Bono and others have made an all-out call to the global Church to help end poverty. A ChristianityToday editorial explores how the call is being answered…
So far the antipoverty advocates, who belong to the umbrella group Global Call to Action Against Poverty, got what they asked for: increased aid to Africa, debt reduction, and some trade reform. The G-8 leaders pledged to give an additional $25 billion in development assistance for Africa as part of an additional $50 billion globally by 2010. Even the Bush White House got a pat on the back for doubling U.S. aid to Africa.So far so good. Bring on the white wristbands, the rock concerts, and the Brad Pitt commercials. Bring on the new generation of Christians who support social justice.
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August 23, 2005 at 13:39
Great idea, but a bit naive. In many cases, people aren’t in poverty because of lack of money.
If the government is a dictatorship that bleeds the people, or if the country is in the middle of a decade-old civil war, then that money isn’t going to solve the problem.
I’ve even heard of food being used as a “weapon” of sorts. Put the food in one place, and let the starving masses travel to it (redistributing the people).
I’m not against social justice. I just think we need to have a deeper understanding of how to actually get there, and what the real issues are.
Generally the real issues are not God’s lack of provision, but man’s inhumanity to man.
August 23, 2005 at 14:32
Indeed, I would agree that there are many obstacles, but God doesn’t give us obstacles that we can’t overcome through his power and grace.
The issue isn’t just hunger—it is poverty. It is the fact that a third of the world has no property, no appreciable income, no food, no nothing. In many of these countries, powerful corporate interests work with local elites to put all of the capital, land and wealth into the hands of a very small number of aristocrats. They prop up governments that kowtow to their interests and oppress any group that seeks to create a more just social order—labor unions, peasant groups, human rights organizations and frequently the Church (see El Salvador). This troika of multinational corporations, landed elites and corrupt governance is the first level of the problem.
The second level is international. Our government is highly influenced by these same multinational corporations. We are fearful of “destabilizing” a country by demanding different leadership. We have, in the past, been reluctant to help relieve debt burdens that suck money away from starving children and put it in the coffers of governments or large Western banks. We have put comfort and wealth ahead of the dignity of poor people. My understanding is that God created everyone, that he loves everyone, that every single person bears the fingerprint of God. So if all the comfort and wealth in the world came at the expense of a single person’s suffering, we should refuse it to relieve that child of God’s suffering. When more than a billion are suffering, we are in such deep sin that we must immediately repent.
August 23, 2005 at 21:48
the focus of makepovertyhistory is not to throw money at third world countries or to simply cancel their debt. read up on the goals and vision and you’ll see that the aim is fair and just trade.
August 24, 2005 at 04:48
Whether or not we can actually end world hunger is not relavent to me, only that we do everything we can to do it, because that is what Christians do. It’s not just for the poor that we do this,
and it’s not just the poor who benifit. The paradox is that Christ was clear that we will always have the poor and that we must always do everything we can to end their poverty.
August 24, 2005 at 11:34
He didn’t say we would always have the poor, but that the poor “would always be with you.” The message, I believe, is less about the hopelessness of ridding the world of poverty but rather an assumption that as Christians we will always live, work and minister among the poor. In the early church it was their commitment to the poor and their willingness to sell off their posessions and give all their income to the poor that attracted so many people. John Wesley once said that our concern and efforts should go towards lifting up the poor and the weak, for if we only strengthen the wealthy, people will say our power comes from men and not from God. Any faith, creed, theory or whatever can make the rich richer, the poor poorer and the powerful more powerful. Only God’s true faith will devote itself to debasing the unrighteous powerful, to sacrificing one’s own excess and to lifting up the poor and weak.