Comments on: Christian Voyeurism

By: afajita

afajita — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:34:31 +0000

Mike,
Thanks for your comment. I am not totally against people wanting to visit ministries and “seeing what God is doing”. What I am weary of is when people use it as an excuse to just feed their sick curiosity. When we have visitors that truly care and respect the people here at Sunrise, they can tell and gladly welcome them.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:57:09 +0000

heh heh, you always had interesting titles for your articulations. “emotional fornication”, now this :) i like your thoughts on this–it really resonates for me, but most of church ministry seems to run on christian voyeurism–makes me wonder if i’m wrong. but haven’t heard any good logical reasons for it yet–examples of the bad ones are like (1) need to show reality to get funding, (2) can raise awareness, (3) can help everyone to know what god’s doing.

By: afajita

afajita — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 03:33:50 +0000

Yeah, when I worked in confidential emergency shelters in the States, people would want to volunteer in the shelter but not the main office. They were just curious about the shelter location and wanted to meet the women and children staying there. The folks that wanted to help out in any way, even doing menial work in the office, were the ones who really cared about the cause and volunteered for years.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:45:14 +0000

The same kind of thing happens with some social service agencies in the US. When I worked at the Women’s Lunch Place I always respected that they have a policy not allowing visitors (and we got quite a few requests) or even one time volunteers. Also, so many people wanted to come and volunteer only during Christmas and feel good about themselves and I liked how WLP was clear about how holidays are for family and friends and only people who’ve committed to volunteering regularly and have gotten to know the guests could come help on holidays.