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Feed the Children

Theology

quick update

moon and starts
[Alphonse Mucha]

So I’ve spent the last two days in a car for a pretty happy reason: I am now the proud mamma of a Russian Siberian cat. I’m waiting to see what she’s like before I settle on a name, but she’s black with a white undercoat (so gorgeous), so I’m thinking possibly something to do with the moon, or night, or stars . . . I’m especially attracted to names from mythology (Valkyrie, Artemis . . .) and I am open to suggestions! If any of you are interested, I can post some pictures as soon as I can get some shots of her outside of the box she’s currently hiding in.

I also have a friend coming to visit this weekend, so between that and trying to get an 11-month-old kitten adjusted to the apartment, there might not be a whole slew of posts coming this way, although I do have some pretty good ones planned.

Also, you might have heard of the World Vision debacle this week, which . . . I am feeling so much fury and rage right now. That there were so many Christians willing to drop their sponsorship just to spite gay people. Gah. In case anyone was curious why my generation is abandoning evangelicalism and the church in droves– this would be it. This is straight-up one of the worst things I think I’ve ever seen Christians do: let suffering children starve because they hate gay people just that much.

I’m planning on doing a more significant post on the subject, but I wanted to talk about this quickly. I have had my reservations about World Vision in the past– I looked into sponsoring a child through them last year, but ultimately decided not to for a variety of reasons. In doing research, I also realized that I have some concerns about the idea of child sponsorship in general, as well.

That being said, if you’re interested, there are a couple other opportunities you can check out. I am comfortable recommending these, but please be aware that no aid organization is without problems.

UNICEF. They’re one of the larger organizations I’m willing to support, and mostly because they seem to focus on holistic community development, and they work with larger goals of equality and human rights in mind.

Feed the Children. One of the reasons why they’re effective is because they work with corporate sponsors– however, that has the same drawbacks as something like SNAP, in that it limits options and what’s offered isn’t necessarily awesome. However, less than 3% of their budget goes toward administrative costs, and 92% of it goes into the program.

In the end, though, it’s really important to do your research. Websites like Charity Navigator can be powerful tools. One of the important thing to keep in mind is that a lot of NGOs have problems with “white savior” complexes and can ignore the complex realities of the culture they’re trying to help. Reading The Poisonwood Bible opened my eyes to a lot of the problems that can come up when Western people try to fix non-Western problems with Western solutions and ignore the damage they’re causing. Also, I tend to stay far, far away from religious aid organizations because the point is to help people, not proselytize, and they can easily forget that.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend if I don’t see you before then. Stay classy and thanks for stopping by.

(I might have just watched Anchorman for the first time ever. Possibly.)