In 1976, CRC Synod mandated that a task force give a biblical statement on the issues involved in the problem of world hunger. The task forced examined crucial issues such as the increasing disparities between rich and poor nations, the need for preaching about world hunger, a fresh understanding of stewardship, and the distinction between humanitarian and soundly Christian endeavors. Their report, And He had Compassion on Them: The Christian and World Hunger, gave concrete actions for responses from within the church, including a world hunger action program. In 1978 Synod accepted the report on world hunger and adopted its recommendations.
The task force requested that they be given an additional year to prepare a biblical statement and response to the structural and systemic problems causing world hunger. For My Neighbor's Good: World Hunger and Structural Change is that report to Synod from 1979.
Synod's Findings:
Why does the CRC do relief work?
The church is concerned that people are starving for want of food to feed their souls: the Bread of Life and Living Water. Yet the church may never divorce this concern from its care for the body. Man is a unity of body and soul and our Lord is filled with compassion for this matchless total being with all its potential for good and ill. We cannot feed only the spirit and then blithely disregard the body or relegate such a concern to someone else. Christ did not--He saw man as totality.
As people redeemed by Christ, we know that to feed only the body is to leave unfed the starving spirit. We further affirm that to feed only the spirit while the body cries out in pain and hunger is sheer hypocrisy. Therefore, the people of God, of all people, should be the first to respond to the plight of the world's hungry with a compassion that breaks all barriers (And He had Compassion on Them..., p. vi).
Taking on Jesus' love for the poor and hungry, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) equips local deacons to do their work, brings relief in times of disaster, and establishes long-term development projects in Canada, the United States, and 28 other countries around the world. For more information, visit crwrc.org.
Why does the CRC advocate to change the root causes of poverty and hunger?
Many Christian's instinctive response is that the church has no business working for change in the socio-economic structures. The church, these people say, should limit itself to the proclamation of "the simple gospel" and to the administration of mercy. Because the temptation to avoid the issue of structural change can be so strong, we need to ask what the consequences would be if we gave in to this temptation.
- First, we would then decide to tolerate unjust systems in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
- Second, by avoiding the issue of structural change, Christians would consign themselves forever to fighting the symptoms instead of getting at the disease itself. These systems need to be changed before people can provide food for themselves. While the church is unable to feed all the hungry masses of the world, it can certainly call for changes in systems that may significantly improve the lot of millions.
- Third, if the church does not advocate for systemic change, then it would be guilty of proclaiming a truncated gospel. A message that fails to proclaim our radical liberation through Jesus Christ from every configuration of sin greatly limits the stature of our Deliverer.
- Fourth, this failure would place the Christian mission in the world at a sever disadvantage over against false gospels that provide answers to these social injustices (From For My Neighbor's Good..., pp. 40-1)
While CRWRC provides relief and development assistance to feed the hungry, the Office of Social Justice works to address the root causes of hunger. To reform systemic injustices that keep people in hunger, OSJ assists members of the CRC in advocating for just and equitable policies on issues that impact food security. OSJ and CRWRC work together to defeat hunger, because CRWRC's development work ultimately requires systemic change to be successful.
