To help


At a time of economic stress, how can we overcome giving fatigue? Long-term disaster assistance to Pakistan can be done in two ways. One, [foreign policy] is pragmatic and self- serving, ensuring that the Taliban doesn’t make further inroads in the region. Foreign policy is not run as a chari- table or philanthropic endeavor. However, Pakistan is a place where if aid is given in such a manner, it won’t be well received. Alternatively, true generosity to people in Pakistan who are suffering can be done well without any condi- tions and clauses. Caritas is about giving without any expectation of getting something back. Partnering with [Pakistan’s people in] development means helping meet their needs for the short and long term to ensure such [severe effects from a disaster] do not happen again.


What are some of the fears? That Taliban and Islamic extremists will provide much of the aid. But these extremists don’t have the funding power many assume. Their few funding sources, includ- ing the sale of opium grown in Afghanistan, keep them in business with little left for charity as publicity. Then there is the fear of corruption. Won’t some aid from the U.S. be siphoned off? The truth is that aid is sometimes siphoned off regardless of what we desire or try to prevent. But we can’t allow kleptocracy (govern- ment by those who seek chiefly status and gain at the expense of the governed) to keep us from giving. Even if 10 percent is somehow lost, 90 percent will still reach people who so desperately need it. We cannot afford as a country to not help on the basis of fear.


We can be glad that the transparency and checks and balances of our partner Church World Service, which has worked in Pakistan since the 1950s, help ensure that ELCA aid is distributed to those who most need it. And we have to get away from our fears. The ecumen- ist John R. Mott, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, argued that to revive U.S. churches we must be involved in mission overseas. Look at Hebrews 13:12-14—a great missiologi- cal statement that basically says Jesus was crucified out- side the city gate so let us go and join him. It doesn’t say,


By the numbers


For Pakistan flood relief in 2010, ELCA partner Church World Service has provided: • 25,000 health consultations and visits by 10 mobile health teams in Mansehra, Kohistan and Swat. • 9,000 nonfood items, including 2,000 tents, for 75,000 people. • 2,800 tons of food for more than 91,000 people. • 1 diarrhea treatment center in Swabi District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, together with the World Health Organization.


February 2011 33


One hundred percent of gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response go to help with the disaster. Send checks (write “Pakistan Response” on the memo line) to: ELCA International Disaster Response, 39330 Treasury Center, Chicago, IL 60694-9300; give by credit card at 800-638-3522 or www.elca. org/pakistanflooding.


go to the security of my own suburb or church, but go and join him there, outside comfort zones. The church must be involved in the world in an incarnational way.


Why do we give? Does preventing terrorism (our per- sonal gain) really come into it? As Christians, we are called to care for disaster survi- vors in Pakistan and elsewhere—not out of self-interest or fear but simply because of Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 (verses 31-46): “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” As churches our concern isn’t foreign policy but to do for the least of these. This is who Jesus is. History’s vic- tims are with Jesus on the cross. We have a crucified God, not a charitable God who pushes pennies out of his door. We have an incredible God, a God who suffers and who is with us: Emmanuel. No other religion begins with a state- ment of God’s vulnerability. Christianity is not a religion of power but of love. That’s powerful. And this is why I am a Christian. To me, it means something that the Lord Jesus was born in a manger, not the Mayo Clinic. Think of the flies, the mosquitoes, the stink. We like to picture how the joy- ous news came from an angel. But we can also imagine how the neighbors were likely looking at Mary, a single mother. While some Christians immaculate (make pure) Mary and others completely ignore her, Lutherans can understand Mary. The Lutheran tradition, with the theol- ogy of the cross, opens up the question of vulnerability much more densely than any other tradition. We give, to Pakistan, to the world, because in so doing, we do it for the Lord Jesus. Each suffering person is the one on the cross. We love our suffering neighbors. We are not called, as Christians, to put conditions on aid we give. M


See www.thelutheran.org/feature/february to read “Q&A: Pakistan health, shelter and food security.”


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