Guinea Pigs and "The Constant Gardener"

My wife and I watched the movie “The Constant Gardener” last night. It’s a somewhat depressing film about a British diplomat in Kenya, Justin Quayle, whose wife is mysteriously murdered. Although he is by nature a submissive man who prefers the quiet, controlled solitude of a greenhouse to the messiness of the world, the catastrophic death of his wife forces him to take a stand against his superiors, and he uncovers a sinister plot to take advantage of the poor in Kenya.

The movie itself is very well made. It moves carefully and precisely, at a pace appropriate to the personality of the main character. The cinematography is excellent, the story is pretty good, and the acting is fantastic.

But movie-making skills to one side, the subject matter is disturbing. Over the course of the movie Justin learns that the British government has agreed to help a large Canadian pharmaceutical firm test an experimental new drug on native Kenyans. In exchange for the British government casting a blind eye to the pharmaceutical company’s lack of ethics, the company will invest millions of dollars into economically depressed areas of England. The Kenyan test subjects are not informed about the tests, do not consent to be a part of the trial, and many of them suffer fatal side effects that are suppressed from the official results. Justin learns that his wife uncovered this plot and told the British Government, who in turn had her “silenced.” Sounds like fantasy, right?

Well, I would have thought so to, had I not just read an article in Wired about the outsourcing of clinical trials to poverty-stricken areas of countries such as India. The article, titled “A Nation of Guinea Pigs”, won’t be available online until March 1st, so I can’t link to it here, but the gist is that major pharmaceutical companies are starting to do clinical medical trials for new drugs in the rural areas of countries such as China, India, and Brazil.

While not quite the same scenario as the movie, the article follows the impacts, both positive and negative, of such trials in a small hospital in rural India. In a region where medical care of any sort is scarce, doctors and hospitals are more than happy to enroll their patients in medical trials that will bring in significant amounts of cash:

”Patients in Sevagram are poor enough that the benefits of taking part in the study would amount to a health care windfall; among other things, Boehringer Ingelheim guaranteed participants two physicals during each of the three years [of the trial]… moreover, the hospital would receive about $665…Kalantri [the doctor in charge] talked the matter over with the chair of the hospital’s ethics committee, and the two concluded that the trial drug itself, with its possible side effects and limited efficacy, would provide little benefit to their patients. Then they went ahead and signed up.”(emphasis added)

This is pretty scary to me. I mean, I suppose this is not exactly an isolated case and possibly the same sorts of things happen everywhere, all the time. Life is all about compromises. But, I think that with a heart tenderized by the movie “The Constant Gardener” it is really hard for me to read about these kinds of ethical decisions and not cringe in disgust and frustration.

The article points out that part of the problem is the “reticence” of Americans and other westerners to participate in clinical trials for experimental drugs. The bottom line is that we rely heavily on these drugs, and they have to be tested before they can be approved. If intelligent, well informed Americans won’t participate, then someone has to. And unfortunately those “someones” happen to be the poor of the world.

“As many as half of all clinical trials are already conducted in locations far from the pharmaceutical companies’ home base, in countries like India, China, and Brazil. And many industry analysts expect the market to skyrocket…the market in India for outsourced trials will hit $1.5 billion by 2010… drug trial outsourcing is seen as the fast route to economic and scientific growth – a money train that the country can’t afford to miss.”

Indeed, in January last year the Indian government did away with a law that had previously restricted clinical trials to “drugs proven safe in trials conducted in the country of origin…India, the brilliant hub of outsourced labor, was positioning itself in a newly lucrative role: guinea pig to the world.”

Shouldn’t we be appalled by this? I know we can’t interfere in the way other countries run themselves, and India is free to do whatever they want, but this just seems to be so wrong to me. I don’t even know who to blame, because everyone is culpable – the Indian doctors running these trials, the Indian government who want the trials, the big pharmaceuticals for outsourcing the trials, the western patients who desire more and more drugs… the problem eventually comes all the way back to me. No-one is really innocent here. Except maybe the folks who are being experimented on…

Back in India Dr. Kalantri says:

“When I try to explain that a drug is experimental, that it might not work, the understanding is not there. One woman said to me, ‘What do you mean, the drug might not work? All drugs work!’ “

To be fair to Dr. Kalantri, he expresses a lot of hesitation about the trials. But not everyone worries about potential ethical problems. The CEO of a New Delhi company that is in charge of clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies says: “Are patients here more reliable? Obviously. They’re poor. They’re illiterate.”

