Faith Perspectives for Development Institutions

Abstract

FRAMING THE ISSUESMy professional life has been spent in the world of development practice, working on what I term operations in an international development organization. The range of issues we address is very wide, AIDS to zebras, as one might say. We work with villagers to raise crop yields, build pumps for water, and reduce maternal mortality. We work in urban areas with slum communities on housing, with city administrators on sanitation, and with women's groups on how to confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We deal all too often with the consequences of economic crises like the 1997-1998 east Asian crisis. Our central aim is to find long-term solutions and visions for better lives, yet we grapple daily with the practical consequences of strategic choices for countries like Bolivia, Mali, and Cambodia. Debt problems, corruption, gender dimensions, environmental assessments, and many more topics are all our daily fare.Until very recently, this kind of front-line work, as carried out by development institutions such as the World Bank, was consciously very secular, with little direct engagement with the worlds of faith, spirituality, and organized religion. This article speaks to this divide and to the importance of bridging these worlds, building on the resurgence (or revelation, in the sense of lifting barriers that prevented us from seeing what was there all the time) of ties between faith and development. These issues have taken on heightened importance in the world following 11 September 2001.I also reflect on the complex web of threads that tie the phenomena of poverty, instability, fundamentalist religious movements, and terrorism. We know well that most poor people seek nothing more than peace and security, and that few terrorists are themselves poor. Poverty and terrorism are not directly linked. Yet there are important relationships that deserve thoughtful exploration. Many years ago, a graduate school professor of mine noted the correlation between rum prices and the salaries of Presbyterians ministers: they tend to move in similar patterns. Rum prices and Presbyterian ministers' salaries are, of course, not directly related to one another in any causal pattern; instead, both depend on broader economic trends. It is useful to reflect on linkages between poverty and terrorism in a similar light. Though the causal inter-relationship is limited, they are both part of broader trends and challenges to do with what we might term global social justice; in many instances they do indeed go together and the one can aggravate the other. If we do not address the challenge of global poverty and work towards social justice, it is difficult to imagine that we can put an end to today's tragic patterns of instability and the terrorism that is part of them.My central message is the urgent need for better understanding of, and effective action to address, the complex ways in which the worlds of faith and development intersect and can engage with each other. Part of this challenge is to open and pursue channels of dialogue between the worlds. There are also ample opportunities for alliances for advocacy and policy change and for stronger partnerships on the ground. For some, this challenge may be readily met if areas of common purpose can be defined; for others, deeply suspicious of what they see as the methods and motivation of international development work, or for that matter of religious institutions, the task is much more difficult. Great creativity and commitment are needed if we are to find ways to bridge the divide.DEVELOPMENT AND FAITH IN SEPARATE WORLDSJoint reflection, dialogue, and research between the worlds of faith and development were piecemeal in the late 20th century. Institutions like the multilateral development banks, which interact with governments as a matter of institutional structure, found limited ways to interact with civil society institutions, including religious institutions. …