Thoughts on Poverty

The first of the month snuck up on me without warning and it is time again for the Presby Bloggers to Unite! This months topic is poverty, which normally I could write about until the cows come home. I had grand plans for talking about poverty in my backyard (Boulder, Co) as well as poverty in the next neighborhood over (Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, etc). But after a rather exhausting week at work I seem to be suffering from mental fatigue and writer's block. So, I will highlight the UN Millennium Development Goals which were created in 1990 and hoped to be met by 2015. In addition to listing the goals, I'll also make a few scattered notes for all they're worth.

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger - Doesn't really seem like we've made much progress since thousands upon thousands die every day from hunger and about 1/6 of the world lives on less than a dollar a day.

2. Achieve universal primary education- not looking good for this one either, unless Oprah decides to keep opening schools all over the world.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women - I'm not really sure how the UN plans to define success on this one, but I'm not going to get into talking about how long this road is right now:)

4. Reduce child mortality.

5. Improve maternal health.

6. combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases- Not sure where I get this factoid, but I once heard that if Sub-Saharan Africa were granted full debt relief, they could afford to stop the AIDS epidemic in it's path.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability.

8. Create a global partnership for development.

2015 isn't far away. I'm curious to see how concerned the UN will be as the deadline for these goals draws near.

So what does this all have to do with Presbyterians? I have to say that I'm very proud of the work that the Presbyterian Church is doing as far as working to end poverty. There are some truly amazing ministries in the church and after working with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, I've become very aware of how the Presbyterian family rallies for those in need. While I don't think the Presbyterian Church could ever be capable of solving the world's poverty problem, I do think it can play a vital role. I'd love to see mission be a more significant portion of the budget in all churches. I'd love to see more letter writing campaigns to our representatives. I'd also love to hear more conversations about the topic in sermons, Sunday School classes and at coffee hour. The Presbyterians have a reputation as being the wealthiest (per capita) church in the world and it is time to put our wealth to work!