Jesus does not accept poverty and neither should any Christian

In my 16 years of working with World Emergency Relief UK (WER) I have seen that the greatest suffering is caused not by any one disaster or conflict, but by poverty.

I am talking here of the kind of poverty that means starvation, the kind of poverty that means illiteracy and untreated sickness. The kind of poverty that holds its victims in a grip from which they will never escape no matter how hard they work, whatever their dreams may be.

Poverty is a curse that blights the lives of millions of our brothers and sisters around the world but it is a curse that I firmly believe can be lifted from every single person on earth.

This might seem ambitious but history shows us what can be achieved. When, in the 18th Century, early economist Adam Smith suggested that poverty in Britain could effectively be ended, many quarters derided this end as impossibly unrealistic and in some cases even as undesirable but the conditions in which the poor lived and died 100 years ago would simply not be tolerated now.

Many of us rightly worry about some of the social ills of economic development but this ending of absolute poverty is undeniably a great achievement.

I believe that this can also be achieved across the world and that this should be the aim of any serious aid agency working in development. In recent years I have shared this view with others. Many supporters of charities such as WER agree with me but it is surprising how many people, like the 18th Century naysayers, deny the possibility of such an ambition, even amongst Christians!

Many is the time I have heard the quote “the poor will always be with us” (Matthew 26:11) taken out of context and used to suggest that the fight to end poverty is not a priority for Christians or that it is a hopeless aspiration.

As if Jesus, who sacrificed himself to save us and who preached love for all of our neighbours, would ever suggest that we turn away from those in need!

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (John 3:18)

It is true that there are times when the scale of need can be disheartening. It is estimated that there are 923 Million people without enough food in the world today. A person who can refuse the plight of a single starving child is no Christian. But if faced with 10,000 or 10 million or even 100 million it is perhaps understandable that so many people struggle to see how they can help.

But there is real cause for hope. 25 years ago, when I first became involved in oversees aid work, the World Bank estimated that over 40% of people in the world lived in extreme poverty. Today this figure is estimated at 27% or less.

Such statistics will never do justice to the enormity of the change they represent. Literally billions of people that would once have lived out brief lives of terrible hardship now have the chance at something better.

When I visit places like Burundi, until quite recently a place of ethnic conflict, massacres and starvation, I see more cause for optimism. Where once there were camps now there are streets of homes.

WER’s partner in Burundi, African Revival Ministries, is now providing healthcare, schooling and other programmes to thousands of Burundians and in most cases they are doing this without any funding or support from WER. A great deal of their work has become sustainable and fully independent. Clear evidence that our goal is attainable.
I firmly believe that if we join together and work hard we can end absolute poverty in our lifetimes. Imagine a world where the fight against poverty has been won. As Christians, we believe that sharing the gospel message and the love of God is vital but alongside this Christians should aspire to see the curse of poverty broken. And I want to repeat this, it can be done.

Charities must shoulder part of the blame for many people’s pessimism. Raising both awareness of and income to support those in need has meant engaging a public growing more and more used to shocking news and images. Reporting of poverty and disasters can at times be hysterical in its need to appear relevant. When in a 12 month period the public are told of lives in peril from an earthquake in Haiti, floods in Pakistan, famine in Sahel and more, then it is easy to see why people may feel the situation is hopeless.

And when there are no giant crisis there is still plenty of gloom and doom; one in five children drink dirty water every day, over 10,000 children die each day from hunger.
I believe that international development charities like WER have a responsibility that at times has been neglected, and that is to make clear the good news, the progress and the optimism of our vision.

This is why WER is changing name to emerge poverty free.

Our work is helping people to overcome poverty, enabling them to emerge poverty free. WER has for many years been working to fight poverty but our new name makes it explicitly clear what our aim is and that we are optimistic that it can be done. It is ambitious, yes, but I truly believe that that each and every one of us, with God’s help, can play a part in making a world that is poverty free.

No one person can do this alone and no one organisation can either. emerge poverty free works with people, communities and organisations across the world to bring about this vision of a world that is poverty free.

I urge all Christians to join this great movement and to be a part of a historic achievement, whether through supporting our work directly or through one of the many other great charities that are working towards the same end.

There simply is no excuse for complacency or acceptance of the way things are when it is well within our power to end poverty once and for all.


Alex Haxton is Chief Executive of Emerge Poverty Free (formerly World Emergency Relief UK). Find out more at www.emergepovertyfree.org