For They Shall be Fed
Love for God is inseparable from love for neighbor. And that is not an abstract theoretical truth. If Jesus is right that anyone in need is our neighbor, then it has concrete, challenging implications in every historical context. Who are the needy neighbors that God invites us to love and serve today? Certainly they are people of all races, classes, continents, sexes, and ages. but none of our neighbors face more desperate need that those who are so poor that malnutrition and even death constantly haunt them.
Thirty-five thousand children die every day of starvation and diseases related to malnutrition. Seventeen million people die every year from infections and parasitic diseases we know how to prevent. In 1996, the World Bank reportated that about 1.3 billion people have to survive on less than one dollar a day.
From the introduction to Ron Sider’s “For They Shall be Fed”
A global economy requires Christians to respond to international need. Our eyes have now seen the need in Africa, Eastern Europe, South America, Central America, Asia and elsewhere. We are now accountable, as never before, to neighborly response worldwide. What will the Church do? What should the Church do?
Leave a Reply