Buckley: Is it stupid when Christians feed the hungry?

The question is actually Andrew Sullivan's: "Is it stupid when Christians feed the hungry?"

Buckley's piece describes how Bill Maher made Andrew Sullivan look stupid for being religious or something like that. That's the context for Sullivan's question in response, Is it stupid when Christians feed the hungry?

It's a good question.

I don't think a Christian feeding the hungry is necessarily being stupid, I think he's being human.

I think the Christian feeding the hungry is trying to ease suffering in the hungry while oblivious or even resistive to the awful truth that he might be making the problem much worse down the road. The idea that by saving one person today you're condemning four others to die tomorrow that wouldn't have died otherwise is certainly uncomfortable.

I wonder how Christians feeding the hungry deal with Hardin's The Tragedy of The Commons? I think faith tends to shield one from having to deal with The Tragedy of The Commons in the first place.

A General Statement of the Tragedy of the Commons, by Herschel Elliott