firecat

I just made some more loans via http://kiva.org. My "strategy" when lending has been to lend to people in a variety of different countries. But this time around I also decided that I'm not going to make any more loans that are associated with explicitly Christian charities. Personally, I would rather support lenders that don't encourage or require their loan recipients to adopt certain beliefs or behaviors (unrelated to paying back their loan).

I'm sure that not all of the Christian-associated lenders are pushy that way, but some of them, based on the lender descriptions on Kiva, sound like they are. E.g., "Esperanza International Dominican Republic, a partner of HOPE International" includes as part of their lender description:

We define poverty as the condition of the human being as a result of their broken relationships with God, other people, the creation and himself, as a consequence of sin. We expect, then, to assist them in their release from poverty through a transforming development process, which we define as the reconciliation process where the individual is restored to bless and be blessed, becoming an instrument for God’s Kingdom.

I defined "explicitly Christian" as a lender or charity that mentions Christianity in its mission statement.

I did a bunch of this research myself, and afterward I found the following list of Christian-associated lenders. My research agreed with their list. The post and comments also mention some tools that automatically sort Kiva loans in various ways, including exclusion (or inclusion) of religiously affiliated lenders:

http://atheist-monkey.blogspot.com/2009/08/kiva-mfi-checker.html#list

(I am not trying to bash Christianity or tell anyone what to do. This is about my own comfort and beliefs.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From: (Anonymous)

Hi, I ran into this thread accidentally, but have to make a comment. I used to have a strong Christian walk and hope to regain it someday. Not being that previous person, I will try to make a brief defense anyway.

I believe you and the person originally making these comments misunderstand these Christian organizations beliefs. As a matter of faith, we believe all people are fallen and in a "sinful" state. This has happened from the time of "Adam and Eve". It is not meant to be an attack on any person or group. Just saying that if man would never have sinned then the world would have been a very different place.

Also, if you have Christ and are poor and have faith you are still "rich". I have traveled much in third world country's and have seen first hand that difference faith can make. Of course, we all have a obligation to help others with basic needs including food and shelter. Christians and non-Christian have a moral obligation to help believer and non-believers alike.

I understand these moral obligations to be from God, but that is a different conversation.

Just hoping to clarify some of these organizations "statement of beliefs". These terms have special meanings to Christians and are not meant to be offensive by any means.

If you would have hard fact that some of these organization do not do good for all the people they serve that would be different.

However, I believe if you look you would find several Christian organizations reaching out to people of all walks of life. Including prostitutes, gays, drug users, prisoners etc.

Thank you,
God Bless,
James Larabee
WWJDjfl@yahoo.com

From:

firecat

I understand that Christians believe all people are fallen and in a "sinful" state. I don't care what the people running Christian organizations believe about the people they help. But I do care how they go about helping. If an organization's help comes with pressure to get involved in Christianity (e.g. "become an instrument for God's Kingsom") and/or to adhere to certain behaviors that have nothing directly to do with improving their income, then I have no interest in supporting that organization. They might be doing all sorts of good, but it will be without my help; there are other organizations I can support.

PS: Lumping gay people in with people who break the law ("prostitutes, drug users, prisoners") is extremely offensive. Don't do that on my blog any more.