Kruse Kronicle

"You cannot abolish poverty unless you also abolish affluence."

(This line is a quote quoted in a blog post over at the Origins website yesterday called Abolishing Poverty. Here is the comment I offered in response.)

“You cannot abolish poverty unless you also abolish affluence.”

This statement is part of the zero-sum game fallacy of economics. A zero-sum game envisions a fixed quantity of something to be distributed, say, a pie. If my piece is bigger, everyone else's must be to some degree smaller. This is not how economies work!

Every year, expect with an occasional recession year, the worldwide Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows, the GDP in almost every nation grows. If economics is a zero-sum game, then it would not be possible for global growth to happen.

Every day people invest themselves in transforming matter, energy, and data from less useful states into more useful states, and then exchange the fruits of their labor with each other. That is what generates wealth. Affluence is not a static set of possessions. Affluence is a dynamic and organic system of coordinated human interaction.

The most poverty stricken places on the planet lack the fertile soil in which affluence can grow. There is insufficient human capital (spiritual resources, mental resources, health, etc.), social capital (just and effective societal institutions), material capital (infrastructure for transportation and communication) and financial capita (money to be put to use in production and investment.) Simple redistribution is pointless.

A gardening metaphor. Taking resources like water and fertilizer away from healthy plants in good soil in order to aid struggling plants that are growing in gravel may lessen the flourishing of the plants in good soil but it will not substantially change the plight of the plants in gravel. The plants in gravel must be given better soil.

Aid to the poor is critical but our aim should be for everyone to live in expanding affluence, rooted in good soil, always with an eye to care for natural order God has entrusted to us.

"False Dichotomies in Mission" by Christopher J.H. Wright

Koinonia: False Dichotomies in Mission Part1 and Part2

Part 1

1. We have tended to separate the individual from the cosmic and corporate impact of the gospel, and to prioritize the first. ...

2. We have tended to separate believing from living the gospel, and to prioritize the first. ...

Part 2

3. We have tended to separate evangelism and discipleship, and to prioritize the first. ...

4. We have tended to separate word and deed, or proclamation and demonstration, and to prioritize the first. ...

5. We have tended to separate evangelism from ecclesiology, and to prioritize the first. ...

500 Years

John Calvin (1509-1564).   Source: World Magazine

Best of It: Conclusion (Part 4)

[Series Index]

We come now to the end of the last chapter in John Stackhouse’s Making the Best of It. We left off in the middle of the section dealing with “Behaving in Public,” having dealt with the subsections of “Show” and “Tell.” Today we skim over “Campaign” and “The Fundamental Move.” Then we will wrap up with final section on “Governing Motifs.”

Campaign

While there should be Christians involved in politics (beyond voting and the occasional contribution) it is not true that all Christians should be politically active. Stackhouse returns to the issue of individual call. He is particularly concerned about pastors.

Indeed, pastors and politicians work not only in different categories but also to a considerable extent in mutually exclusive ones. Pastors emphasize purity, loyalty, clarity, and totality, while politicians must work with mixedness, expedience, ambiguity, and compromise. (341)

Pastors who too closely identify with candidates and regimes get brought into the sin and failure that inevitably is part of a regime. Their prophetic voice is compromised.

One of the things I really appreciated was Stackhouse’s position that church institutions and their leaders should be less prominent in their political action. They should focus on shaping culture through the formation of individuals who are at work in their various spheres of life. Christians should form partnerships and campaign with folks based on common cause, not necessarily religious affiliation. We are to be ever searching the political landscape in search of what will bring the greatest shalom, trusting God to lead the way … all the time recognizing that God does not simultaneously move on all fronts. Some important things will need to be placed on the back burner to accomplish even more important things. We keep working at making the best of it as we seek God’s leadership.

There is a real danger here. This approach … with all its ambiguity and paradox … can morph into rationalization:

... But here is where diabolical mischief lies closest at hand: in rationalization and ideology, in veiling both our ruthless voracity and our lazy conformity in the guise of “Christian Realism.” So we must be vigilant against this constant peril. (344)

But he also adds:

Yet, as I have argued, the options of total purity or total conquest seem to be not only inconsistent with the (whole) Bible’s teaching but also simply impossible short of the return of Jesus in power and glory. ... (344)

The Fundamental Move

The fundamental move to make is quite simple: to turn the tables, to put the shoe on the other foot, to ask, “How would you feel if it happened to you? ...” (344)

Stackhouse challenges the desperate political agitation by some Christians to preserve things from a by-gone era of Christian consensus that are no longer representative of our society (say, school prayer, putting “God” on our money and in our anthems, or trying to make Easter a national holiday).

... Indeed, we should use what influence we have left to help construct the sort of society in which we ourselves would like to live once our power to effect it has disappeared. ... (345-346)

Stackhouse closes this section with some good comments about “representative democracy” versus “direct democracy” and what that means for electing candidates. He suggests we need to elect candidates that will pursue shalom and free space for the church to function. I will not dwell on that here.

Governing Motifs

In this closing section Stackhouse writes:

We thus must distinguish the concern for shalom making from mere utilitarianism, which is at best half right. Yes, we seek the greatest good possible, but not just for the greatest number. Moreover, what counts as “good” is not merely calculable along an axis of pleasure and pain, and certainly not merely the pleasure of the powerful (whether an elite of the majority) at the expense of others. (350)

Our path of discernment is complex and there are dangers if we don’t do our work well. Here are motifs Stackhouse suggests help us avoid the dangers

Dialectic Without Capitulation

We are neither to capitulate to nature nor to pursue total dominance.

… We human beings were put in charge of the world to cultivate it – indeed, to subdue it. we are not to succumb to the lure of “natural rhythms,” of letting things be, however beautiful they are and however ashamed we feel about our previous mismanagement. We are to garden the world, to take its potential and improve it. We are not to abandon our dignity and responsibility, however intimidating the task may seem and however unnerved we are by our recognition of past failures. We are to make shalom. (351)

Neither are we to capitulate to the powers of human institutions like government, commerce, or entertainment. We are not to withdraw from the cultural mandate. Nor are we to seek total domination of the culture. We make alliances and pursue shalom but we will not accept, “… the cessation of evangelism , our complicity in wrongdoing, our silence in the face of injustice, and our basic allegiance above all.” (352)

Another dialectic is to withdraw from the church in disillusionment versus esteeming the church as more righteous in its actions than it is. We have to be realistic about what the church is in this era prior to the consummation of the new creation.

Transformation Without Imperialism

This impetus to garden, and the specifically impetus to recover and redeem, must be tempered by the recognition of our own limits and sinfulness.  ...(353)

Quoting Lesslie Newbigin:

We are not conservatives who regard the structures as part of the unalterable order of creation, as part of the world of what we call “hard facts” beyond the range of the gospel, and who therefore suppose that the gospel is only relevant to the issues of person and private life. Nor are we anarchists who seek to destroy the structures. We are rather patient revolutionaries who know that the whole creation, with all its given structures, is groaning in the travail of a new birth, and that we share this groaning and travail, thus struggling and wrestling, but do so in hope because we have already received, in the Spirit, the firstfruit of the new world (Rom, 8:19-25). (354)

Plurality Without Relativism

Here he reflects on the challenges of extending pluralism while also using our voice to speak out against evil and injustice.

