Christian Author: Why Won’t MacKenzie Scott Donate to Right-Wing Ministries?

A couple of weeks ago, billionaire MacKenzie Scott gave away yet another batch of huge donations to hundreds of charities, schools, and arts groups. She’s now donated over $8 billion (in the past year alone), all following her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and she doesn’t show any signs of stopping. She pledged to give her fortune away and she’s doing it faster than anyone else with her means.

The whole thing isn’t without criticism, though. Her system highlights a real problem with wealth inequality. No one should have to rely on the largesse of a billionaire to fund their work, and, incredibly, Scott has been “accumulating wealth faster than she can give it away.” And while I love the varieties of groups she’s supporting, these giveaways are ultimately a matter of one person’s preference. There’s also no transparency to what she’s doing. It’s not an ideal system. It’s just the system we have.

But there was a complaint published in Newsweek about Scott’s donations that is just mind-boggling: She’s not supporting right-wing Christian groups that seek to proselytize.

Keep in mind that Scott has included religious groups in her giveaways. She supported Faith in Action and Faith in Public Life, both of which fight racism. She also backed Repairers of the Breach, the organization run by activist Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, which fights to help the poor, the sick, and other often-victimized groups.

None of that matters, though, to this Christian whiner:

Christian author and evangelical leader Kelly Kullberg said it is a very obvious sign of the times.

“Sadly, at a time when the life-giving gospel and teachings of Jesus are so needed for renewal, such well-funded ‘progressive’ faith groups are often those who oppose historic Christian teachings, people like Franklin Graham and Amy Coney Barrett, morality, salvation and hope,” said Kullberg, editor and co-author of the best-seller Finding God at Harvard. “The Left is attempting to redefine the gospel, using biblical words but not their accurate meanings. If we, as individuals, no longer admit our sin, we no longer turn to Jesus. And He is our actual hope. And biblical truth yields great love for people, and great progress for cultures.”

Besides the fact that many ministries are incredibly well-funded, that’s the dumbest complaint I’ve heard in a while. Kullberg thinks MacKenzie Scott should be throwing money at Christian ministries who want to waste it on soul-winning instead of progressive Christian groups trying to solve major societal problems. They are moral. They are creating hope.

Decent people shouldn’t be supporting Franklin Graham‘s ministries because he’s a Christian bigot who uses his platform to trash LGBTQ people and spread all kinds of misleading conservative propaganda. Even when he’s supposedly helping people, there’s bigotry involved. Amy Coney Barrett has already used her power to execute people. Why are “historic Christian teachings” synonymous with hate, anyway?

Here’s a thought: Let those right-wing groups pray for whatever they need. Let the progressive groups get funding to do actual work; if they want to pray in the process, that’s their business.

If Scott wants to throw her money away, she has plenty of opportunity to do that. But she has made it clear she wants to give money to groups with a track record of “successfully advancing humanitarian aims.” Promoting Jesus isn’t — and shouldn’t be — on that list.

(Screenshot via YouTube. Thanks to Karen for the link)