Picturing Theology

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P i c t u r i n g T h e o l o g y

Empowering People for Freedom, Wholeness, and Justice (continued)

Therefore, development work is eager to assist in preparing people for hearing the Gospel by witnessing to its truth and living out its implications. • Reconciliation between individuals, classes, and cultures is a key value. Development will inevitably involve new ways of power-sharing, using resources, making decisions, enforcing policy, and relating to others. There is a need to innovate rather than simply imitate existing models. It is extremely important that the viewpoints of peoples from different classes and cultures be represented in the planning of any development project. • Development projects must not be wasteful of resources or harmful to the physical environment. God’s command to humankind is to recognize his ownership, and neither exploit nor destroy his earth, but to tend and care for it. Stewardship involves using the earth’s resources to glorify him and meet the needs of our neighbors while keeping in mind our responsibility to future generations. Development must be sustainable, i.e., it must not simply consume resources but cultivate them as well. The Bible delineates various moral vices that can lead to poverty in the lives of individuals (e.g., laziness, sloth, neglect of responsibility, cf. Prov. 6; Prov. 24, etc.), However, it is also clear that poverty can be caused by large scale societal and economic factors that create conditions of need, oppression, and want (cf. Isa. 1; Isa. 54, Amos 4, 5, etc.). Even a cursory reading of Scripture reveals that throughout biblical history the prophets condemned certain practices of business, politics, law, industry, and even religion that contributed to the imbalances among various groups within society, and led to the oppression of the poor. Development seeks to be prophetic by affirming that God is committed to the poor and the needy, and will not tolerate their oppression indefinitely. Development is not naive. It does not attribute all poverty in society to individual moral vice. On the contrary, struggling against injustice demands that people recognize the ever- present possibility of demonic influence in human structures (1 John 5.19). 8.2 Development recognizes the systemic and institutional foundations of producing wealth and experiencing poverty. Explanation