The red A.

By the way, it is interesting that the Red Cross gets to be red. Had it been a liberal or progressive organization that called itself “red” it would have been tied to a stake and burned as a commie years ago.

But note, Chris, that I include the red cross on my list. I count it as secular, but I agree with Stephanie that it is top heavy and not the most effective way to get aid to the site in many instances. On the other hand, the Red Cross/Red Crescent (and there is also the US version, which has an international unit, and the international version) has major political clout.

Martin, when it comes to disaster relief, it is probably the case that most of the money is not spent on missionizing and other inappropriate activities. But as I say above, there is often slop in these systems. Also, an organization can become large and can have a large reach which can be used for their religious purposes but where the size and extent (and status and clout) can be built on managing these disasters.

Which is highly immoral and if there was a hell all those people would go there for exploiting the downtrodden in this way. So really, by sending this money to secular organizations, we are saving them from themselves.

Chris, that is inaccurate. A minority of the aid that goes into Haiti, as with other disasters, will be from religious organizations.

The reason that I post on this blog information about secular organizations is that whenever there is a disaster people email me and say “hey, would you post some links to secular organizations?”

I do not like sending money to Christian organizations because I don’t trust them to do what they say they will do with the money. This is because Christians often feel that they answer to a higher authority than inter-human ethics and morals, so they can be comfortable looking a fellow (non-Christian, sometimes) human in the eye and telling them a bald faced lie. In the case of relief, I assume that some of this money ultimately goes into missionary work which, in my view, should ALL be illegal, internationally and nationally, everywhere. For obvious reasons.

@ Stephanie — in spite of its name the Red Cross is a secular organization. I do agree with the rest of your point.

Although the American Red Cross is very good at PR and, thus, gets it name splashed all over the news whenever there is a disaster, it doesn’t have the best history of getting targeted funds where the donors want them to go. Nor are they as geared to or equipped for international relief as many of the secular organizations that are dedicated to that purpose.