re: When does charity become enabling?

True charity doesn't just feed a hungry stomach it also helps the person to be able to feed himself.

I think this old phrase explains what charity should be about

"give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for a life time"

We should teach people who to come out of poverty, giving them the resources they need to survive and raise themselves out of poverty. What many people want to do it just put food in their mouths and not help them come out of poverty. That doesn't nothing to fix the issue.

Another way to describe it is to think of it like a plant.

someone has deep roots as to why they are in poverty. Handouts cut off the flowers and branches of poverty, but true charity uproots what causes them to be poor and allows them to be free and come out of poverty. Many people are chained to the cycle of poverty and our handouts do nothing to break those chains, they just make it easier to live with those chains.