Skip to main content

A Faith-Based Approach to Ending of AIDS


It's a worthy goal: To end extreme poverty and AIDS in our lifetime.

I'm a practical theologian. I believe that it's more important to practice your beliefs than to believe in right doctrines for their own sake. I think that humility, compassion, and right action in the spirit of Jesus are the distinguishing marks of a true beliver; and that working for social justice and transformation in the world from a faith perspective and motivation is what matters most to God.

I’m Christian activist. I think actions speak louder than words. According to St. Francis, “the only gospel most people will ever read is the gospel written on your life.” The little man from Assisi also said: “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if you have to.”

I use both words and actions in my teaching at Drew and ministry with CitiHope International.

Drew University is an historic Methodist institution of higher learning with a faith-based seminary committed to progressive Christianity and social justice. CitiHope International is a faith-based relief and development NGO focused on food security and health care in Central Asia, Africa and Dominican Republic, with a commitment to ending extreme poverty and AIDS.

What is “faith-based” and why is this approach any more effective than so-called secular and governmental approaches to education and social justice? “Faith (from fidere, ‘to trust’) is a fundamental trust in a person, Higher Power, or set of religious beliefs. According to William Saphire of the New York Times: "'Faith-Based’ signals religious motivation while separating practitioners from their sectarian institutions. Like broad-based, space-based, sea-based, based-based. It includes all theistic religions and the ultimate Power in the Universe.”

Faith-based organizations, Saphire recognizes, share the common assumption that the problems addressed are not just systematic [fixed by a funded program] but include social pathologies and ‘conditions of the soul’; that treatment involves ‘a fundamental transformation of character’.” (William Saphire, “Why does ‘religious’ suddenly need a synonym?” NY Times Magazine, June 27, 1999).

The guiding principle of faith-based, non-government organizations (NGO’s), according to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, “is that faith-based charities should be able to compete on an equal footing for public dollars to provide public services…within the framework of Constitutional church-state guidelines…” President George W. Bush, who organized the Faith-Based Initiative soon after he took office, recognized “that government can hand out money, but what it cannot do is put hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. What I want to do is unleash the great compassion of America, by changing America one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time" (White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives).

While I'm skeptical of the Initiative, I believe in the concept and approach. I agree with President Carter that the current administration in terms of foreign policy has been the 'worst in recent history', I think GW got it right on the need for a level playing field so that faith-based organizations can compete fairly with their secular counterparts to serve those in need and thus fulfill their mission of putting “hope in people's hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives.”

Providing help, raising hope, instilling faith, offering love in action—these are the tasks of faith-based aid and development aimed at ending extreme poverty and AIDS in our lifetime.

Labels

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry,  Drew University;  and  International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book.   In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives.   Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth.   When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A The...
Read more

Water Buckets for for washing hands Needed in Malawi

“Sadly, I do think most deaths will be in those countries (Africa, Asia and South America), and the most extreme economic pain..."  --  Bill Gates on PBS News Hour, April 7, 2020 EASTER 2020:  We’re all coping the best we can during this Easter season of hopeful-struggle in the face of the Global pandemic by the name of Covid-19.    “Brace yourselves,” I say to our international ministry partners,“ as new cases in their countries surface and testing begins.   How to help them prepare, put basic provisions in place, and help the people stay healthy and safe.   COVID CARE KITS, our Easter campaign this year, urgently seeks cash donations to help our front-line ministry partners in Malawi, Uganda, and Palestine procure and distribute soap and sanitizers, face masks, and emergency food, in areas most at risk for the coronavirus which has already arrived. WorldHope Corps sponsors two Hope Tailoring Schools in Malawi and Uganda, and a child develo...
Read more

Let the River Flow: Why WorldHope Corps digs village wells

  Sunday Sermon at the The Water's Edge in OB , San Diego, CA. "Woman at the Well" (John 4:7-15) When you think about the gospel story of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at Jacob’s well, I’d like you to picture this Woman at a similar well in northern Malawi. Sitting and talking with Pastor Dennis Singini about water. Her name is Nyang'oma, which means "drum." Her Christian name is Mary Botha. She is 85 years old and lives in a village in the Kampenda area of Northern Malawi. She has cared for 11 children, two of whom have died. And her husband has died. When Dennis and I first met Mary in 2008, her village did not have a deep well or access to clean water. Nor did the six surrounding villages with over 1,500 people. Women and children had to drink with animals from shallow seasonal wells or walk about of 5km away to drink from the closest stream. Sometimes they would get sick and complain of stomach aches. Cholera and dysentery were widespread, and m...
Read more