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Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger!

By Greg M - Aug 12th, 2009 at 1:59 pm EDT

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Tags: Faith, hunger, poor, Social justice

Dear Friends,

I have recently been re-reading Dr. Ron Sider's seminal book, "Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger," in its most recent updated publication, 1999.

This is a life-changing, and challenging, book to read. I have become convinced that world hunger, both in and outside of the United States is indeed the human cause dearest to the heart of God. Yes, certainly there are others nearly as important, general poverty, world-wide disease, fair trade, human rights. However, hunger is certainly the most basic and important to human life itself. And yes, there are certainly causes that are particularly near and dear to my heart because they effect me directly and those I love dearly. However, again, while there are a Billion of my neighbors in the world who are literally starving to death, my personal causes admittedly shrink in importance. This does not mean that they are not important, and not a priority for me, but, it does mean that I am compelled to fully, biblically, prioritize my efforts if I am to feel certain that I am working where Christ would most want me to be working first, and where Christ is obviously working.

In my mind, conquering the world hunger issue first would provide the working basis to begin to conquer all of the remaining issues. We simply cannot expect starving people to highly desire to learn and incorporate effective economic practices, education, apporpriate health practices and focus on human rights issues. Also, in general, poverty is the root cause of disease, violence, terrorism and violations of basic human rights, and hunger is a prominent feature of poverty.

I hope many will be gripped by the Holy Spirit and galvanized to the cause of ending hunger in our time and for all time, so that we can then work toward ending poverty, effectively battle disease, conquer all issues of human rights so that each of our neighbors experiences freedom to be who they were created to be, and thereby end the causes that recruit for violence and terrorism.

I know that many of my peers in the upwardly mobile, white, Christian world still today only care to react to these issues in fear. For whatever reason we tend to recoil and act defensively when someone dares to suggest that we may play a significant role in the causes of world-wide hunger, poverty, disease and violence, and therefore play a significant role in the causes of terrorism. No matter how vehemently you attempt to deny this truth, you will never be able to escape it. I have come to peace with it and fully accept my responsibility in it all. And, therefore, have chosen to do all that is in my power to continue to work toward being part of the solutions, rather than living in denial and fear, which only leads to the continuation of the vicious cycle we are in.

I love my country, and I love my faith, and I certainly love Christ. It is Christ at work within me through His Holy Spirit that brings me to these convictions and gives me peace about my part in world-wide sin. I am a major patriot. I'm the crazy guy you see at the fireworks displays on July 4th standing, shouting, clapping, cheering, and yes, crying! I love the United States of America. However, historically, as much good as our country has done for the world, we have also carelessly wreaked havoc in the name of democracy, while the real impetus was our own selfish economic ambitions. Prior to that, my European ancestors, both governments and religions, also wreaked havoc throughout the world for centuries, all supposedly in the name of God, but actually for the same selfish ambitions. And, still today we are dealing with the aftermath of efforts in dominating the world, colonialism, slavery, wars, and even Enlightenment/Modernist philosophy that provided learned arguments for white supremacy.

I fully realize that many of my friends and family reading this, if they read it, are angry at this point that I would say such things. However, they are most certainly true. I don't mean to acuse or cause anger in anyone, but, rather, to motivate toward actively seeking out answers to these problems. I am not promoting that we grovel in the dust and moan and groan for our sins, although, that too would be in order. I am promoting that we simply begin to acknowledge the truth of these realities, to open our eyes and our hearts to repentance, and to take responsibility for our part in becoming part of the answers rather than ignoring and denying everything and thereby bolstering the continuation of the problems.

If you feel so moved, and desire to look more deeply into these things and take a step toward becoming part of Christ's life-giving, reconciling, restoring, mission of bringing about the Kingdom of God here and now in this current dimension, please do some reading and study, and praying, and fasting, and see if God's Holy Spirit doesn't begin to lead you to the same conclusions that I have come to. I have solidly decided that asking "What Would Jesus Do?" is not the correct question to ask. I now ask "What Is Jesus Doing?" and when I see it, I try to do likewise.

There are many good books on these topics, but I highly recommend Dr. Ron Sider's, "Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger," and Brian McLaren's, "Everything Must Change." I also highly recommend Brian McLaren's novel triology, "A New Kind of Christian," "The Story We Find Ourselves In," and "The Last Word, and the Word After That." I also highly recommend any works by Rev. Jim Wallis, of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, especially, "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It!" Other great books can be found by viewing my Virtual Library here on Facebook.

Finally, please take a few minutes to view this series of 5 short videos, video journalism from World Vision, "5 Days of Hunger," athttp://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/pages/advocacy-newsletter-200906-five-days-hunger?Open&campaign=1139052&ppi=

Blessings to you as you seek God's direction... Greg McCaw

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