Conviction Without Hubris

We walk in confidence that Jesus is Lord and we have been assigned mission that includes “cultivating the earth.” We have confidence God will bring about the new creation he promised.

But we can’t succeed without others and without Christian community. We recognize here that we (individually and as communities) are certainly wrong about some things. But which ones? Our best efforts and best intentions are going to fall short. Yet we dare not go forward in timidity as we engage the world. We have been given a mandate. That is the tension into which God calls us. Even as we go forward in boldness we have to be open to being reformed by God.

This concludes the last subsection of the last section of the last chapter of the book. I’ll have one more post that offers some final remarks.

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California v Texas: America's future

The Economist: California v Texas: America's future

An intriguing, much more equal rivalry out West. But both California and Texas can learn from each other.

AMERICA’S recent history has been a relentless tilt to the West—of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California and Texas, the nation’s two biggest states, are the twin poles of the West, but very different ones. For most of the 20th century the home of Silicon Valley and Hollywood has been the brainier, sexier, trendier of the two: its suburbs and freeways, its fads and foibles, its marvellous miscegenation have spread around the world. Texas, once a part of the Confederacy, has trailed behind: its cliché has been a conservative Christian in cowboy boots, much like a certain recent president. But twins can change places. Is that happening now?

It is easy to find evidence that California is in a funk (see article). At the start of this month the once golden state started paying creditors, including those owed tax refunds, business suppliers and students expecting grants, in IOUs. California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, also said that the gap between projected outgoings and income for the current fiscal year has leapt to a horrible $26 billion. With no sign of a new budget to close this chasm, one credit agency has already downgraded California’s debt. As budgets are cut, universities will let in fewer students, prisoners will be released early and schemes to protect the vulnerable will be rolled back. ...

Best of It: Conclusion (Part 3)

[Series Index]

The second section in the Conclusion in Making the Best of It is called “Behaving in Public.”

Grounds for Hope

John Stackhouse acknowledges the fears of many that Western Civilization is drifting away from Christianity. In truth, we are moving away from some Christian values and towards others. History doesn’t move in a straight line. Drawing on Philip Jenkins, he notes that 1798 has to be a low ebb in the influence of the church … with the persecution of the Catholics, and skeptical deists and Unitarians in ascendency around the Atlantic. (I also remember that only 17% of Americans belonged to a church during the Revolution.) Jenkins writes that, “Resurrection is not just a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, it is a historical model that explains the religion’s structure and development.” (322) In short, we should not despair about long-term outcomes because of short-term trends (and by short I’m not necessarily suggesting less than a lifetime.) Secularization and de-Christianization is not irreversible and we should not panic.

Some want to fight tooth and nail to keep certain values intact through government force. Stackhouse writes:

We also should pause to ask ourselves a fundamental question: is the imposition of a Christian regime in America, or Canada, or Britain, or elsewhere desirable, even if it were possible? (324)

And …

As grateful as we should be for the blessings God has given the world through Christian Civilization, the record also shows that we Christians – who are, in Luther’s phrase, simul justus et peccator (at the same time justified and yet sinners) – are capable of just as much selfish mischief as almost anyone else when we wield unchecked power. (325)

He notes:

I am simply registering a Christian suspicion of all majority power, much less unchecked power, whether wielded by Christians or anyone else short of the Lord Jesus himself. And I thus recommend pluralism to help us in this penultimate era, given the fallenness of everyone, including us, until god achieves his ultimate purposes and we enjoy the immediate reign of Christ. (326)

Show

When it comes to living with plurality within a democracy:

It’s one thing to say, “Here’s how we think it might work.” It’s a wonderfully different thing to say, “Here’s how we do it.” (326)

I loved this quote from Franklin Little from fifty years ago:

Politicians in the churches attempted to secure by public legislation what they were unable to persuade many of their own members was either wise or desirable … Lacking the authenticity of a genuinely disciplined witness, the Protestant reversion to political action was ultimately discredited, and the churches have not to this day recovered their authority in public life. (326-327)

Ouch! I don’t think things have changed a great deal. Maybe they are now … maybe not. Like any human grouping our natural tendency is toward maximal conformity instead of maximal creativity. But Stackhouse argues that we have to be intentional about creating places where different people can grow together. Diversity is essential to thriving communities. Pathologies develop from too little diversity. Can we partner with, and affirm, people who are of Christian traditions different from than our own? That is one place to start.

That said, Stackhouse acknowledges that “excessive diversity” can be destructive. Churches have a long tradition of having a “rule of faith” that folks adhere to. So a big challenge is discerning how a rule of faith should function and how church discipline should be exercised.

The issue of practicing pluralism with those outside the church is also important. Stackhouse decries the way “tolerance” is equated with affirming what everyone else does. There are things in others and in ourselves of which we do not approve. Tolerance is a willingness to put up with that difference … not affirm it. Stackhouse writes:

I fear that we simply have to wait out this current adolescent attitude of trying to affirm everyone while fiercely judging all who will not play the same game. Eventually, one hopes, an adult recognition of the necessity of tolerance as a civic virtue will (re-)emerge. (329)

True pluralism is about tolerance and not these “adolescent attitudes.”

Tell

So what should we “say” into public life? Stackhouse hits ten things over ten pages, which I will not dwell on at any length.

1. “First, we ought to teach and maintain the values intrinsic to modern public life: democracy, the rule of law, human rights, self-worth, the worth of others, cooperation and competition, freedom and responsibility and so on. These are values that are consonant with Christianity and with other world views …” (330)
2. “Second, we need to teach that not everyone “wins” in democracy.” (331) But it is the best way to handle the need of society to govern by majority consent and still protect minority dissent.
3. “Third, Christians can speak up to teach the public what Christians actually believe and do, rather than what various members of the public might think we believe and do. …” (332)
4. “Fourth, we can resist any form of sectarianism, any ideological bullying, any teaching or (what is more common) assumption of any single religion or worldview as if it alone is entirely true and all other viewpoints are entirely false. …” (332)
5. “Fifth Christians can be in the vanguard of cultural change, instead of fighting rearguard battles to maintain out diminishing cultural privileges, in regard to any religious events and symbols in schools, legislatures, courts, and other public institutions. …” (335)
6. “Sixth, and related to this point, is the responsibility to practice proper silence. …” (335) He is referring here to unwelcomed evangelism and exposure of our faith to others in settings such as the workplace.
7. “Seventh, Christians can watch our language in public. …” (335) In short, lose the Christianese … at least in public. Learn to be persuasive and compelling in the language and symbols of those who are not in the church.
8. “Eighth, our Christian theology can help us help society think through difficult questions and solve difficult problems by keeping together a combination of virtues and actions that, if isolated, result in vengeance or sentimentality. … (339) Here Stackhouse suggests some difficult issues where justice and forgiveness need to be held together for healing and for change to occur. (No forgiveness leads to vengeance and no justice leads to sentimentality.)
9. “Ninth, part of good telling is good listening. … (339) Conversation, not argument, should be our primary mode of communication.
10. Finally, therefore, the image of conversation reminds us of the apostolic injunction to speak the truth in love. ... (Eph. 4:15). … (340)

We will continue this lengthy section on “Grounds for Hope” tomorrow.

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Google v Microsoft: Clash of the Titans

The Economist: Google v Microsoft: Clash of the Titans

Google launches a direct assault on Microsoft with the promise of a new PC operating system.

