Face to Faith
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1784172,00.html
This Christian Aid week showed that the taint of fundamentalism is
infecting attitudes to the religion, writes Stewart Dakers
Saturday May 27, 2006
The Guardian
A week ago, more than a quarter of a million Christians have each spent
many hours putting their faith on the line - they were collecting for
Christian Aid. The doorstep can be an uncomfortable place. Public
scepticism is very in your face. However, it is all fairly predictable
and most of us are seasoned to it. But for me, this year was different.
A common objection to giving is that the monies raised will be wrongly
used - for arms, for corrupt governments, for administration or for
fat-cat salaries - or they will simply be lost. Another objection, one
which on the poorer estates is increasingly legitimate, is that charity
begins at home. Then there are the ex-colonials, who "know these
people, spent years out there" and who continue to view every member of
the developing world as lazy, inept, incapable and corrupt.
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