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Originally Posted by scratt
I'm with Capella and Roboman on this. From my POV they might as well be taking them iPods.
Anyone in that situation would obviously take a bottle of water over a bible (or iPod) if given the choice, 100% of the time.
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I'll have to go with Frank777 on this — false dichotomy. And yes, I will in fact argue that giving them entertainment wouldn't be a bad thing. If you're in a disastrous situation, wouldn't you want to have temporary joy? Wouldn't you want a slight glimmer of hope that some day there'll be more to your life than searching for shelter and food?
Would you also argue they shouldn't get condoms because the shouldn't be having sex in the first place? Would you not support Child's Play because instead of giving kids in hospitals toys, one should give them medicine and nothing but, so they can focus on getting healthy? Of course not, because these situations just don't drastically improve from one day to another, and directly helping them doesn't require not making them happy.
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Just for the record, remember that I was here in Thailand during the Tsunami. Perhaps it's a function of the different style of religion here, but bibles were certainly not something that was requested. Instead monks stripped off and got involved helping. Now that's what religion should be about.
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Agreed, but giving them a(n arguably insidious, misleading, abused) book doesn't imply not supporting them in other forms as well.