Why Christian Charities Help Controversial Countries

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Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2017

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

Founded less than 70 years ago, today World Vision is one the largest nonprofits in America. But its work primarily focuses outside of the US. Throughout its history, the organization has helped Vietnamese refugees, those devastated by the Ethiopian famine, the African AIDS crisis, and those affected by the Syrian civil war. Its sponsor child program assists one million children, in addition to the millions reached by its community health, microlending, and clean water work. In recent years, due to a combination of economic development and humanitarian work, more and more people around the globe have emerged out of poverty. But those left behind are increasingly those who live in countries marred by incompetent governments or corrupt regimes, says Richard Stearns, who is currently serving his 20th year as president of World Vision. “There’s kind of a conundrum that we face,” said Stearns. “Countries that have all those human rights abuses and challenges happen to be the places where the most vulnerable people live so we tend to work in those places because we feel like God has called our organization to the most vulnerable.” Stearns joined assistant editor Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli to discuss World Vision’s plan on how not to create dependency, how evangelism factors into their work, and what India’s decision to shutdown Compassion International means for his organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.0	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.
0:14.5	Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:29.6	Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. You're listening to Quick to Listen. Each week we go be on hashtags and hot takes to discuss a major cultural event. I'm Morgan Lane, and I'm an assistant editor here at
0:38.1	Christianity today, and as always, I'm joined by Mark Galley. Hey, Morgan. Hey, editor-in-chief.
0:45.6	Just had to remind people that's your role. There you go. All right. Well, who are we joined by today?
0:50.2	We are honored to have Richard Stearns with us. He's been president of the Global Christian Relief and Development Organization World Vision since 1998. He's in his 20th year. He's the author of The Whole in Our Gospel, which earned the ECPA's 2009 Christian Book of the Year Award. And more recently, he's written unfinished, believing is only the beginning. So we're really really glad to have you,
1:11.9	Rich. Well, great to be on the podcast. So it feels weird saying this, but almost 10 years ago,
1:16.5	you came to my school, Messiah College, and I was really good at RSVP for these luncheons that we
1:22.3	would have with chapel speakers afterwards, and I forgot to RSVP for this one. So I showed up to the Javal Luncheon and tried to
1:28.9	beg my way into it and they said, no, it's full. So anyway, here I am. Yeah. You finally get to
1:33.5	talk with him. I remember that luncheon very, very well. And there was somebody that was missing.
1:39.3	There was someone missing. Well, I remember just you talking upstage and talking, and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is going to be great to ask this guy questions.
1:45.8	And then, no, I was denied. So now I can finally ask you about this question.
1:50.0	Great. Well, let's get into the show. World Vision is one of the largest nonprofits in the U.S.
1:54.8	The Evangelical Christian charity takes in over $1 billion annually and ranks number 12 on Forbes list of 100 largest American charities.
2:02.7	Starting in the 1950s, throughout its history, World Vision has helped Vietnamese refugees,
2:07.2	those devastated by the Ethiopian famine, the African AIDS crisis, and those affected by the Syrian Civil War.
2:12.9	Its sponsor child program assists one million children, in addition to the millions reached
2:16.9	by its community health
2:18.0	micro lending and clean water work so how does a Christian organization at this scale keep its faith
2:23.2	central to its work what's more how does this play out across differences in culture forms of
	...

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