Operation Christmas Child has, over the past 10 years, solicited money from well-meaning people for the delivery of 24 million shoeboxes filled with Christmas gifts for children around the world. People feel good about donating money and donating time to fill the boxes. They might not feel quite so good, however, if they knew more about the evangelical charity Samaritan's Purse which lies behind Operation Christmas Child.

Giles Fraser writes for the Guardian:

Their aim is "the advancement of the Christian faith through educational projects and the relief of poverty". And a particularly toxic version of Christianity it is. This is the same outfit that targeted eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall and was widely condemned for following US troops into Iraq to claim Muslims for Christ. It's run by the Rev Franklin Graham - chosen by George Bush to deliver the prayers at his presidential inauguration - who has called Islam "a very wicked and evil religion". Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham, is from the same school of thought as General William Boykin, US deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence, who described America as waging a holy war against "the idol" of Islam's false god and "a guy called Satan" who "wants to destroy us as a Christian army".

Some organizations have stopped (at least temporarily) their involvement with Operation Christmas Child because of the close ties made between aid and evangelization. What's ironic, as Fraser points out, is the this group is named after the "Samaritan" who was despised during Jesus' time. The use of such a figure as the only person with enough compassion to help a man lying by the side of the road was, apparently, an effort to call religious prejudices into question. Such prejudices are, however, part and parcel of the message promoted by Franklin Graham and the organizations he runs.

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