Morris
McKnight Andrea Reading Response
10/3/11
I thought that McKnights article Why Servanthood is Bad was very
interesting. Being that I am very interested in working for a non-profit organization,
many of which exist for the purpose of providing services, I have had a lot of experience
volunteering at these types of organizations. His perspective on the problems associated
with service being based on deficiencies was very new to me, and something that I had
never really thought about. I do agree with him in the sense that segregating people based
on deficiencies their and not their capacities can be detrimental to the person, but
sometimes there is no better way to address the issue. I also really value what he sees to
be the iron rule for protecting yourself from being the agent of the devil in the middle
of a church which is that you should not do something for people that they can do for
themselves. This I think is so important when people are providing services for others
because it can lead the person to be dependent on others for things that in reality they can
do for themselves.