I heard a story that a wealthy businessman approached the CEO of an Australian aid and development agency with the offer of a $1 million donation. He wanted it to go to Africa and he didn’t want any of it to be spent on administration. ‘Certainly we can do that’ replied the CEO. He opened up his computer, pulled up a phone directory from an African nation and invited the...
For many years I puzzled over the bible’s teaching on poverty and wealth. Why were Jesus and the prophets so down on wealthy people? Why was poverty so commonly framed as a justice issue? Why the singling out of widows and orphans? It all came together when I learned the significance of land. The biblical world was marked by wide scale peasant agriculture. This meant that the majority of...
When I think of Ethiopia I think of the terrible famines and emaciated human beings of the 1980s. The Ethiopia of 2012 is still desperately poor but making great strides in improving the well-being of its people. Since the turn of the millennium per capita economic growth has averaged just on 6%, double that of Australia. In the last five years the average has been 7.2%, the highest in sub...
By any measure Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations on earth. Sixty four million Bangladeshi’s live on less than $1.25 a day; forty three percent of children are under-nourished; five percent of children die before their fifth birthday; almost half the population lack access to decent sanitation. The human stories behind these statistics are heart-breaking. But there is good news...
I recently discovered one of the best kept secrets of the 21st century: There is no longer a “third world”. We are accustomed to dividing the world into rich and poor, with the poor nations, the “third world”, ruled by corrupt dictators, going nowhere and trapped in poverty. This may have been the case in 1960 but today nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, a group...
Just about every Australian Christian I know has a prosperity theology.We find it abhorrent to suggest that God wants us to be rich but then speak of how ‘blessed’ we are in Australia. Meanwhile we live as if we believe God wants us to be rich, gladly renovating our homes, buying new cars, traveling overseas and investing in super so that we can continue all these things in our...
Sick of hearing bad news about global poverty? Here’s five of the best news stories you’ll ever hear. 1. In your own lifetime you have seen an entire nation, South Korea, lift out of poverty. In the 1960s South Korea had poverty rates to match Bangladesh and Malawi of today. But now South Korea is one of the world’s rich nations; 2. A number of nations are following in South...
Can we contemplate a world where extreme poverty is ended? I believe we can and that it is quite possible for such a world to emerge in my grandchildren's lifetimes. The key is to look beyond poverty as it exists now to see the larger trends over time. And it is these trends that are encouraging
What is it that makes Christians different? Prayer? Sexuality? Evangelism? A particular belief? For Christians, the answer to this question determines the shape of our lives, for we will focus our time, energy and money on those things we think central to discipleship. The answer of the Scriptures is simple: Christians are different in that they follow Jesus in loving others, with a particular...
I recently listened to a talk by American businessman Alan Barnhardt in which he described his determination that his financial success not turn into spiritual failure. He had poured over the teachings of Jesus during his college years and saw that wealth was described as a spiritual health hazard. When he took over a modest family business his solution was to set an income cap and give away...