Rich Christians in an age of hunger

‘Rich Christians in an age of hunger – moving from affluence to generosity‘, by Ronald J Sider, is a book I’d heard about, and finally got round to reading last month. I have to say it’s one of the most useful books I’ve read since we started on this project in April, and not just on the issues of faith. It’s a well researched attempt to get to the bottom of the injustices that cause poverty, and present them to an American church audience that claims to care for the poor and so often doesn’t.

This influential book has been around for a couple of decades, and is now available in a fully revised fifth edition. It starts out presenting the facts of poverty, hunger, AIDS and environmental degradation, and then highlights the growing gap between the richest and poorest nations, with a particular emphasis on our giving habits.

What is perhaps most disturbing in the book’s analysis of giving is that the richer countries become, the less they give. The US is the world’s richest country, but comes last in an index of aid as a percentage of GNP. It is shocking just how uninformed we are about our giving too – author Ronald Sider cites a study of Americans’ views of how much their country gives in aid, which discovered that “most Americans think the United States spends about 24% of its annual budget on aid.” In truth the US gives away less than half a percent of its budget in aid. With misconceptions like that around, it’s hardly surprising that the American church is prone to apathy in the face of global injustice.

In terms of GNP, the US gives away a minuscule 0.14%, and before we congratulate ourselves in the UK, we only manage 0.34%. Acknowledging our stinginess may be a first step in becoming more generous.

Of course, the Bible is full of instructions to care for the poor, and warnings about being seduced by riches. It would be a mistake to think the Bible is against posessions or wealth, but responsibility with riches is essential in a Christian framework. Greed is unacceptable, and ignoring the poor is damnable. Unfortunately, the richer Christians have become, the less they have given away. Sider’s findings in a later book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, showed that Christians give less now than they did in the 1960’s, despite being considerably better off. I’m not a big advocate of the 10% tithe myself, but many Christians are. Sider shows that if American Christians tithed, (and gave it away rather than spending it on buildings) they would privately raise enough to give basic healthcare, education and sanitation to every single poor person on the planet, with $70 billion to spare. Those kinds of facts shame the church and our priorities.

Sider’s answers include increased generosity, and the church taking the Bible’s call for sacrificial giving seriously. He also supports micro-finance, new definitions of progress apart from GDP, fair trade, simple living, debt relief, and environmental responsibility. I’d really recommend it to any Christians who want to think seriously about their faith, the role it has played in causing injustice, and the role it can play in putting things right.