Link between faith and charitable action

Roy Hattersley, a self-proclaimed atheist (though what he wrote is definitely not what a typical atheist would say), comments on his reflections after seeing Hurricane Katrina's destruction in New Orleans in 2005. He observes how the American government entrusted disaster relief to a religious body, the Salvation Army. Here is his reflections about the link between faith and charitable action:

"The Salvation Army has been given a special status as provider-in-chief of American disaster relief. But its work is being augmented by all sorts of other groups. Almost all of them have a religious origin and character.

Notable by their absence are teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers' clubs and atheists' associations - the sort of people who not only scoff at religion's intellectual absurdity but also regard it as a positive force for evil... 

…Civilised people do not believe that drug addiction and male prostitution offend against divine ordinance. But those who do are the men and women most willing to change the fetid bandages, replace the sodden sleeping bags and - probably most difficult of all - argue, without a trace of impatience, that the time has come for some serious medical treatment. Good works, John Wesley insisted, are no guarantee of a place in heaven. But they are most likely to be performed by people who believe that heaven exists…

...The correlation is so clear that it is impossible to doubt that faith and charity go hand in hand. The close relationship may have something to do with the belief that we are all God's children, or it may be the result of a primitive conviction that, although helping others is no guarantee of salvation, it is prudent to be recorded in a book of gold, like James Leigh Hunt's Abu Ben Adam, as "one who loves his fellow men". Whatever the reason, believers answer the call, and not just the Salvation Army. When I was a local councillor, the Little Sisters of the Poor - right at the other end of the theological spectrum - did the weekly washing for women in back-to-back houses who were too ill to scrub for themselves...

…The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make them morally superior to atheists like me. The truth may make us free. But it has not made us as admirable as the average captain in the Salvation Army."

Hattersley, Roy. 'Faith does breed charity' The Guardian 12 September 2005,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1567612,00.html


However, it is not surprising there are always atheists who would argue true charity has nothing to do with religious faith or any belief in God. Numerous atheists are very generous in giving to charity.

Here is another perspective (skip introduction 4m : 53s):