Chapter 8 " The greatest challenge of the new millennium"

In this chapter Richard Stearns the author really gets to the point with the world crisis of poverty, disease and famine. He does it however in a way that is meant to get us out of our comfortable chairs and up doing something. I like that about his perspective. The sheer magnitude of the problem can overwhelm and cause paralysis of action when action is exactly what is needed. He discusses 3 key points involved in the problem. Awareness, Access, and Ability. Again let his words speak to you.

" Lack of awareness is no longer an issue. And yet only 4 percent of all U.S. charitable giving goes to international causes of any kind. We have become detached and indifferent toward the constant and repeated images of poverty and adversity that bombard us. In fact, our apathy has even earned its own term: compassion fatigue. But we cannot claim that we dont know our distant neighbor is in need- not anymore, not today."

A few pages later he shares these words-

" Listen to the words of a modern day prophet, and let them challenge you:

Fifteen thousand Africans are dying each day of preventable, treatable diseases- Aids, malaria, TB- for lack of drugs that we take for granted.

This statistic alone makes a fool of the idea many of us hold on to very tightly: the idea of equality. What is happening to Africa mocks our pieties, doubts our concern and questions our commitment to the whole concept. Because if we are honest, theres no way we could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else. Certainly not North America or Europe, or Japan. An entire continent bursting into flames? Deep down, if we really accept that their lives- African lives- are equal to ours, we would all be doing more to put the fire out. It's an uncomfortable truth.

This is a prophetic voice, on of both passion and vision. I wish I could say that it belongs to one of the great Church leaders of our day, one who is leading the Church of Jesus Christ to the front lines of the battle against poverty and injustice in our world. But, no, this voice that should shake our churches to the core with its high call to moral responsibility is the voice of a rock star- one who may have done more to advance the cause of the poor in the last 25 years than anyone alive. His name is Bono, and he passionately answers the question who is my neighbor? Then he bids us, as Jesus did, to go out and love them "as ourselves." His impassioned plea gives voice to the moral responsibilities inherent between those who suffer needlessly and those who have the power to intervene.

Listen again to Bono's call to our generation to make our mark on history:

We can be the generation that no longer accepts that an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies- but will we be that generation? Will we in the West realize our potential or will we sleep in the comfort of our affluence with apathy and indifference murmuring softly in our ears? 15 thousand people dying needlessly every day from Aids, TB, and malaria. Mothers, fathers, teachers, farmers, nurses, mechanics, children. This is Africa's crisis. That it's not on the nightly news, that we do not treat this as an emergency- that's our crisis.

Future generations flipping through these pages will know whether we answered the key question. The evidence will be the world around them. History will be our judge, but what's written is up to us. We can't say our generation didn't know how to do it. We can't say our generation couldn't afford it. And we can't say our generation didn't have reason to do it. It's up to us."