Here’s a customer review of Stearn’s book posted at Amazon:
I know Richard Stearn’s intentions are good but the book leaves me with a hole in my stomach:)
My journey in India has taken me through the paradigm of World Vision-like organizations (e.g. Habitat for Humanity, Samaritan’s Purse, Gospel for Asia, The Leprosy Mission, etc) and I have seen their problems on the ground. Consequently, I am disappointed Richard Stearns gives a stinging critique of the American church but doesn’t adequately address the legitimate criticisms—well known to insiders—of the Christian, multi-national aid industry. Does one really think groups like World Vision are immune to the empire building and wasteful spending (and in many cases, outright corruption) that the American church is susceptible to?
But forget all the issues of corruption and gross inefficiencies suffered by most international Christian organizations. Those are just symptoms of some fundamental problems with many Christian foreign-aid organizations.
1. They have followed secular humanist priorities which view injustice and physical need as man’s primary problem when, as Christians, we are to understand these as symptoms of a much deeper spiritual crisis that exists in communities unable/unwilling to care for their own people. With so much emphasis in the secular media on the issues of poverty & injustice it is certainly easier and more lucrative to follow their lead rather than stand as a prophetic voice and point to the spiritual crisis that is the deeper issue and offer the solution of Jesus.
2. At least in the Indian context, their commitments to donors and the consequent program implementation deadlines require the quick application of funds with little regard for taking the time to build synergy with the local church and work with them to address the spiritual problems in the community that have created the symptoms of poverty and injustice in the first place.
3. In some instances, as is the case with World Vision India, their secular and governments partnerships prevent them from addressing the spiritual issues altogether!
4. As a result of points 2 & 3, they have often ignored the role of local church in enabling/empowering them to set the agenda and priorities in their region such that the deeper spiritual issues can be addressed while simultaneously dealing with the community’s symptoms in a manner that is sustainable and does not undermine the long-term, spiritual initiatives.
Finally, there seems to be a mutually symbiotic relationship between the Christian aid organization and the American Christian donor that is not good. The donor get’s to sacrifice a bit of their wealth and lifestyle (Stearn’s bit was to sacrifice his multi-million dollar income for a MEAGER $400,000/year salary at World Vision) in order to
(a) avoid the sacrifice Jesus and the disciples had to make, i.e. the sacrifice of their lives for transforming the world with the gospel;
(b) avoid the guilt associated with living a lifestyle that cannot be reconciled with Jesus’ teachings and the poverty they see on TV;
(c) stay in line with the secular humanist’s powerfully influential, yet biblically uninformed conviction that poverty and injustice are mankind’s worst enemies and can be solved without the God of the Trinity.
In turn, the Christian aid organization gets to receive the donor’s dollars with few questions asked...and even take pot shots at the Church and claim it’s being prophetic in doing so!
Neither seem interested in each other’s transformation. Neither seem interested in transforming communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ and thereby truly helping the community solve their own problems for the long term. Transforming communities through the Gospel takes time and involves face-to-face, relationship based on human interaction that results in discipling people. There is too much human sacrifice involved in that. Governments (such as the Indian government) and the powerful forces that under-gird poverty and injustice will persecute you for it. Furthermore, the secular humanists find that approach abhorrent in the age of pluralism and have a much faster turn-around time in their short-term approach. Consequently their approach seems to set the bar for today’s Christian aid organizations.
Bottom line: It’s a lot easier all around for rich Christians in America to simply throw money at the world’s immediate problems rather than be prophetic and involve sacrificially in addressing the spiritual roots. And, by the way, World Vision is happy to handle that money for you!
Stearn’s book was basically an extended argument for supporting World Vision hidden behind a veneer that wreaks of poor ecclesiology. Certainly World Vision will benefit financially from his polemic (and what better book-release timing than in the middle of the US recession). But World Vision’s short term gains will not be long term gains for the gospel of Jesus...nor for the communities being reached with this gospel of secular humanist ideology that under-girds many “Christian” foreign-aid programs which bypass the local Church’s discipleship mission.
Wow, so much truth in that reviewer’s post. For me, the book rubbed me wrong enough that I ended up putting it back on the shelf without finishing it. I really felt like I was being sold something and couldn’t get my heart around it. Thanks for the research and posting.
Oddly enough that's what I try to preach at FR vis a vis domestic politics, often getting assent but sometimes getting dug-in opposition (oh, we only need to vote for more Christian/right-wing politicians and that will solve our social sin problem). This does look disturbingly "lite" rather than like a "light." Well if that's what World Vision wants to be, maybe we should shift to less superficial ministries. I'd say let's go ahead and follow through with any specific charity cases we've been covering through them, but then if they won't change we should shift our focus.