Editor’s Note from Nathan Hollenbeck: This is a perspective from a guest blogger who is not affiliated with Coptic Orphans. The article’s view is that the primary response of Christians to the problem of jihadism should not be political, but rather inter-personal, through local, loving witness and the support of that witness in historic Christian communities such as the Copts of Egypt. All views here belong exclusively to the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Coptic Orphans.
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
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John Stott was an Anglican writer and student of the Scriptures.
In the vast majority of cases, [upper-class, North American churches] describe poverty differently than the poor in low-income countries do. While poor people mention having a lack of material things, they tend to describe their condition in a far more psychological and social terms than our North American audiences. Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness. North American audiences tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine, housing, etc. As will be discussed further below, this mismatch between many outsiders’ perceptions of poverty and the perceptions of poor people themselves can have devastating consequences for poverty-alleviation efforts.