So, does that make it acceptable?

I say, absolutely not. We should never compromise the sanctity of human life in the name of science.

Never.

This has to stop.

technorati tags: clinical drug trial
Pharmaceutical
India
The Constant Gardener
Constant Gardener
Wired

New Look

I got sick and tired of the retro 70's look and switched to a new template. One day I'll migrate the whole site to a place with better templates, but for now, blogger will have to do. In the meantime, the color of the month is lime green. Makes the text a bit easier to read. I think.

Feedback accepted.

Especially if you have pointers for where/how I can make a blogger site look better!

Burned out on Greek

OK, so three posts in one day might indicate that my mind isn’t exactly in my studies right now…

Which is a shame, because actually it is. I am super engaged and totally on fire...

For all my classes except Greek that is.

Systematic Theology? Fascinating and challenging.
Survey of the NT? Engaging, stimulating and exciting.
Christianity in the Non-Western World? Tons of reading, but awesome.

However, as far as Greek goes, I have reached the proverbial wall.

Not only have I reached that wall, but last week I ran smack dab right into the middle of it. I whacked my head on the hard brick, fell down on my butt, and now everything is spinning and I am seeing stars.

Except, instead of stars I am seeing case endings and morphemes and tense formatives whizzing around me. I feel like I’m stuck in a giant vat of koine alphabet soup.

Not really the best time for us to be moving straight into the ever-so-thrilling world of grammatical studies in Daniel Wallace’s super-exciting “The Basics of New Testament Syntax.” Now there's a page-turner.

Woo-hoo!

Syntax!

Joy.

All I do is scan my eyes across the page because the information is not sinking in at all.

What in the world am I doing? I like languages - I majored in French Literature for crying out loud! I even enjoyed Greek for a while, but this is getting nuts.

Surely not every seminarian needs to also be a linguist also, do they? Why is it so imperative that I learn every little subtle grammatical point? How do they know all this stuff anyways?

Sigh.

Please pray for me to cool my horses, take a deep breath, and keep plodding away. The joy of learning Greek is gone.

This is turning into a marathon and I am wondering why I need to be running it.

technorati tags: koine Greek morpheme

Agency

I heard the following quotes on a special NPR program this afternoon. It brought to mind conversations we have been having recently in our "History of Christianity in the Non-Western World" class about "agency." Meaning, "who are the principal actors in a given event?" For example, if we only speak about the Opium Wars in China as an act of British aggression to force trade upon China, then we are only considering one side to the story. The only actor is England. China is portrayed as a passive recipient of their aggression. To some extent this strips the Chinese of any active role. In this particular case there was a whole history of events going on behind the scenes that led up to the Opium Wars.

Anyways, that's all beside the point. But we have been talking a lot about considering free-will and autonomy and responsibility for actions. So, all that was running through my head when I heard the story about New Orleans today.

On returning to New Orleans after Katrina:

“When we were in San Antonio, people said to us, ‘Why don’t you just stay here in Texas?’ But they didn’t understand. I wanted to go home. New Orleans is my home.”

“And besides, everywhere you go there are natural disasters, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes… You can’t escape natural disasters. You just learn to live with them.”

“Yeah, and if you think about it, it wasn’t actually the hurricane that did us in. It wasn’t the hurricane that was the problem, it was the breaching of the levees.”

Note, I am not meaning to criticize anyone in New Orleans. They have gone through more suffering and heartache than I can imagine, and it is totally understandable for them to be angry and frustrated right now. I would be devastated if my house was washed away by a flood, my neighborhood was destroyed, and my city trashed.

That said, I think it is an interesting perspective; that the hurricane wasn't the problem, it was the army corps of engineers who didn't build the levees correctly. On the one hand, yes, that was part of the problem. But...

I guess it's a coping mechanism of some sort, right? Trying to comprehend a catastrophic event of this scale is impossible, so you have to zero in on something smaller, something more manageable? Or maybe there are other things going on?

