Candidates broke records for campaign spending last fall. This seems like a terrific waste of money, especially all the attack ads. If you could take all that money and channel it to gospel causes, how would you spend it?
Look at Jesus’ understanding of his work for areas of attention: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). He told John’s disciples: “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22).
Our practice of Jesus’ words can include eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, eliminating diseases that especially target children and the poor, and providing safe water for all people.
More information on these and other needs can be found at www.un.org/millenniumgoals or www.cartercenter.org. Both sites provide links to organizations involved in addressing these needs. For a primer on helping your church help the poor to help themselves visit www.chalmers.org. Take note of these organizations that provide channels for addressing the points of contact Jesus made:
• Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org) addresses the need for adequate housing for every person.
• Water for Hope (http://thefellowship.info/ water) works to provide safe water to approximately 1.1 billion people without access to safe water.
• Heifer International (www.heifer.org) targets global hunger and poverty by providing gifts of livestock, poultry, seeds, trees and extensive training in producing one’s own food and increasing one’s in-come.
• Kiva (www.Kiva.org), a nonprofit organization that works with individuals, institutions and its field partners to provide small loans to the poor and connects potential donors to lenders.
• HIS Nets (www.hisnets.org) offers contributors the opportunity to provide insecticide-treated sleeping nets that have been shown to reduce malar-ia infections and deaths among children.
• Kids Against Hunger (www.kidsagainsthunger.org) provides highly nutritious dry packaged foods for hungry children in the United States and around the world. Preparing these meals requires only six cups of boiling water.
These few organizations only scratch the surface. Join in the conversation by emailing suggestions to me at rightorwrong@baptiststandard.com.
David Morgan is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Harker Heights, Texas. Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Contributors include writers in Virginia, Texas, Missouri and other states. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.