Pagans and Charity

Many a high-and-mighty person asks what do Pagans do in regards to Charity. When people think of charitable works, into their mind pops the righteous Christian woman knitting blankets for the poor or the devout man working the soup kitchen. Little do they take into consideration that Pagans too do plenty of charitable works.

For me personally, at times I collect coins I find and place them on my altar before my statuette of Hecate. Once I gather a sizable collection of coins, I donate them to my local animal shelter to help them pay for food, the facility itself, grooming supplies, etc. While my coins may be meagre, they're appreciated nonetheless.

While many a Christian volunteer may find my own charitable contributions "cute" at best, I am alone and only able to do what I can as a solitary person who is also a mother of three (my youngest being 18 months and child care is hardly cheap).

However, larger groups are better able to facilitate larger charitable contributions. For example, the Temple of Witchcraft has just received a letter acknowledging their charitable contributions to the local homeless shelter

http://templeofwitchcraft.org/witches-and-charity/

I personally applaud the Temple of Witchcraft on their ability to show the public that Witches are not sinister characters with nothing better to do than spread demise...Witches are humanitarians too, looking out for the poor and needy alike in the exact same way others of other religions do. Just because Witches fall under the term of Pagan doesn't make them any less humanitarian.