For any spiritually minded person, Christian or otherwise, it is difficult to strike the right balance between compassion and self-preservation. We live in a cynical world. While we have always been surrounded by people who would find any way to take advantage of others, we now have unprecedented access to learning about the con games and pyramid schemes with which we are faced. This knowledge can feel overwhelming and tempt us to draw into ourselves, ceasing to give all together.
Steven Stiles, author of Gotchyaa: True Tales of Con Artists and Other Modern Day Wolves Who Prey on the American Church, encourages us to retain our giving nature, but to apply precautions that will leave us less vulnerable to spiritual con artists.
Gotchyaa uses a readable story format to reveal many of the common capers con artists use to prey upon centers of Christian charity. He follows a hypothetical couple, the Snomasters, as they skip from town to town taking what they need, leaving confusion and hurt in their wake. In a parallel story, he follows Tripp, the bounty hunter, who has taken the Snomaster's capture on as a personal project.
Stiles does a nice job illuminating a variety of different schemes, including information about the set up, the con itself and the way in which the con gets away. He applies these stories to a number of charitable organizations, such as churches, deacon's funds, homeless shelters and food banks. He is very explicit in terms of explaining why these schemes work and the psychology behind the people who are giving of their time, effort and money.
At the end of each chapter, there are reflection questions to aid in group discussion for the staff of charitable organizations. Given that the author's focus is on use of this book as a tool for Christian organizations, his offering of various passages from Scripture provides a useful framework for considering the most Christian response to con artist games. These features will doubtlessly help many groups formulate plans to avoid being taken advantage of.
Article comments