tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17325308.post7620557236786132050..comments2023-05-29T00:56:13.255-07:00Comments on Atomic Antelope: Aimeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04570718941895225222noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17325308.post-16277571074498716752007-10-30T09:03:00.000-07:002007-10-30T09:03:00.000-07:00In speaking to one of my acquaintances who works f...In speaking to one of my acquaintances who works for an international economic development org, she described to me the time she had spent working in Washington, D.C. with a larger NGO.<BR/><BR/>The problem she said was not that these organizations were arguing top-down vs. bottom-down solutions or that they didn't have the resources to do the good work of helping the desperately poor. She said that, as she saw it, the problem was that they were all jockeying for political, economic and social status within the beltway, shoring up their own position and padding their own budgets. Which individuals could get the best jobs? Which organizations could attract the largest grants? Such machinations led to inefficiencies and bad management.<BR/><BR/>When she became tired of this game (my words, not hers), she moved out here and began to work for a smaller organization that gets more bang-for-the-buck.<BR/><BR/>It seems clear that the biggest obstacle to alleviating poverty is not strategy or methodology but human sin. God forgive us.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17325308.post-26443949826335345072007-10-26T09:18:00.000-07:002007-10-26T09:18:00.000-07:00Wow! Good post!Here's my thoughts:I think the con...Wow! Good post!<BR/><BR/>Here's my thoughts:<BR/><BR/>I think the conversation is all wrong in most development work. It comes from a secular perspective, and it is here that there is a great divergence between truth and the way the world does things. The world looks at poverty as a bad thing.<BR/><BR/>Christ came to teach us to pick up our cross and follow him. He came to call us into poverty, if we aren't there already, and to share that the poor are indeed happy, for they have the kingdom of God. If we want that kingdom, we need to embrace poverty as well. For this reason he said, "The poor will always be <I>among</I> you."- not <I>with</I> you. They are in your midst, for you are (called to be) the poor.<BR/><BR/>And yet there is a great difference between the relative poverty that Christ preached, and absolute poverty. Christ calls us to rely on him, to give from what we have, and to live simply- this is Holy Sister Poverty. Absolute Poverty is where you have nothing, and no way to feed your family. And this is what we need to work against.<BR/><BR/>Yet I am concerned that many development programs, whether or not they work, have as their goal to raise people out of poverty and into a US style of living, or with US goals on wealth accumulation. Then they just inherit the same sins that we have. Far better to help them learn to produce and live on their own, but without leaving the poverty they are blessed with.<BR/><BR/>How does this happen? Christ gave us this answer as well. For while he said that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go throught he eye of a needle, he also said that "No one who has left father and mother and brothers and sisters and lands and houses, will not receive 100fold mothers, brothers, sisters, lands, houses, and persecution, and, in the life to come, eternal life." <BR/><BR/>How can both promises be true, out of the lips of the same man? How can he call us into poverty while promising multiple lands and houses- in this life? And how can this promise be true when for the vast majority of Christians (the vast majority in history not being American) there hasn't been abundant wealth?<BR/><BR/>In the early church, "All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need."<BR/><BR/>This was how I grew up. I had 10 houses, 20 cars, and 80 brothers and sisters. And this is the clarying call of the Gospel. This is where development should go. Not to bring people out of poverty, but to bring them into community, where there needs are met by giving to others mutually. It is not enough to give fish; it is not enough to teach how to fish. The Gospel calls us to teach people how to give fish; to teach people how to fish for others and how to teach others to fish.<BR/><BR/>I think this is where we gain from others. We go in, participating in communal poverty with them. We go in as a learner. I think they have a good deal to offer us- the wealth of their culture and life experience. As we go in as one of them, we come in humility, sharing of what we have, and relying on a common source. We go in to teach, yes, but we also go in to learn what they have of God, and find what God has to show us through them.Jed Carosaarihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10775889983099808362noreply@blogger.com