THE announcement came as a humble blog post on Google’s corporate website late on Tuesday July 7th, but it delivers what is likely to be a dramatic shake-up for the information-technology (IT) industry. By promising to release, at some point later this year, an operating system for personal computers the online giant is launching a direct attack on Microsoft, the world’s biggest software firm.

The confrontation is likely to be momentous. Microsoft’s PC operating system, Windows, boasts a market share of nearly 90%. Although the firm’s empire has been showing signs of decline, it remains a dominant power. Yet industry watchers see a huge threat as the mighty internet company moves into new territory. TechCrunch, a leading technology blog, made it clear how vulnerable it believes Microsoft to be, reporting the news as “Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft”.

In reality it will be more of a slow explosion. At first Google’s Chrome OS, as the new software is called, will be targeted only at netbooks, the cheap and smallish laptops that are proving popular. The idea is to provide a compact operating system with a simple user interface that boots up in a few seconds and allows users to work securely and easily with web-based applications, such as e-mail and social networks. This is why the software is based on a stripped-down version of Linux, the popular open-source operating system, and comes with Chrome, the browser that Google released late last year.

And it will take a while for the program to be ready for prime time....

Open source (okay, relatively) Google (the starfish) takes on proprietary Microsoft (the spider) on its home turf.  Who will win?

Couples saying 'I don't' to expensive weddings

USA Today: Couples saying 'I don't' to expensive weddings

Heather Strickland fashioned her bridal bouquet from wholesaled pink roses. Ashley Butler and Kevin Cohea catered their own cheese and veggie plates for their wedding reception — with the help of Sam's Club. And Tina Czech is planning her big day for the holidays, when her local church already will be outfitted with glittering trees and more than 300 poinsettias.

Whether out of propriety or necessity, weddings are being tweaked — if not turned upside down — by the recession.

These days, couples who can spring for six-figure weddings are re-prioritizing their wish lists to strike a more sensitive, subdued tone — trading, say, the $200 monogrammed iPod party favor for something less showy, like a monogrammed cookie.

And those who can scarcely swing four-figure weddings are getting crafty: scouring the Web for gently used gowns, haggling over hotel rates for guests (and cutting children and not-so-significant others from guest lists), going for grocery store — vs. bakery — cakes and do-it-yourselfing everything from décor to dinner.

Either way, the big, fat boom-time wedding of the past few years has been deflated. "People are really changing their mind-set from over-excess to really trying to be more frugal and saving, like how my parents' generation thinks," says Christina Joo Sethi, 31, who rented the diamond and gold drop earrings she wore at her wedding in February. ...

Tech-Savvy Moms Increase Social Media Use by 462%

Marketing Charts: Tech-Savvy Moms Increase Social Media Use by 462%

The number of increasingly tech-savvy mothers in the US who use social media has jumped 462% since 2006, while the number who use cell phones to go online has increased 348% during the same time period, according to a recent research study from BabyCenter, LLC.

“The 21st Century Mom Report,” revealed that, in addition to bigger trends shaping motherhood such as comfort with technology and increasing eco-friendliness, becoming a mother is a huge, life-stage transformation that alters a woman’s lifetime purchasing behavior and criteria and triggers a significant re-evaluation of products and brands. For example:

    * 85% of moms say having a baby changed their purchasing habits.
    * 73% say it changed their purchasing criteria.
    * 62% say it changed the brands they purchase.

Before having children, BabyCenter said that women are most concerned about product and service quality, features, and design. After becoming mothers, they are much more likely to shop based on safety, quality, and price.

The study also found that pregnancy and parenthood create a series of entry points which create a timeline of purchases for such things as home renovations, digital cameras, travel and appliances. ...

Social Media Marketing Spend to Hit $3.1 Billion by 2014

Mashable: Social Media Marketing Spend to Hit $3.1 Billion by 2014

We already knew that social media marketing budgets were on the rise, but now we know by how much. Forrester Research is out with their Interactive Marketing Forecast for the next five years, and estimates social media marketing to grow at an annual rate of 34 percent – faster than any other form of online marketing and double the average growth rate of 17 percent for all online mediums.

Of course, social media is starting from a smaller base. Forrester estimates that $716 million will be spent on the medium this year, growing to $3.1 billion in 2014. At that point, social media will be a bigger marketing channel than both email and mobile, but still just a fraction of the size of search or display advertising ($31.6B and $16.9B, respectively). ...

Best of It: Conclusion (Part 2)

[Series Index]

The first section in the conclusion to Making the Best of It is called “The Shape of our Lives.” John Stackhouse looks at this in terms of three issues.

We can look at the question of the shape of our lives in terms of what we do to shape them, which I will construction; the situation in which we do that construction, which I will call context; and the intermittent, interrupting, and sometimes interesting surprises that occur, which I will call contingencies. And I will look at how we shape our lives in three modes: individuals, home/family, and church. (313)

I’m simply going to hit some points that I found interesting.

Construction

Stackhouse says our lives should reflect God’s mission and Christ’s call but we know that because there is evil within us we fail to live up to that purpose. We need to shed those things that impede us. Also, as we make decisions we need to be asking:

“… How does this help me be who I am supposed to be for Jesus Christ today?” Families and churches can do the same: “How does this way of meeting, this schedule, this activity, this form of decision making, this hierarchy, or this budget help us to be who we are supposed to be for Jesus Christ, today?” (314)

Christian maturity is essential to resisting evil in the world and discerning what will bring shalom. Stackhouse points to one study that concluded:

… the most important factor in producing a mature, well-balance, and well-integrated Christian faith was not excellent preaching, worship, small-group fellowship, or anything else but adult Christian education. (315)

Yet Christian education is one of the most deplorable(IMO) aspects of church life. That said, Stackhouse acknowledges that Christian education alone is not enough. The “holy habits of the normal Christian life, such as prayer, worship, charity, and the like” must be present.

I liked his final paragraph in this section:

Is the goal, then, the perfectly balanced life? Many Christians think it is, and seek the correct ratio of Bible study to prayer to work to leisure to sleep to exercise to … No, the goal is to be whom we are meant to be in order to grow in love for God and do his work in the world. (316)

Context

The challenge for the above is that the context keeps changing. First, we move through various stages of the life-cycle or go through seasons of life. Each season has its limitations and opportunities. Second, our cultural context is always changing. Realism dictates that we must shift our posture and our actions relative to the context. Our actions in one culture may not be the correct ones in another, and within the same culture in different eras our responses may vary. Shifts in context are always some combination of God’s providence and human evil. Thus, the questions asked in the above section well be shaped by our changing context … but our mission of resisting evil and reshaping the world toward shalom is constant.

Contingencies

Stackhouse writes, “The Book of Acts is full of interruptions.” So are our lives. Stackhouse looks at stories in Acts and observes that they are filled with both normal and supra-normal deviations that are hard to separate. Not every interruption is a blessing but God often does call us to unexpected contingencies.

