I have been very challenged by Dr. Scott C. Todd’s book 58: Fast Living … How the Church Will End Extreme Poverty. As you can see from Dr. Todd’s title, it is his belief that the church has the resources and growing desire to eliminate extreme poverty in the world.
Water-borne disease is the leading cause of death for children under the age of five. Every eight seconds a child dies from dirty water. Yet we can celebrate because that number is far lower than in the past and dropping fast. According to UNICEF, over 1.8 billion people who were without access to safe water in 1990 how have it.
Measles deaths worldwide fell by 78% between 2000 and 2008. Child mortality rates have fallen since 1990 in all country-income groups – with the rate of decline generally faster in high-income and middle-income countries than in low-income countries.
Take just one example. Providing clean water to every person on earth is estimated at twenty billion dollars. To put this in perspective, Americans spent $52.4 billion on Black Friday this year. On a single day, we spent more than two and one half times what it would cost to provide clean water for every person on earth. This would save five thousand children every day.
American consumers spent $48.35 billion on pets, pet food, suppliers, medicine and vet care in 2010. $20.2 billion was spent on video and computer games. $18.8 billion on home entertainment products: DVD’s, Blue-ray discs, movie downloads, etc in 2010. $7 billion was spent on virtual goods for use in online communities or online games. $5.9 billion on weight loss products and programs in 2009.
Here’s the good news. In the last thirty years, extreme poverty has been cut in half. It has been reduced from 52% to 26%. That’s a 26% drop with 26% to go. Do you see why Todd believes we can end extreme poverty?
Gabe Lyons in his book The Next Christians describes the new generation of restorative Christians this way. “The Christian has a calling and responsibility to think, work, and live in terms of how the world ought to be in contrast to reacting to how it really is … They see injustice and fight it. When confronted with evil they turn it for good. They are motivated to bring the love of Christ into every broken system they encounter. Instead of being cynical and hopeless, they bring optimism and expectation.”
Isaiah 58:10,12 (God’s Word Translation) “If you give some of your own food to feed those who are hungry and to satisfy the needs of those who are humble, then your light will rise in the dark, and your darkness will become as bright as the noonday sun…You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.”
Glen Schneiders
