Homelessness is like a black hole, Debbie* said, and she's afraid that one day she's going to disappear into it: "Some people, this is their way of life. I get scared that I'm going to get sucked into this vortex of homelessness."

The Bible tells us that, when it comes to giving, our right hand should not know what our left hand is doing. The charitable giving of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain is in almost complete obedience to that principle-though probably not in the way Jesus intended.

Taken all together, the United Way is the largest charity in the United States. The organization's 1,300 local chapters raised more than $4 billion last year.

So it is perhaps natural that an organization of this size has had its share of controversy. In many major cities, a seat on the local United Way board is the most important business networking opportunity in town, creating a "pay to play" mentality, with business leaders pressuring employees to give.

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren moderated a forum with John McCain and Barack Obama. A coalition of groups including Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the American Family Association will hold its annual Values Voters Summit just weeks before the November election. And every year or so another magazine lists the most influential evangelical groups or leaders.

On July 7, Charles Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, announced that only two of the six televangelists from whom he had sought information have made good faith and substantive responses.

The two are Joyce Meyer (Joyce Meyer Ministries) and Benny Hinn (World Healing Center Church). The other four ministries-led by Randy and Paula White, Eddie Long, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and Creflo and Taffi Dollar-have so far failed to engage in what Grassley called "open and honest dialogue" with his staff.

The myth of the "ugly American" has become so pervasive that it has become a stereotype: loud, loutish, and selfish.

The truth is very different, at least when it comes to charitable giving. Americans are the most generous people on the planet, and they mostly don't toot their own horns about it.

Corporate giving to charity is as old as America itself. Benjamin Franklin was a great organizer of charities-including the nation's first volunteer fire department and the first charity hospital. Franklin, one of the richest and most prominent men in America, was also an expert at encouraging other business leaders to "dig deep."