{"id":76,"date":"2010-01-12T11:29:16","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T11:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html"},"modified":"2010-01-12T11:29:16","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T11:29:16","slug":"breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html","title":{"rendered":"Breaking News – New Study Says Christians Give Poor People the Shaft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please take a look at this new study. I know this can induce controversy, but it is reality and something we need to wrestle with. The post is from my friend Anne Jackson<\/a>. Anne and I will be going to Moldova and Russia to help several projects that are involved with girls\/orphans who have been rescued form the sex-trade industry. More to come.<\/p>\n

The Bliss Institute<\/em> recently commissioned a study on what \u201cConservative Religious Activists\u201d deem important and what \u201cProgressive Activists\u201d deem important. You can download the study here.<\/a>  but for definition\u2019s sake:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cConservative and progressive religious activists have distinct profiles in terms of affiliation, practice, and belief\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cConservative religious activists are almost exclusively Christian.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cProgressive activists are markedly more diverse in terms of religious affiliation. No single faith tradition makes up a majority of progressive religious activists.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll let the chart do it\u2019s work, but let\u2019s just say that only 23% of us \u201cChristians\u201d<\/strong> (the survey defined it even further as a majority of Christians being mainline protestant, um, people like you and me) think that poverty is an issue we should stand behind and fight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The red in the survey represents a majority of \u201cChristian\u201d folk.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The blue is just your average, ordinary Joe.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus himself said something about how people will know we are followers of Christ. (John 13:35<\/a>)<\/p>\n

According to this survey people will know we follow Christ by how much we fight gay marriage and not poverty and disease.
<\/em><\/p>\n

We care so much about abortion, about children before they are born<\/strong>. And there\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019m wondering if the phrase \u201cSanctity of Life\u201d<\/strong> in our political language should be changed to \u201cSanctity of the American Unborn\u201d<\/strong> because according to these statistics, there are quite a few people who don\u2019t care what happens to the child (or the parents or the siblings) once that baby is actually born.<\/em><\/p>\n

If they these people really did care, well, actions speak louder than words\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

\u2026What about the 30,000 children who starve to death every day because of hunger?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Or the millions who die from malaria each year?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Or the millions who die from diarrhea because they have no clean water.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

This is horrific.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

This must change.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


\nWe must begin to engage this \u201cChristian\u201d world view that poverty is not an issue and help them see that caring for the poor is at the very heart of Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please take a look at this new study. I know this can induce controversy, but it is reality and something we need to wrestle with. The post is from my friend Anne Jackson. Anne and I will be going to Moldova and Russia to help several projects that are involved with girls\/orphans who have been rescued form…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,28,200,42,208,110],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orphans","tag-christian","tag-justice","tag-orphans","tag-poverty","tag-religion","tag-widows"],"yoast_head":"\nBreaking News - New Study Says Christians Give Poor People the Shaft - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking News - New Study Says Christians Give Poor People the Shaft - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Please take a look at this new study. I know this can induce controversy, but it is reality and something we need to wrestle with. The post is from my friend Anne Jackson. Anne and I will be going to Moldova and Russia to help several projects that are involved with girls\/orphans who have been rescued form…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-12T11:29:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.flowerdust.net\/images\/2010\/01\/Picture-1.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breaking News - New Study Says Christians Give Poor People the Shaft - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Breaking News - New Study Says Christians Give Poor People the Shaft - Red Letters","og_description":"Please take a look at this new study. I know this can induce controversy, but it is reality and something we need to wrestle with. The post is from my friend Anne Jackson. Anne and I will be going to Moldova and Russia to help several projects that are involved with girls\/orphans who have been rescued form…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2010-01-12T11:29:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.flowerdust.net\/images\/2010\/01\/Picture-1.png"}],"author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html","name":"Breaking News - New Study Says Christians Give Poor People the Shaft - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.flowerdust.net\/images\/2010\/01\/Picture-1.png","datePublished":"2010-01-12T11:29:16+00:00","dateModified":"2010-01-12T11:29:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.flowerdust.net\/images\/2010\/01\/Picture-1.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.flowerdust.net\/images\/2010\/01\/Picture-1.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/01\/breaking-news-new-study-says-christians-give-poor-people-the-shaft.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breaking News – New Study Says Christians Give Poor People the Shaft"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}