My gut response is that it sounded like an emotional reaction, some sort of denial. So, how does a pastor respond to (potentially) misplaced anger and denial in the cycle of grief and mourning? Obviously with care and kindness and compassion of course. I mean, these folks lost everything. But, compassion etc. are just emotions. What do you actually say?

UPDATE: In today's Tribune there is an interesting article about the factor race plays in the discussion of Katrina:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0602270206feb27,1,789677.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed.

Note, you'll need to register to read the article, so I would usggest going here first: http://www.bugmenot.com/view/www.chicagotribune.com.

One key quote:

We can talk about the White House's inability to cut through bureaucratic red tape and quickly settle disputes among response agencies.

We can talk about the failures of a half-dozen federal agencies, particularly the Department of Homeland Security.

But can we talk about the governmental failures of Katrina and policy changes without at least considering the race question? Can we mount a sincere effort about what went wrong without discussing the poverty, the lack of opportunity, the invisibility of the residents?

A lot of people will look at the failures and see them as being unrelated to questions of race. Others will see them as being fundamentally rooted in race.

"We as a nation have to make a decision about what we do next," Lacewell said. "And something still quite apparent is that blacks and whites often have vastly different views about what happened and how to fix it."

Made in China

Is it at all weird that my Bible is made in China?

Sure, it sometimes seems as if everything I own or use is made in China. But there seems to me to be a huge disjoint when it comes to Bibles, considering the sort of religious persecution that Christians frequently endure in China.

Don’t people try to smuggle Bibles in to China?

Yeah, yeah, I know, those are Chinese Bibles, not English Bibles. But still, on some level it just seems odd.

American companies pay Chinese companies to print, bind and ship English Bibles to America. Meanwhile, various ministry organizations here in America raise funds to try to smuggle Chinese Bibles into China.

Where are the Chinese Bibles printed? America? Europe? China? Are Chinese Bibles printed in China, shipped here, and then smuggled back into China?

What is it like working at the factory that prints and binds the Bibles

What do the workers think?

I suppose it’s doubtful they can read the text any more than I could read a Chinese Bible, but they must know it’s different than the other books they print. Or maybe they don’t know. Or maybe don’t care. Shoes, books, cars, Bibles. Whatever. One manufactured item is just like any other.

I think I think too much sometimes.

Lost

Two papers and a midterm are done. One more midterm next week, and normal homework etc. BUT, in the meantime, a few minutes to think about my favorite tv show of all time (for now): LOST.

What a great show.

So, is the Mystery Man from Minnesota really one of the others? That creepy look he gave at the end of the show makes me think yes. But, since LOST is all about plot twists and turns, who knows. Maybe he is some sort of remnant from the Dharma Initiative. Something fishy is going on, that's for sure.

I do know that I was wondering about the weird red hieroglyphics. And thank goodness some computer geek was too. So if you want to see the fruits of the research:

http://www.thetailsection.com/2006/02/lost-one-of-them-timer-analysis-two.php

What did we do before computers that enable us to take detailed screen captures from our tv sets?

I am so glad I live in 2006 and not 1906.

Wisdom from our Elders

I am in the middle of working on a paper, but I had to post on this topic.

I heard a story on NPR this morning that I thought was just amazing. It's about an organization called the Elder Wisdom Circle. In short is a large group of people over 60 who pool their experience to offer advice to us "young 'uns". Now, this is NOT about empty paternalistic platitudes or endless reminiscences about "the way things used to be". Rather, it is an opportunity for younger people, or, actually, anyone, to ask older folks for advice, and to seek their wisdom in issues they are struggling with. It's sort of like a giant "Dear Abby" advice column, but with more meat. In a world that criminally devalues the importance of age, wisdom, and experience, I think this is a fantastic idea and I hope that it continues to be successful.

You can hear the NPR story here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5197122

And the official website is here:

http://www.elderwisdomcircle.org/

No posts this week

Paper + Paper + Midterm = No blog updates until Friday February 24th

Head first at 85mph

No, this isn't some high-powered sermon analogy. I'm talking about "The Skeleton," perhaps the most appropriately named speed event in the Winter Olympics. (Luge sounds lame in comparison). In this insane event riders go down the same run as the luge, but headfirst, on their stomachs. Yes, that's right, headfirst. At 85 mph, their faces just a few inches from the ice.

