A Few Rather Scattered Notes

The Heresy of ERD

It is never a good sign when a Sunday forum begins with the statement: “Now what I’m saying is somewhat heretical…” For the first time in recent memory, I encountered an exception to this rule, because “the doctrine” in question was the Millennium Development Goals and the heretic was the President of Episcopal Relief, Bob Radtke. While Radtke appreciates the MDGs as a useful classification of the efforts necessary to reduce global poverty, Radtke argues that the MDGs are based on a “planner” approach to development, in which first world governments and non-governmental organizations tell third world governments and people how poverty is to be alleviated. Radtke prefers the “searcher” approach in which first world organizations provide the economic resources so that third world people can bring themselves out of poverty on their own.

Anyone familiar with Habitat for Humanity will be familiar with the distinction between planners and searchers. Habitat for Humanity is an alternative to traditional “planner” public and private approaches to low income housing, in which governments and private companies build large housing complexes in depressed neighborhoods and rent them to economically distressed people who are given little incentive to maintain the property.

Habitat for Humanity is based on a searcher model. Habitat for Humanity goes into the community and identifies lots and buildings suitable for new construction or renovation. They then find people in the neighborhood who lack homes of their own and allow them to purchase a home for cost and sweat equity. Because those helped now own their own homes, they have an incentive to maintain their property and can build equity to give them leverage in the credit market.

Radtke told stories about various ERD projects, including a village improvement project in Honduras and Nets for Life, which brings mosquito nets and education about malaria to sub-Saharan Africa.

In the midst of current struggles to maintain some sense of affection between the Provinces of the Anglican Communion, it was good to remember that ERD uses Anglican churches throughout the Global South as bases of operations and sources of local expertise or as the Rector wryly put it, “The Anglican Communion does more than spread bigotry.” Although there have been attempts by the present bands of separatists to create parallel organizations to ERD such as Anglican Relief and Development Fund (a creation of the CAN), the model for these organizations is clearly ERD. The main advantage of these new organizations is their stronger relations to Provinces such as Uganda and Nigeria.

Moving

Due to space limitations, I no longer can be housed in the Mansura Sanctae Caterinae Alexandrensis at my present institution. So I have just moved into a little room not too far away. I am “borrowing” Internet connectivity (AKMA style) at the moment and will be working on obtaining some of my own.
J.K. Rowling vs. Phillip Pullman

Fr. Nick linked to BabyBlue’s defense of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I do intend to read the whole thing, but I can’t say that I am going to be particularly enthusiastic if there’s a lot of bashing of Phillip Pullman as an author rather than as a man. I share with the Archbishop of Canterbury the sentiment that there is something deeply important about His Dark Materials that transcends Pullman’s attempt to write some sort of novelistic screed against God and Christianity. Despite Pullman’s attempts, his works are a fine illustration of Kyle Potter’s blog motto, “Because Gods who cannot raise the dead must die.” Pullman’s God is a fraud, who did not incarnate Himself as Jesus of Nazareth, making Pullman’s caricaturistic churchmen as evil as you would expect in such a world. Reading Pullman’s works leads me to appreciate greatly the God I worship.
What I suspect needles Christians about Pullman’s works is how good he is in identifying oppressive structures that we often conflate with divine authority. Patriarchy or traditional family structure do nit get much of a pass in Pullman’s world, in which the protagonist’s father and mother, despite their elite backgrounds, turn out to be the worst parents imaginable and she finds family among aliens and the marginalized of her society (and the academics…). The literary theologian might say that Lyra is Pullman’s deep desire for Jesus Christ. That Pullman’s works are one more chapter in man’s critique of God, one of the great themes of the Holy Scriptures.