I really liked this passage:

In sum, we can retain the ideal of a balance life, but now in a way radically qualified by our understanding of mission and vocation. Balance in this case is not the balance of a dancer raised on one foot, or even of a spinning top. It is much more dynamic: the balance of a runner traversing a broken-up and heaving landscape. To maintain balance for this step and to prepare well for the next step the runner might well have to lean way off center – to be deliberately off-balance in terms of a snapshot, but properly balanced in terms of a journey. This metaphor thus rules out both the idea of a detailed template in which every Christian life ought to be lived and also the utter confusion in which no option, no matter how extreme, can be judged as wrong. The proof is in the success of the journey. Missteps of either sort – trying to maintain a static, universal ideal or indulging in a capricious impulse – will result in a fall. The question is, does the runner keep running toward the goal?

Realism thus requires a constant renegotiation of changing contexts and contingencies. We both maintain the perpetual elements of any proper Christian living and adapt them to the features of this particular occasion. Such a challenge means that it is not always clear that we are, in fact, making the right choice. Ambiguity cannot be avoided here, either. … What do we do? We make the best of it – in concert with fellow Christians, in cooperation with our other neighbors, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in discipleship to Jesus Christ, to the glory of God. (320-321)

Amen.

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Good to Great to Gone

The Economist: Good to great to gone

Jim Collins, a management guru, ponders business failure

ONE of the keys to being an inspirational management speaker is not to dwell too long on the negative. No wonder Jim Collins is almost apologetic in his new book on corporate failure, “How the Mighty Fall”. As he writes, “When I sent a first draft of this piece to critical readers, many commented that they found our turn to the dark side grim, even a bit depressing.” Happily, he reaches an upbeat, empowering conclusion: “Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.” He expands on this theme by quoting Winston Churchill’s injunction to “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never...”

The risk for a management guru with a sunny outlook is that writing books praising companies creates hostages to fortune. One well-known title, “In Search of Excellence”, left its authors wiping egg from their faces when many of the firms they profiled quickly proved to be anything but excellent. Even worse was Gary Hamel’s celebration of Enron, “Leading the Revolution”, which was still arriving in bookstores when the energy-trading company blew up in 2002.

So Mr Collins has wisely grasped this nettle before any of his critics could sting him with it. As he readily admits, several of the firms praised in his bestsellers, “Built to Last” and “Good to Great”, have since fallen from grace. These include Circuit City, a now-bankrupt electronics retailer, and Fannie Mae, a giant mortgage lender that was taken over by the American government last September to stop it going bust and taking the global financial system with it. Oops.

In his new book Mr Collins examines 11 of the 60 “great companies” studied in his two earlier books that have since deteriorated to “mediocrity or worse”. Mr Collins says that when he charted the factors that led these firms to greatness, he had never claimed that they were certain to remain great. ...

World's oldest Christian Bible digitized

BreitBart: World's oldest Christian Bible digitized

LONDON (AP) - The surviving pages of the world's oldest Christian Bible have been reunited—digitally. The early work known as the Codex Sinaiticus has been housed in four separate locations across the world for more than 150 years. But starting Monday, it became available for perusal on the Web at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org so scholars and other readers can get a closer look at what the British Library calls a "unique treasure."

 "(The book) offers a window into the development of early Christianity and firsthand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation," said Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library.

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of prepared animal skin, each of which measures 15 inches by 13.5 inches (380 millimeters by 345 millimeters). It is the oldest book that contains a complete New Testament and is only missing parts of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.

The 4th-century book, written in Greek, has been digitally reunited in a project involving groups from Britain, Germany, Russia and Egypt, which each possessed parts of the 1,600-year-old manuscript.  ...

Fourteen theories of church growth from seven research teams

Church Leadership Conversations: Fourteen theories of church growth from seven research teams (HT: Brad Wright)

Between 2001 and 2009, seven different teams of national researchers have used quantitative data to suggest 14 different factors that correlate with church growth.

I looked at work from seven researcher teams: Stark, Hout/Greeley/Wilde, Woolever/Bruce, Stetzer/Dodson, Olson, Chaves, and Thumma.

Here is a summary of the 14 factors which I document fully below: (1) witnessing, (2) strictness, (3) high fertility rates, (4) caring for children and youth, (5) high involvement, (6) welcoming new people, (7) leadership, (8) prayer, (9) being a church of 1000+ attendees or under 50 attendees, (10) being located in rural counties, (11) being in rapidly growing zip codes, (12) being in a tradition that is altering worship practices slightly but not too much, (13) churches that offer “intimacy and choice” and (14) attractive worship style, senior pastor, and church reputation.

It is clear that the causative factor in church growth is in dispute. ...

Religion and Technology Divide

Social Edge: Religion and Technology Divide

Faith-based groups (meaning the full range of formal and informal religious communities) are among the most active social sector organizations in many parts of the world. If religious orgs are serious about building and enhancing community, why are they so behind in leveraging the latest and greatest technology tools to do so? And if nonprofit and do-gooder techies are serious about social change, why aren't they tapping into some of the largest and most effective community-based organizations out there – which are faith-based? It's a missed opportunity IMHO [Note: social media jargon for In My Humble Opinion].

Fortunately there are some murmurings. A couple of weeks ago, Time magazine ran a story on U.S. churches using Twitter during their regular services. And the online virtual world of Second Life is fertile ground for a whole range of active faith based communities from across the religious spectrum. You may want to check out this Guided Tour of Spirituality in Second Life.

There are a few great postings on Church 2.0 offering an overview of some of the most cutting edge and technology-relevant happenings that involve faith-based communities in the United States. But they are an exception to the rule. Many traditional religious institutions are experiencing a decline in membership among youth - perhaps in part because they don't fully understand how to communicate in a changed world? Take a look at the official website of the Catholic Church, representing one of the largest religions in the world, and you'll know what I mean.

I sense a lot of fear among traditional religious institutions around embracing and leveraging technology change. ...

The church on Facebook: Why we need virtual community

Christian Century: The church on Facebook: Why we need virtual community

"Oreon told me she's praying for you," my husband, Gary, said in between bites. He and I were having dinner after work one night when I was in the throes of a particularly stressful time at work. Gary is a pastor at a downtown Chicago church, and Oreon is one of the staff members there.

"Why is Oreon praying for me?" I asked. I hadn't had more than a passing hello with Oreon in weeks.

"She saw your Facebook status message," Gary said.

"Oh," I said, feeling my face go red and my blood pressure rise. I'd forgotten that I'd recently allowed Oreon to become a Facebook friend of mine. What had I written on Facebook? Was it something I felt comfortable having one of the ministers at church reading? I hadn't said anything too horrible, like I wanted to kill my boss or throw something (or someone) out the window, had I?

Gary must have sensed my panic. "Oreon said it sounded like you were having a rough week. She told me she's started using her Facebook news feed as her daily prayer list because she sees what's going on with all these people in her life, and it reminds her to pray for them. And it helps her know what to pray for."

"Wow! Cool," I said, starting to relax—at least a little. For those of you who haven't yet experienced Facebook (and your numbers are dwindling by the second: Facebook reportedly receives around 1.9 billion monthly visits and had about 68 million unique visitors in January), nearly every action you take on this social media site—from uploading new photos of your cat to changing the description of your love life from "Single" to "In a Relationship"—goes into a news feed that streams out to all your Facebook friends. The basic Facebook feature is the status update, a short little snippet you write in answer to the question posed at the top of your Facebook page: "What's on your mind?"

