Doug Wilson has an insightful post today about an implication of the story of the widow’s mite:

This last Lord’s Day, something occurred to me in the course of the sermon, something which I mentioned in passing. But then as I was reading the Scriptures this last week, the same point jumped off the page at me, and in a far more explicit way than what I had seen before.

I was making a standard point about generosity, and mentioned the widow who had put her “two mites” into the Temple treasury, and who had been praised by Jesus for the proportions in her generosity. I then went on to point out that she was actually donating to a thoroughly corrupt ministry, one that was going to be judged in a severe way by God in the course of just a few years. Jesus didn’t rush up to the widow, and tell her to save her money for a more worthy cause, or to keep it herself.

I then compared this to the well-intentioned widows today who live in poverty, but who send more money than they can afford off to television stations where the thrones are gold and the women have big hair. God receives the intention, and not just the money.

What do you think? Do you think this could also apply to a believer who gives money in good conscience to a con artist who claims to be in need?