I didn't even know this event existed until this morning, when I read that GREAT BRITAIN WON A SILVER MEDAL IN THE SKELETON!


Astonishing.

Now, remember, this is from a country that prides itself on deference, politeness, and tea with milk in it. Our preferred winter event is the massively exciting curling. That’s where we do really well – sliding big stones across the ice. Something nice and slow and calm and quiet and peaceful.

“The Skeleton” is the polar opposite of everything British. Indeed, it sounds like the perfect thing for some kind of crazy nutball out-on-the-edge American like Bode Miller, who, after his rather average performances in Alpine Skiing may want to consider switching events.

Our last big Winter Olympics sporting hero was the infamous Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, who managed to finish in last place in the ski jump in 1988. His best jump was 65 feet short of the rest.

Since then we have had some small glimmers of joy in the Winter Olympics, but I have to take my proverbial hat off to Shelley Rudman and her silver medal. Not just for doing so well, but for excelling in something that is so un-British.

UPDATE: Ms. Rudman’s boyfriend, Kristan Bormley is in the running for a bronze medal in today’s men’s skeleton. We’ll have the results soon...

Am I a black hole?

My friend Dave pointed me recently to a sermon by Erwin McManus on the subject of prayer. Actually, it was a podcast, and you can listen to it by subscribing to the podcast via iTunes. If you don't have iTunes then you are still in luck because Dave actually ripped it into a stand-alone file you can download via his blog. It's really good and you listen to it if you get a chance.

But that sermon isn't the reason I am writing. I am writing about a comment McManus makes in a different sermon, entitled "Making Space for Strange Things To Happen". In that sermon McManus recounts a story about a couple who were flying on a plane when the cabin lost pressure and all the little oxygen masks popped out of the ceiling. All except for one. The wife had her mask just fine, but the husband's mask for some reason did not come down. So, this poor guy is desperately scratching away at the ceiling trying to get his mask to come down, while his wife is sitting calmly next to him, sucking in the oxygen from her mask, and expressing no desire to share. A bizarre story, certainly, especially if it is true.

But here's McManus' point. He proposes that many of us as Christians are so inward focused that we have ignored the primary mission of the church. Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Yet, sometimes it seems as if we are so comfortable enjoying that nice oxygen that we don't want to share it with anyone else.

One of my teachers gave a very similar message the other day. He compared us to black holes. He said that we basically absorb anything and everything that comes near us, and never give anything out. We suck in all this good teaching and preaching, prayers and worship, books and resources and music and support and fellowship. And none of it ever makes it out of our gravitational field. We have become, in his words, "centripetal", inward focused, luxuriating in the blessings and promises of God. And yet Jesus Christ himself ordered us to instead be "centrifugal", spinning outwards, sharing and preaching and reaching and loving the whole world.

So what am I? Am I simply consuming my faith? Or am I spinning it out to the lost, the weary, the lonely, and the broken?

The Da Vinci Code

Check this out.

The Christian Mind: Sony Gives The Microphone to Da Vinci Code Critics

Relationships

So, if you've ever studied Romans before, you've probably spent a lot of time thinking about doctrine. The book is full of it. But there is a lot more there... Take a look, for example, at the last chapter, Romans 16

Now, usually I get to this part of the letters and skip over it. "Blah, blah, blah..." It's boring. Who wants to read a whole long list of personal greetings to random people? Well, one of my professors brought out a subtle but extremely thought-provoking point about these last words from Paul.

He suggested that these extensive personal greetings show an intensely personal side to Paul, a man who was deeply connected with individual people. He wasn't a "CEO-type pastor", removed from the congregations he was founding. No, Paul knew that doctrine and instruction without relationship was empty. He cultivated close personal relationships everywhere he went, and he kept track of these people, praying for them, writing to them, thinking about them.

And so the application for us to do the same. We can teach and preach and try to reach others, but without that personal relationship it's hard to really connect with someone. Of course, we can't know everyone by name, but teachers and leaders in the church should follow Paul's example and remember that excellent teaching must be supported by some kind of personal interest in the students.