Tweetraising: The Potential For Charities On Twitter

TechCrunch: Tweetraising: The Potential For Charities On Twitter

Twitter has been hailed as an incredibly useful marketing tool for businesses and brands, both big and small, to disseminate information and engage with consumers on a massive scale. But what about non-profits? The ability to use social media to fundraise for charitable purposes has been questionable. A few months ago, the Washington Post reported that Causes, one of Facebook’s popular applications used by non-profits to raise money, was not netting much money for charities, despite its large amount of users (according to the application’s page, it has 26 million monthly users).

Twitter, the current darling of the social media world, is increasingly being used by charities. In addition to building awareness, Twitter has potential to raise charitable contributions. One of the more successful initiatives launched in the Twittosphere was February’s global Twestival, which raised over $250,000 for charity:water, a non-profit organization devoted to bringing clean drinking water to developing nations. The volunteer-run organization held events to bring Twitter communities in nearly 200 cities together. 250K sounds like an awful lot of dough to raise over the microblogging network, but this amount fell way below Twestival’s goal of $1 million.

Still, Twitter’s viral, real-time nature allows for a fast (and relatively low-cost) way to raise funds. ...

The Tragedy of the Millennium Development Goals

Aid Watch: The Tragedy of the Millennium Development Goals

Let’s face it: it’s over. The MDGs will not be met (the above statement was based on trends BEFORE the economic crisis hit, see crisis discussion below).

What went wrong? The UN was very successful in getting lots of people interested in global poverty who had not been interested previously. An enormous advocacy campaign resulted (see the video from YouTube above). The enthusiasm of the young and of many public figures was deeply inspiring.

What was the theory of social change behind the advocacy of the MDGs? Political advocacy is most successful when you can identify WHO is to blame for an injustice, and WHY (according to what principle) the situation is unjust. This points to WHAT the WHO should do. ...

... Why waste any more effort on the MDGs, now that we know they will not be met? The next effort should get the WHO/WHY/WHAT clear. Here’s one suggestion for starters: the WHO is aid agencies, the WHY principle is that they are responsible for these funds entrusted to them to reach the poor, the WHAT is transparency on whether the funds did reach the poor. It is unjust that funds intended for the poorest of the poor wind up enriching somebody else not poor. Let’s have a movement protesting THAT injustice.

The Challenges of Criticizing Aid

Social Edge: The Challenges of Criticizing Aid

... As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the aid industry (and, yes, I definitely view it as an “industry”) is one of the few fields that tends to be immune to criticism. There are two groups of people who are particularly sensitive to hearing about the failures of aid: donors and aid workers. Donors, particularly individuals writing checks for small amounts, want to believe that their money is being well-spent, and that their contribution somehow helped change the world. They want to believe the late-night aid infomercials that claim “for the price of a cup of coffee, you can save a child”. So it’s not surprising that most donors would rather not know if only a small percentage of their donation ever made it to the ground or if no child was actually saved as a result of their generosity due to the poor design of an aid project. As soon as that check is written, they want to be able to go back to sleep feeling good about themselves and their contribution. Finding out later on that their hard-earned money was squandered on fancy conferences, over-paid consultants, and ineffective approaches is not so pleasant. From what I’ve seen, donors across the world are desperately trying to convince themselves that their good intentions and willingness to want to help is enough.

Many aid workers are also extremely sensitive to criticism of the industry, particularly ex-aid workers who have dedicated their lives to this kind of work. At a screening of my films in Seattle I had several angry ex-aid workers in the audience who seemed to feel that my series were personally questioning the validity of their life’s work. Well, maybe it was. And I guess I don’t blame them for not wanting to question something that they can’t go back and redo. But many aid workers who are currently in the field are also eager to ignore any criticism of their work. But if we are ever going to see real improvements in this field, aid workers need to be more willing to receive critical feedback in order to improve their practices for the benefit of their recipients.

Is there any other industry that avoids scrutiny like international aid? I’m actually having a hard time thinking of examples ...

Best of It: Conclusion (Part 1)

[Series Index]

Today we begin the review of the conclusion to Making the Best of It, in which John Stackhouse pulls all the pieces together.

Stackhouse reminds us that Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s driving question was, “Who is Jesus Christ, for us, today?” Stackhouse writes:

I have then posed the complementary question: Who are we, for Jesus Christ today? What sort of person am I, and what sort am I to be, for Jesus Christ, today? What sort of family, or congregation are we Christians, and what are we to be, for Jesus Christ today. (309)

He believes that two options predominate in Christianity today.

(1) withdrawl from certain worldly institutions, or at least from coercive sectors of those institutions, into holy communities that bear witness to the world of the alternative ethic of the Kingdom of God, and (2) wielding all the power available in the name of Christ to draw the world under the rule of the Kingdom of God. (209)

Stackhouse see his Christian Realism as a better alternative to either of these options.

Of the posts I’ve written on this book, the ones that have touched specifically John Howard Yoder and Anabaptist views have generated the most conversation. Here at the end of the book, Stackhouse acknowledges that he has contrasted his position with Yoder’s position a number of times precisely because he thinks many will, and are, finding Yoder’s model attractive. I know Scot McKnight has noted a strong Anabaptist streak in the emerging church movement. My experience has been that a majority of folks who have come into the emerging church world come from conservative/fundamentalist/evangelical environments where the Religious Right, with its ambitions of wielding political power, is pervasive. It is not hard to understand why the more circumspect teachings of Yoder and Hauerwas are appealing. Still, along with Stackhouse, I think the Yoder/Hauerwas option is not the best option. To give you some idea of what Stackhouse thoughts are on this issue, I will quote him at length before launching into the rest of the chapter.

I return to a passage I quoted early on:

Some elements of culture the church categorically rejects (pornography, tyranny, cultic idolatry). Other dimensions of culture it accepts within clear limits (economic production, commerce, the graphic arts, paying taxes for peacetime civil government). To still other dimensions of culture Christian faith gives new motivation and coherence (agriculture, family life, literacy, conflict resolution, empowerment). Still others it strips of their claims to possess autonomous truth and value, and uses them as vehicles of communication (philosophy, language, Old Testament ritual, music). Still other forms of culture are created by the Christian churches (hospitals, service of the poor, generalized education, egalitarianism, abolitionism, feminism). [From "How H. Richard Niebuhr Reasoned: A Critique of Christ and Culture." in Authentic Transformation: A New Vision of Christ and Culture.]

It must be clear that I recognize that Yoder does not advocate a simplistic “Christ against culture” model – nor do his latter-day epigones, such as Stanley Hauerwas, William Willimon, and others. They are too intelligent and too Christian for that. Thus I agree strongly with this passage of Yoder’s. …

… The fundamental disagreement has to do with the cultural opportunities and, indeed, threats posed by societies whose dominant institutions are open to Christian participation. … The Roman Empire in many respect was not open to such Christian participation, and that is the cultural context of the New Testament. But what happens when the emperor not only opens a door to Christians but welcomes them in, as Constantine did? Those of Yoder’s stripe see this occasion as the Great Disaster, the co-optation of the church by the world, which they never tire of identifying as the root of all sorts of evil. But what if, as we have remarked already, we see the new era inaugurated by Constantine as an evangelistic success story, as simply the logical working out of the mission of God in the Roman Empire – with full recognitions of all of the ambiguities, limitations, failures, and blessings that attend the mission God being accomplished via human beings in the world?

