Richard Stearns

May 28, 2007

How to Change the World: Ten (or so) Questions with Richard Stearns, President of World Vision

This was a really interesting read for me. The head of World Vision speaks of why he left his high-paying, comfortable job, to run World Vision. It seems that his major reason was religion, and since the opportunity to serve was presented, he had to take it up. I never realised that World Vision was a Christian organisation. It’s apparently a Christian organisation that doesn’tforce their views onto the people they help; as Richard Stearns says, he lets those he helps know WHY he’s there if they actually want to know. He quotes the bible in saying that he’s meant to pass on the word. To state the obvious, but some people overlook it, this is an example of some fantastic things that religion – Christianity in this case – has facilitated. Lots of people point out the number of people in Africa dead from sexually transmitted diseases because of ridiculous conservative views that are not practical – they blame religion (or scripture) for it, which is fair enough to a degree, but in the end, it’s down to the people in power and their intelligence, or in the case of those particular conservatives, stupidity. While it can’t be forgotten that such stupidity exists and that the consequences are huge, perhaps it should be a bit more widely noted that Christianity (and thus it’s scripture) and religion has also formed, facilitated and reinforced the motivation of an organisation like World Vision which has been helping people in need, without discrimination (I can only go by what I read) around the world, and not just facilitated terrible leadership with dire consequences.

I also find that it’s sad that only half a percent of the US budget goes to help other countries (and please don’t tell me that the 400 billion plus that went into the “war” in Iraq was actually helping another country), where there is clear knowledge on how to stop major forms of poverty. I wonder how much of the Australian federal budget is allocated to such causes and the infrastructure of struggling nations.