Peter Singer was on Start the Week (on Radio 4) this morning and spoke very persuasively about how we each hold the key to reducing the death toll among the world's children. He reminded us that a football stadium full of kids dies everyday from preventable causes.
His answer was surprisingly simple: we need to give more. His logic was unanswerable. If we see a child drowning in a shallow pool, we would intervene and pull the child out even if as a result, we ruined a pair of good shoes and trousers (cost £100 or so). Why don't we do the same for the child dying for want of a mosquito net, a vaccination, a square meal, access to clean water, a place in school....
I found his argument persuasive. But it saddened me that it sounded so original to those around the table in the studio. Surely this is what Jesus taught and how the early Christians lived. Surely it is what Jesus had in mind when he taught us to pray 'give us this day our daily bread'. How have we lost our way so badly that it takes a champion of secularism to remind us of a core Christian value?
It made me wonder again about sponsoring a child...
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