It is obvious that few of us live in anything like “Christendom” today. Yet we still have far more opportunity to participate in the life of our culture than did the first Christians – including participation in every institution of society. What, then, are Christians supposed to do in this context? Keep acting like a repressed minority, when we are no longer repressed and no longer a minority? Yoder and his ilk do seem to suggest that it would have been entirely salutary for Christians to have retained that mentality. And he, as always, makes an attractive case, particularly as we stand many centuries downstream of the Constantinian era and rue the entanglements of Christianity and culture that have occurred since then. (310-312)

While Christians have had their blunders through the centuries they have also used resources Providence provided to end the excess of the medieval church, end slavery, build schools, establish charities, etc. … these were, “… all things Yoder wanted them to – pray, proclaim, form godly communities that modeled alternatives, serve society in various other positive respects …” (312) But Stackhouse adds:

... and they wielded power: the power of information media, the power of money, the power of politics, even (let us not be squeamish) the power of guns. And good things happened. Not unequivocally good things, as I have suggested we should not expect before Christ returns. But better things happened than were apparently going to occur without the use of these kinds of power. (312-313)

My thoughts: I first read Yoder, as well as people like Donald Kraybill and Ron Sider, back in the late ‘70s while in college. I remember being fascinated by their work. I’ve been around Mennonite folks and Anabaptism to varying degrees most of life. Compared to the antics of the Religious Right, I find it a refreshing crowd to hang with.

What I’ve not been able to do is to embrace the clean demarcations between two kingdoms. Sustainable democratic government is dependent upon broad-based willful compliance with its directives but no government is sustainable without the underlying threat of coercive force. The idea that we can somehow participate in government without participating in violence, or the underlying threat thereof, is, to me, an illusion … and not participating in government is a failure to participate in the cultural mandate to exercise dominion.

When John was preaching repentance, Luke records:

Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied , “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.” (Luke 3:14)

No condemnation of their soldiering. Jesus commends the Centurion’s great faith in Matthew 8 with no command to “go and sin no more.” Peter, directed by God, goes to a Centurion in Acts 10 who was baptized without repentance from his soldiering. Paul is affirming of government agents wielding swords to enforce the good. The generic cry that we can’t participate in “empire” because it uses coercive force just isn’t faithful to the biblical witness.

I’m sympathetic with the critique people like Yoder bring about past abuses. I’m not persuaded by his response or those of his enthusiasts. We must participate in government where we have the freedom to do so as part of answering the cultural mandate. I think the line comes when total allegiance to, and worship of, the state is mandated for participation.

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Sensors and sensitivity

The Economist: Sensors and sensitivity

Data collection: Mobile phones provide new ways to gather information, both manually and automatically, over wide areas.

IF YOUR mobile phone could talk, it could reveal a great deal. Obviously it would know many of your innermost secrets, being privy to your calls and text messages, and possibly your e-mail and diary, too. It also knows where you have been, how you get to work, where you like to go for lunch, what time you got home, and where you like to go at the weekend. Now imagine being able to aggregate this sort of information from large numbers of phones. It would be possible to determine and analyse how people move around cities, how social groups interact, how quickly traffic is moving and even how diseases might spread. The world’s 4 billion mobile phones could be turned into sensors on a global data-collection network.

They could also be used to gather data in more direct ways. Sensors inside phones, or attached to them, could gather information about temperature, humidity, noise level and so on. More straightforwardly, people can send information from their phones, by voice or text message, to a central repository. This can be a useful way to gather data quickly during a disaster-relief operation, for example, or when tracking the outbreak of a disease. Engineers, biologists, sociologists and aid-workers are now building systems that use handsets to sense, monitor and even predict population movements, environmental hazards and public-health threats.

A good example is InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters), a non-profit group based in California, which promotes the use of mobile phones to improve developing countries’ ability to respond to disasters. Launched with seed money from Google’s philanthropic arm and the Rockefeller Foundation in late 2007, it has just released a suite of open-source software to share, aggregate and analyse data from mobile phones. Its first test-bed is Cambodia, where health-workers can send text messages, containing observations and diagnoses, to a central number.

The sender’s location is determined for each of the messages, which pop up as conversation threads on an interactive map that can be called up on the web. Clicking on this map allows text messages to be sent back to users in the field from the control centre. InSTEDD says this service, called GeoChat, enables “geospatial ground-truthing, as your mobile team works to confirm, refute, or update data”. ...

So I'm reading this article and thinking about how cool this technology is. And yet this song by Sting kept going through my head over and over again.

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you

Bridge over troubled water

Presbyterian News Service: Bridge over troubled water

Foundation, GAMC near agreement on ‘environment of cooperation’

CHICAGO — Over the years, disagreements between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation and the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) have sometimes made the gulf between the two agencies seem far wider than the one-mile-across Ohio River that separates them.

The disputes have usually centered around the appropriate use of restricted funds — over which the foundation has fiduciary responsibility but which the GAMC is charged to spend in accordance with the mission priorities established by the General Assembly.

Now, after two years of intense work by a joint working group, the two entities are nearing agreement on a vision, strategy and plan they hope will resolve, if not eliminate, conflicts in the future. ...

It has been my privilege to serve on the Foundation/GAMC work group that developed this agreement in recent months. All of the members of the group provided great input but the leadership of the team, Karren Garrett and Reg Kuhn, did a great job.

As the article notes, the General Assembly created a new seven member Restricted Funds Resolution Committee (RFRC) that will hear appeals from the two bodies when differences can't otherwise be resolved (I'm one of the seven members). The RFRC has met once to develop a process should we ever recieve any business. More to come on that later. But the birth of RFRC and the adoption of the new agreement have a chance to address problems that have plagued the relationship of the two entities for many years. I'm by no means predicting endlesses choruses of "Kumbaya" but I really do think there is reason for optimism.

Anyway, just thought my PCUSA readers might like some good news about our tribe.

(Note to PNS: I think Karen lives on the "promised land" side of the state line, as do I, here in Kansas City, MO, not Kansas City, KS.)  :-)

Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship: The Top 100 Tweeps to Follow

Social Edge: Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship: The Top 100 Tweeps to Follow

With Matt Flannery, founder of Kiva, transitioning from blogging to twittering, we thought this would be a good time to help Matt and others joining Twitter to hit the ground running with a list of the best social entrepreneur twitter folks to follow.

These are folks we have run into in our specifically social entrepreneurship circle.  I'm sure there are many more people we have not yet met, and would like to meet, so I encourage you to comment here with your recommended additions.

That said, we have selected a few, well 100 to be exact, to get you started on "Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship".  We suggest you start with the first 20 below and see how it goes.  Then start adding in some of the other clever people listed when you are ready. (By the way, if you are considering how to start tweeting for yourself or your organization, see also Twitter and the Social Entrepreneur - a guide to mission-aligned twittering.) ...

Africa seen rising from bottom of new tech ranking

Forbes: Africa seen rising from bottom of new tech ranking

TALLINN, June 30 (Reuters) - Many African countries should focus on lowering the cost of broadband access to help boost their economies, a World Bank report said on Tuesday.

Seven sub-Saharan countries scored the lowest possible result in a new technology ranking by the World Bank due to low incomes, weak regulation, limited competition and a lack of private investment.

But development of information technology across the continent is moving in the right direction, the report said, and innovations in the fields of mobile banking and free mobile call roaming are already being copied elsewhere.

