Review of Beyond Charity by Perkins - Book Report/Review Example

31 October 2009 Beyond Charity In the book "Beyond Charity" Perkins describes personal experience working with church of different communities and races. The author claims that trying to build a strong base and relations with community, church goes beyond charity ad welfare. Since the second half of the 29th century, the welfare became to play major role in life and destination of citizens. Ideally, the welfare is responsible to maintain a system for the poor and a service system for all citrines.

The welfare state also subsidizes, protects in various ways, and in time of hardship bails out both state-owned and privately owned large enterprises (. The welfare is the largest customer, the only customer for some industries. Perkins states that poor black people press themselves in o5rder to receive additional support and provisions from political and religious leaders. Perkins vividly portrays that church maintains two systems, one for the poor, and the other for the rich and large enterprises.

State policies and activities not only allow business enterprises to engage in new profit-generating practices and provides relief to these enterprises and governments in trouble, the church preserves jobs on which vast sections of the population, directly and indirectly involved with these corporations or state authorities, depend. Relocation, reconciliation and redistribution have both positive and negative impact on community and relations inside social groups. The positive issues are that it helps people at risk to overcome temporary problems and survive.

The necessity to create this direction in ministry work is caused by a flux of f immigrants from former colonies. By maintaining the welfare system, the church has preserved the status quo dear to the wealthy and powerful position. During this period of time, it employed a shrewder method. It pacified the poor, while the main elements of their condition do not change. Perkins writes: "well-intended welfare laws are backfired. Before welfare, it took a two parent family to survive" (10). While this was true to an extent, it did not correctly reflect current reality.

The negative issues associated with relocation, reconciliation and redistribution are lack of government involvement and corruptive nature of some church leaders. Perkins states that authentic church is one of the best solutions to modern religious confrontations and struggle. Perkins admits that: "Church's motivations are pure" (45), so authentic church will help millions of people to overcome racial and social barriers. "Living for God is not a challenge" (46) so every individual should be trusted and respected by church leaders in spite of his background or religious values.

While new educational opportunities and open access to education, communities not only provided another entitlement but at the same time subsidizes research, supports diverse areas of cultural activity, and, in fact, not directly managed general cultural development of the nation. Perkins claims that the ministry should acquire new functions because community, while remaining capitalist, develops new demands and evolves into a new state in which it can only retain free-market relations and protects its old existence through increased national management and regulation.

The ministry has come into being not through cancellation, not through political changes proclaiming the overthrow of an old command and the enactment of a new power. Rather the welfare state in Britain is engendered within the past, hatching from the existing shell of the social organization of community. The democratic principles ad traditions create equal rights to pursue happiness, self-fulfillment, social status, and accomplishment outside the institution of family. In sum, poor shared dissatisfaction with social conditions and expect the state to improve the situation and provide them with higher incomes, more security, and defense against emerging poverty.

Poor strived to preserve traditions to which they were attached, but they also liked to embrace new values and ideals advocated by Tony Blair. The government gave irresolute support to institutions and caused represented by single-issue movements, rather than to institutions acting on behalf of class interests. Works Cited Perkins, J. M. Beyond Charity. Baker Books, 1998.