Does doing good come with risks?

A new friend asked me recently if people who routinely do good (he was referring to Christians, but the question applies to anyone) are likely to be taken advantage of by those who do evil.

It’s a good question, and I thought I’d written about it not long ago. But I hadn’t really looked at it carefully, and it deserves better attention.

My short answer to “Are good people taken advantage of by bad people?” is “Of course they are, but that is no reason to stop being a good person.”

Allow me to list just a few ways this happens, from the “mostly harmless” to the potentially devastating.

• My wife and I do good a lot through giving. Just yesterday she saved the physical mail we received asking for donations. There were 11 letters that day, and that isn’t the record. It’s the daily average.
• A friend offered to drive one of his friends while his car was being repaired. It was supposed to be a few days, but the “rider” held off on the repairs to save his own money on gasoline. Of course he should have been buying gas for the fellow who was driving him around.
• On a similar note, many have had people “overstay” their welcome in their home. Some of those “overstayers” grew up in that house, but are now taking advantage of their own families.
• Some do gooders recently invested a lot of money in what was presented as a do good cause with a big return, but it was really a scam.
• Young women — and also young men — have been taken undue advantage of sexually because their propensity to do good made them more vulnerable in some way.

Not just now

None of those bullet points were invented recently, though in the first two the form might have changed with the times.

An instance of the final bullet point is told plainly in a historical record written 3,000 years ago, and found in what is now called 2 Samuel 13.

King David had children by several wives. One of those was a daughter named Tamar, described as “beautiful,” and another was her half-brother Amnon, who wanted her as his own. Amnon also had a friend (and cousin) named Jonadab, “a very crafty man.”

Jonadab advised Amnon to pretend he was ill, and to ask to be cared for by Tamar. That was a ruse to get her alone with him in the same room. Amnon followed that advice, and even used his father David — clearly without his knowledge — in the plot.

The result? Amnon forcefully raped his half-sister Tamar, who was in his house to do good.

There has always been evil in the world, and there has always been good. Evil is happy to reinforce itself with those who are already evil, but also seems to relish any opportunity to do evil to those who do good.

The other way around

One of the great stories of all time is Les Misérables. Early in the book we meet the Bishop of Digne, a very good man. The hero of the book, Jean Valjean, has a good heart but has fallen away from doing good.

Wandering as a released criminal (carrying a yellow card so people know it), he is shunned by most. The Bishop takes him in, though, giving him food and shelter and a real bed to sleep in. He is doing good.

Valjean rewards that good by stealing most of his silver and leaving in the night. When he is arrested and the silver is discovered, the police bring him to the bishop, knowing it was his.

Rather than press charges, the good man says that he has given the silver to Valjean, and then scolds him mildly for forgetting to take the silver candlesticks as well. After the police leave, the bishop tells Valjean to use the silver to become an honest man. And he does.

Here is good overcoming evil, a major theme of the novel, especially as seen in the life of Jean Valjean.

Are good people (or even all people) too trusting?

Of all the character traits that contribute to positive social interaction, trust may be the most important.

Team members, whether they are on a field or in an office, trust each other to carry out their tasks to the best of their ability. In football it is not uncommon for a quarterback to throw a pass to the place where the receiver is supposed to be when the ball arrives.

In business, a salesperson often promises delivery of a product in much the same way, trusting that manufacturing will have it completed on time.

Students trust their professors, travelers trust their guides.

Trust is indispensable if a society (even a small one, like a family) is going to function properly.

My little dictionary has “trust” like this: firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. I sit down on my office chair trusting that it will hold me — again.

So do people who do good regularly (Christians, for instance) trust too easily or too much? Probably not any more than anyone else, though it sometimes appears that way. Here’s why.

Those who do good are, ideally, doing good for the sake of doing good. They aren’t doing it for a reward, it is a reward unto itself. While anyone and everyone can be taken advantage of, many who do good know that and do good anyway. Like the Bishop of Digne.

The question of whether or not most people can be trusted is, according to Psychology Today, impossible to answer. They go on to say, however, “the belief that most people are generally trustworthy, known as “generalized trust,” appears to be correlated with higher intelligence, better health, and overall life satisfaction.”

Trust this

Christians and others who do good are no more and no less naive than others. They may hope for more good, but they have eyes to see. They may trust with true hope instead of firm belief, and that might be a little risky. But trust this: trusting is a very good way to do good.

Do good. I trust you.