'If you look at dynamics and evolution, they are doing really well,' Mohsen Khalil, World Bank Group Director for Global ICT, told Reuters.

The countries in the region have started to invest in IT infrastructure, but the cost of fixed and mobile phone services and Internet services are still two to five times the average income, hampering the takeup.

'There's still a long way to bring down cost,' Khalil said.

He said the typical monthly mobile bill was still $10-$12 in Africa, while in Southeast Asia many operators run profitable operations with average bills of $5 or less.

The World Bank report found a strong link between GDP growth and broadband access, underlying the need for stimulus programmes in which governments have allocated billions of dollars to expand high-speed Internet access to fight recession....

New materials for renewable energy: The power of being made very small

The Economist: New materials for renewable energy: The power of being made very small

Nano-engineering can produce substances with unique properties that will give renewable energy a boost.

BIG improvements in the production of energy, especially from renewable sources, are expected over the coming years. Safer nuclear-power stations, highly efficient solar cells and the ability to extract more energy from the wind and the sea are among the things promised. But important breakthroughs will be needed for these advances to happen, mostly because they require extraordinary new materials.

The way researchers will construct these materials is now becoming clear. They will engineer them at the nanoscale, where things are measured in billionths of a metre. At such a small size materials can have unique properties. And sometimes these properties can be used to provide desirable features, especially when substances are formed into a composite structure that combines a number of abilities. A series of recent developments shows how great that potential might be. ...

Whatever happened to the food crisis?

The Economist: Whatever happened to the food crisis?

... But recession would normally dampen down price rises. So what explains the return of food-price inflation? And does it mean that the so-called world food crisis is returning?

There are two clusters of explanation: cyclical factors—features of the farm cycle and world economy that fluctuate from season to season—and secular, long-term factors. Cyclical influences include re-stocking: cereal stocks were run down as prices spiked and need to be replenished. In 2006 and 2007, stocks fell below 450m tonnes, about 20% of consumption; now they are back up over 520m, or 23%. That is one source of new demand. Another comes from ethanol. As oil prices rise, ethanol starts to be competitive again (as a rule of thumb, ethanol is profitable when petrol costs $3 a gallon in America, a level it has just reached in California). The fall in the dollar and in freight rates has also kept the local-currency costs of importing a tonne of cereals lower than dollar-denominated world prices. This has encouraged many countries to buy more.

Lastly, it is possible that the widespread hunger brought about by soaring prices—the FAO says a billion people will go hungry this year—may have reached a peak and the poor may be back in the market for grain again. This may sound unlikely, as traditionally poor consumers have had little influence over world food prices, but economic growth has continued in the largest emerging markets (notably China and India) and governments in much of the developing world have been expanding aid programmes for the poor, such as conditional cash-transfer schemes. That may be boosting demand; it would explain why prices of grain, which everyone eats, have been rising this year while prices of meat—the food of the rich and aspiring middle classes—have continued to fall.

Snakes in the grass

But the world food crisis of 2007-08 showed that food prices are not influenced solely, or even mainly, by cyclical factors. They soared in large part because of slow, irreversible trends: population growth; urbanisation; shifting appetites from grain to meat in developing countries. There is no sign that these trends are abating. ...

Declining Middle Class?

Forbes: Has Rising Inequality Destroyed The Middle Class? Thomas F. Cooley (HT: Greg Mankiw)

... Now the narrative is less about the declining middle class and more about a gilded age of the super-rich. The middle feels as if it has lost ground because of the extraordinary wealth accumulated by the very, very few. But that suggests that the pie is a fixed size, and that is clearly not the case.

What triggered the gilded age of the late 20th century? There are extensive arguments in the literature about the impact of tax cuts, about extraordinarily high executive compensation in top management, and more. But the recent research does not seem to support these two as major causes. The most compelling argument for this dramatic increase in income has been technological change. Those with the human capital to take advantage of the new technology gained, and continue to gain, at the expense of those who don't have it. This is the "winner take all" phenomenon. In the 1920s, cutting- edge technology meant electrification. Hence the spike in income at the very top level. The fact that inequality has increased in most of the richest countries is also consistent with this explanation. ...

Forbes: There's No News Like Bad News Thomas F. Cooley

A few weeks ago I wrote a column that purported to address the connection between the rise in income inequality and the threats to the middle class. ... But there were also complaints that I didn't really directly deal with the pervasive sense of declining fortune in the middle class. And for that I plead guilty. ...

... Many people who responded to my earlier article pointed to data from the U.S. Census Bureau that show median household income adjusted for inflation increasing only 18% over the last 30 years. That is stagnation!

Again, however, aggregate data tell a different story--real income per person increased nearly 80% over the 30-year period. Now this could be consistent with the finding that the very top earners garnered all the gains, but it is more complicated than that. Fitzgerald of the Minneapolis Fed points out that the price index used by the Census Bureau overstates inflation and understates income gains. There has also been a dramatic change in the mix of household types--a decline in married-couple households and an increase in no-spouse households for both genders. This causes the Census data to understate significantly the median income gains for all categories of household.

Finally, the Census Bureau approach ignores several sources of income--benefits and transfers--that have grown significantly. When all of these pieces are out together, the data suggest that median Census income per person has risen by 50% over the past 30 years--not 18%.

There are two other pieces to this puzzle that deserve more extensive discussion. One is the observation that important changes have occurred in the composition and quality of the consumption of the median American consumer. Think back 30 years to the typical consumption bundle and ask how much better off you might feel with the current bundle and whether changes in median income reflect that.

The second piece of the puzzle is why the rise in inequality has been so dramatic--and why the skill premium has increased as much as it has. These issues are all connected....

Yes, Microfinance has Positive Effects on the Poor.

Next Billion: Yes, Microfinance has Positive Effects on the Poor.

Microfinance in its simplest form involves extending loans to a group of borrowers (usually called self help groups) who agree to help each other by means of group savings and informal support. The typical self help group consists of 10 to 20 people who meet regularly to discuss social issues and activities and deposit their savings in a joint bank account. Once enough savings have been accumulated, group members can apply to internal loans within the group or apply for loans through a commercial bank.

Even though microfinance is estimated to have directly reached 100 million customers in 2008 (for more details see my previous post) there is still plenty of debate about whether it has a significant impact on the lives of the poor or not.  ...

Government Accountability

The Economist: Government Accountability

Which countries are better governed than a decade ago, and which worse.

 

Best of It: Principles of a New Realism (Part 5)

[Series Index]

Today we wrap up Chapter 8, “Principles of a New Realism,” in John Stackhouse’s Making the Best of It. The fourth and final section deals with “Liberty and Cooperation.”

Liberty and Cooperation

Individuals

… We are free, first from sin and death. No longer must we obey sin and fear death. We are free to choose the good in the hope of eternal life.

Out of his experience of wrestling with sin, fearing death, and longing for a good God, Martin Luther rejoiced to affirm that the Christian is free from worrying about his destiny, is therefore free from egocentricity, and so is free truly to love God and his neighbor. We can extend this insight to affirm that the Christian is thus free to tend the earth without selfishness. And, according to the redemption commandments, the Christian loves his fellow Christians and serves the rest of the world in genuine regard for the other, rather than out of concern for his own gain. (297)

That said, Stackhouse goes on to remind us that of the win-win-win concept. Life is not a zero-sum game between God, others, and ourselves … where the good of one in this triad comes at the expense of the others. Shalom is the optimal condition for all three. When we pursue shalom for others we also benefit God and ourselves.

