Links of the Day
John F. Hobbins over at Ancient Hebrew Poetry has a great little bit about the nature of confessional scholarship nestled in a great gut check post on the complegalitarian debate.
As a confessionally engaged biblical scholar, I have a bottom line: it should be possible to discuss the meaning of biblical texts with the intention of allowing them to speak to us on their own terms, rather than exaggerating their weight when they “score one for our side,” or engaging in damage control when they do not support the position we hold dear.
The complegalitarian blog, which invites actual discussion between comps and egals, invites Completarians to explain what Egalitarians totally do not get (about Complementarians).
Sillyness abounds! Some of you might be ahead or behind the LOLz Cats thing, but I must send along the LOLz Cats Bible! Here is a little bit from John:
1 In teh beginz is teh cat macro, and teh cat macro sez “Oh hai Ceiling Cat” and teh cat macro iz teh Ceiling Cat.2 Teh cat macro an teh Ceiling Cat iz teh bests frenz in teh begins.
3 Him maeks alls teh cookies; no cookies iz maed wifout him.4 Him haz teh liefs, an becuz ov teh liefs teh doodz sez “Oh hay lite.”5 Teh lite iz pwns teh darks, but teh darks iz liek “Wtf.”
Some friends and I have been going through Rich Chrisitans in an Age of Hunger. I think we spend two or three hours discussion the first two chapters and tangetical issues the other night. One of the things we brought up is our lack of knowledge of micro-loan institutions. The Bible Money Matters Blog, while discussing what we can do with out historically abundant wealth, brings up one such micro-loan institution, Kiva.
Update: Cheapham has done a bit of research on micro-loans and suggests Opportunity International as a good micro-loan provider.
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Comments
Thanks for the link. Interesting comment from cheapham, I wasn’t aware of the other group doing micro loans, maybe i’ll have to look into them and do a post on some of the micro loan outfits that are out there..
Pete (and Cheapham),
That is my issue - I have just been let on to the idea and mechanisms of micro-loans. Cheapham, I have those same concerns, but do you know of a better way? It empowers them, it allows them to build their own way and it puts internal pressure on the governments to change by way of empowering a new class of people. It does bring capitalism, but if you can show me something else that works better, I’ll consider that as well.
I did an economic discipleship group this semester, and part of it involved researching charitable organizations in order to find avenues to give money/donate. I think all of us were pretty impressed with micro-loans and the benefits they can provide. Kiva is kind of the facebook version of micro-loans…and IMO has unnecessary overhead costs compared to other groups like Opportunity International, of which I’m a pretty big fan. Opprtunity International is perhaps the most well-rounded micro-loan org that we came across, and does excellent work at empowering the poorest of the poor and helping women and others with additional social-capital disadvantages.
The one cavaet I have with micro-loans is the fact that we are often essentially imposing our own western notions of capital, economics, and even “success” upon people who have very different worldviews. I worry about this, and always keep it in mind. But, that doesn’t take away the immense good that can come from micro-loans. By being non-profit and putting all earned funds toward more loans (rather than personal gain), orgs like Opportunity International do a decent job at side-stepping these issues. Unfortunately, there are more and more for-profit mirco-loan orgs that are springing up…and I fear they could establish a whole new patronage system akin to that of the Roman world.
I hope to talk more about this when I’m in MO soon!