they will get dealt to. But until then, we have to struggle as best we can to turn the other cheek without being doormats. Not easy.