This may come easy to more outgoing folks, but for me I know I struggle with this. There is a big part of me that would love to just get out there, say my thing, and then leave. But, I am realizing that it is just as important to slow down and get out of my comfort zone and try to develop and build those relationships first. Or at least, in conjunction with, my teaching.

Yellow grey

We are in the middle of a winter storm here. Nothing even close to what they experienced out on the East Coast. In fact, we may not get much snow even. But we do have some rain and sleet and the sky is the most bizarre color right now, a sort of yellowish grey that is extremely ominous. One of those days when it is nice to be inside, in a warm room, with a cup of coffee.

In honor of Rachael Ray...

...tonight we made our own "30 Minute Meal". It turned out pretty good, so I thought I would share. Once again, I am drawing a blank when it comes to a name though...

1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled off into bite size chunks (you don't need all that meat for this recipe, just some of it)
1 pound radiatori or fusilli pasta
5 medium portabella mushrooms
Couple handfuls cherry tomatoes
1-2 cups chopped baby carrots
1 jar alfredo sauce

1. Cook the pasta and drain.
2. While the pasta is cooking, drizzle garlic olive oil on the mushrooms.
3. Put the mushrooms on a baking tray and broil for about 6-7 minutes.
4. Drizzle regular olive oil on the tomatoes, and pierce them so they don't explode. Then toss them in with the mushrooms and cook for another 4 minutes. Watch carefully to make sure the tomatoes don't burn up.
5. Drizzle the cooked mushrooms with balsamic vinegar, then chop into bite sized pieces
6. While the mushrooms are cooking, saute the carrots in butter and sprinkle with sugar, then add 1/2 cup chicken stock, and cook till tender
7. Add alfredo sauce to the pasta, then fill the empty jar about half full with chicken stock, put the lid back on, and shake it up good to get the last yummy bits of sauce out of the jar, then add to the pasta.
8. Add the chicken, and stir it all around.
9. Add the mushrooms, carrots and tomatoes and mix.
10. The only seasoning we used was freshly ground black pepper. We didn't add anything else.
11. Optional - we added 2 tbps of juice from mushroom pan for some extra flavor.

One lucky squirrel

As I was driving down our street today a squirrel darted out into the middle of the road, faked left, faked right, and then sprinted back the way he came and shot up a tree. It all happened so quickly I barely had time to break or anything. It was one hyper squirrel.

But, that got me thinking. You know, I think I sometimes I am a bit like that squirrel. No, I haven't run out into the middle of the street recently. And no, I don't forage for nuts. And no, I am not usually quite *that* jittery. (While I may like my coffee, I am a far cry from the woman who came into Starbucks when I was studying the other day and ordered a FIVE-SHOT AMERICANO. Wow. That's like taking crack or something. She might seriously be able to out-fake the squirrel. But, I digress.)

No, I am talking metaphorically, or symbolically, or analagously. You learned teacher-types out there can correct my mis-use of technical terms at the end.

Anyway, I was thinking about how big and amazingly patient God is. All through the Bible, especially in Psalms, we hear about how God is “slow to anger.” Way back when he makes his covenant with Moses, in Exodus, it says:

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6)

I am so thankful for that slowness. Meanwhile, I am more like that squirrel, racing around, darting back and forth, never in one place long enough to take in the fullness of God’s glory. I race forward in faith out towards some goal, then suddenly get distracted by something and dart off over there, then I see some sort of danger or threat headed straight at me and I react instantly, darting off in another direction, only to realize that I’m over-compensating, and so then I turn back again, narrowly avoiding whatever threat was there and ending up back where I started, only now I can’t remember why I stepped out in faith to begin with.

And all the while I imagine that God is sitting over on the other side of the street saying, “whoa, hey, slow down there, just… no, wait, I… come back… ok, great, now, as I was saying… wait, come back…watch out for that… no not that way… sigh. OK. Wait. Stop. STOP.”

STOP.

STOP.

STOP.

“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)

I think “stillness” is a spiritual discipline that has to become a greater priority for me this year, before some big semi flattens me on the gritty asphalt of life.

And now for something completely different

Phew! Those last two posts were kind of heavy. So, now, something light.

Well, sort of.

