Charity That Cripples: Glenn Schwartz on “Dependency Syndrome”
In the same vein of the recent post on Haiti, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be charitable without unknowingly oppressively charitable. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Glenn Schwartz, and his entire work seems to be the critique of this oppressive charity that cripples, and I think he’s on to something. My recent musings on the nature of Christ echoes some of these concerns, that sometimes downward mobility does nothing to lift the “downward” up. So I’m hoping he’ll contribute his thoughts on Haiti and developmentalism; nonetheless it seems he’s already made his contribution: “WHAT IS THE DEPENDENCY SYNDROME? It results from doing for other people what they can and should do for themselves. WMA promotes SELF-RELIANCE and use of local resources, development of local leadership, local funding, local decision-making and missionary outreach. WMA teaches avoidance of practices that generate DEPENDENCY among churches and other Christian institutions worldwide.”
Like
Recent Comments