We are active participants in the realization of shalom. While law gives us guidance we are not automatons executing explicit commands in every waking moment of our lives. We are volitional beings. The imagery that came to my mind was parenting, where we set boundaries and give instruction to our children, but our hope is that that they internalize values that will guide them, making boundaries second nature. Key to the New Testament is the idea that we have freedom but the primary focus of that freedom is on, as Stackhouse notes, "freedom for the other." We also have the responsibility to not only avoid the bad in favor the good, or choose the lesser of two evils, but often to discern and act on the greater of two or more goods.

Others

God has given us freedom. Stackhouse notes that God creates humanity and then commands us. This implies a freedom to obey or disobey. “One doesn’t command a fork, a flower, or a flood.” (300) Yet that freedom is not absolute. I like his ship passenger metaphor with regard to ignoring God’s law.

The passenger on a ship crossing the Pacific is free to jump overboard, free to swim in the ocean for a while, and then free only to drown. For it is not his nature to have that degree of independence. (300)

Furthermore, we are not the only ship passengers on board. Our exercise of freedom must take into account others, which certainly includes respecting their freedom.

Stackhouse observes that we all share a natural tendency to insist on the universal applicability of things that seem right to us and that often leads us to seek a hegemony that reinforces our view. Then he offer’s this:

Yet confidence in one’s on religion and hope for the future can lead in the opposite direction: toward patient, hopeful tolerance of others based on belief that God is in control and will bring his good purposes to pass. (301)

At its core, that church is about love and community. Stackhouse emphasizes that, “love and community cannot grow out of coercion.

Stackhouse goes on to note that any human project certainly requires cooperation between people and that mean curtailment of freedom. That said, we still ought to look for how we can give as much freedom as possible as people pursue their vocations. Stackhouse is also concerned that we be conscious of “… much less benign motivations of some of those who seek greater state control over individuals and intermediate institutions such as families, churches, and nongovernmental organizations." (302)

Next he makes some important remarks regarding liberal democracy.

It [liberal democracy] is not only the least bad of the available alternatives, but it manifests positive and crucial Christi values such as justice, the dignity of all people, due process, transparency, honesty, liberty, responsibility, love of one’s neighbor, and the humility to recognize the fallibility of both individuals and systems, including the state itself. Of course it is a far cry from the shalom of God’s direct rule in the New Jerusalem. … (303)

He goes on to acknowledge other weaknesses.

… Yet Christians also recognize the roots of liberal democracy in the soil of our own religion, and we properly commend and defend it as the only form of government we know of that even attempts to include all of these values. (303)

He also writes:

I agree here, again, with Yoder: Christians must do all we can to bring as much shalom as possible without trying to construct the New Jerusalem by ourselves. (304)

Later, he reflects on the tension between providing as much justice, compassion, and stability as possible with the least curtailment of freedom for individuals and groups.

Some might see such a statement as capitulating to secular modernity. I maintain, however, that the combination and the tension of each element with the others – justice, compassion, stability and liberty – is Biblical. It is the way God works, and the way God wants us to work, this side of the New Jerusalem. (304-305)

He concludes this subsection with some thoughts about international implications as well.

Unity and Diversity in the Church

In this last brief section, Stackhouse revisits his notion that diversity in the church, with our various denominations and traditions, is not a bad thing. There are is no way a single form of Christianity can reflect all the richness that is there. Yet he acknowledges, without specificity, that unity needs to be around some sense of “mere Christianity” … and even if we think our tribe has a better handle on what that is, we can still be partnership with others who share that “mere Christianity.” Stackhouse believes that we should be open in to others in three important ways:

• We need to “… be open to considering a stance different from the what [we] have maintained heretofore in the name of tradition, if the cultural situation has changed importantly.”
• We should find grounds for ecumenical cooperation among those adopting the same stance.
• “… we should be willing to at least consider affirming others in stances different from ours, even at apparent cross-purposes to ours, as we recognize that Christ may have called them to this apparently contradictory , but perhaps also complementary, stance. (308)

This completes Chapter 8, dealing with “Principles of a New Realism.” Next we will turn to the final chapter where Stackhouse offers his concluding thoughts on what all this means for the relationship between church and culture.

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Fundraising Dips In First Quarter Of 2009

FrogLoop: Fundraising Dips In First Quarter Of 2009

The struggling economy hit nonprofits hard in the first quarter of 2009. According to the latest Target Analytics Index of National Fundraising Performance, the number of new donors dropped by almost 13%, as compared to 2008. The study analyzed 79 nonprofit organizations and their fundraising campaigns via direct mail, online fundraising, telemarketing and canvassing.

The study also showed that for the first time since Target Analytics released its initial study in 2002, overall revenue per donor declined by 2.1%. Prior to this study, the Index of the National Fundraising Performance had only been showing a gradual decline in donor numbers since the U.S. Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005. However, things rapidly changed from Q4 in 2008 to Q1 in 2009. The decline in donors accelerated even faster due to the recession and a 13% decrease in new donors. ...

Breaking glass ceilings at large churches

Christian Century: Breaking glass ceilings at large churches

Methodists opened the ordained ministry to women in 1956, and today female ministers account for about 20 percent of the clergy in the denomination. And 14 bishops heading the 50 U.S. regional jurisdictions of the United Methodist Church are women—28 percent of the total.

Score that a triumph for gender inclusivity in the nation's largest mainline church? Not so fast, say some UMC officials. One mark of acceptance for women pastors is lagging—only some 7 percent of Methodist congregations with more than 1,000 members are led by a female senior pastor.

Methodist statisticians, releasing this month the most recent data (from December 2007), said that 81 of the denomination's largest congregations were led by women pastors and 1,055 by male pastors. Another eight large congregations had men and women serving as copastors. ...

Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out

The Economist: Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out  (This appeared more than a week ago but I forgot to post it.)

Larry Page should have been in a good mood. It was the fall of 2007, and Google's cofounder was in the middle of a five-day tour of his company's European operations in Zurich, London, Oxford, and Dublin. The trip had been fun, a chance to get a ground-floor look at Google's ever-expanding empire. But this week had been particularly exciting, for reasons that had nothing to do with Europe; Google was planning a major investment in Facebook, the hottest new company in Silicon Valley.

Originally Google had considered acquiring Facebook—a prospect that held no interest for Facebook's executives—but an investment was another enticing option, aligning the Internet's two most important companies. Facebook was more than a fast-growing social network. It was, potentially, an enormous source of personal data. Internet users behaved differently on Facebook than anywhere else online: They used their real names, connected with their real friends, linked to their real email addresses, and shared their real thoughts, tastes, and news. Google, on the other hand, knew relatively little about most of its users other than their search histories and some browsing activity.

But now, as Page took his seat on the Google jet for the two-hour flight from Zurich to London, something appeared to be wrong. He looked annoyed, one of his fellow passengers recalls. It turned out that he had just received word that the deal was off. Microsoft, Google's sworn enemy, would be making the investment instead—$240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the company, meaning that Redmond valued Facebook at an astonishing $15 billion. ...