We have a new favorite flavor combination at Cold Stone Creamery:

Coffee ice cream
Pecans
Brownie
Caramel

I haven't made up a name for it yet. Suggestions?

Tree-huggers unite!

I was really encouraged to hear on NPR yesterday that a large group of evangelical leaders had signed a statement calling for a reduction in greenhouse gases. Essentially, from what I can gather, the statement is a call for Christians to pay more attention to environmental issues. You can read the full statement here. In the conclusion it says:

” Numerous positive actions to prevent and mitigate climate change are being implemented across our society by state and local governments, churches, smaller businesses, and individuals. These commendable efforts focus on such matters as energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy, low CO2 emitting technologies, and the purchase of hybrid vehicles. These efforts can easily be shown to save money, save energy, reduce global warming pollution as well as air pollution that harm human health, and eventually pay for themselves. There is much more to be done, but these pioneers are already helping to show the way forward.
Finally, while we must reduce our global warming pollution to help mitigate the impacts of climate change, as a society and as individuals we must also help the poor adapt to the significant harm that global warming will cause.”

This is a cause I can gladly and willingly support.

On the flip side I read the following comments this morning, from an article published last November. Note this was before the official statement came out yesterday:

"A major obstacle to any measure that would address global warming is Senator James M. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and an evangelical himself, but a skeptic of climate change caused by human activities.

Mr. Inhofe has led efforts to keep mandatory controls on greenhouse gases out of any emission reduction bill considered by his committee and has called human activities contributing to global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

"You can always find in Scriptures a passage to misquote for almost anything," Mr. Inhofe said in an interview, dismissing the position of Mr. Cizik's association as "something very strange."

Mr. Inhofe said the vast majority of the nation's evangelical groups would oppose global warming legislation as inconsistent with a conservative agenda that also includes opposition to abortion rights and gay rights. He said the National Evangelical Association had been "led down a liberal path" by environmentalists and others who have convinced the group that issues like poverty and the environment are worth their efforts."

Ah yes, those poor misguided evangelicals who have been led astray by crazy liberals and encouraged to (gasp!) take care of the poor or (the horror!) consider that they might have some responsibility for the environment. Us evangelicals are so easily led astray like that.

"What would Jesus do?" According to Mr. Inhofe, we would probably stop wasting time with those pesky poor people and go buy a Hummer instead. Perhaps he would be interested in Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal.

Interestingly, this new focus on environmentalism is not supported by all evangelicals. Mr. Cizik and the NAE, despite being supportive last year, appear to have caved in to pressure from the more conservative elements of evangelicalism, and refused to sign the statement released yesterday. According to an article in Christianity Today:

”Cizik originally signed the statement, but said his name was withdrawn "to display an accommodating spirit to those who don't yet accept the science on the severity of the problem."
Last month Dobson, Colson, and 20 other evangelical leaders, including Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote Haggard urging the NAE not to adopt "any official position on the issue of climate change," due to disagreement among evangelicals over "the cause, severity, and solutions to the global warming issue."
Both Ball and Cizik emphasized that the NAE never planned on adopting ECI's statement on global warming. Despite Haggard and Cizik's absence, 34 signers are members of the NAE's board or executive committee, and another 50 Christian organization heads also have ties to the group, according to a knowledgeable source.”

Honestly it doesn’t surprise me to hear that Colson and Dobson are not supportive of this statement, although it is sad since they appear to be able to exert significant influence on American Christians. Personally, I don’t drive a hybrid, but I look forward to the day when it is considered normal and natural for Christians to be more involved with issues of poverty and the environment.

In the meantime, I'm off to hug a tree.

Out of Africa?

Philip Jenkins, in his book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity asserts that if we extrapolate current demographic trends out to the year 2025, there will be "around 2.6 billion Christians in the world, of whom 633 million would live in Africa, 640 million in Latin America, and 460 million in Asia. ... Africa and Latin America would be in competition for the title of most Christian continent" (3). As such, according to Jenkins, Christians in Europe and America should be aware that there will be an accompanying shift in influence from the Northern hemisphere to the South, a shift that will have a major impact on Western Christianity.

I think there are some debatable points in his book, but it is an interesting read nonetheless, and it has hhighlighted for me the importance of paying attention to what is happening in Christian circles outside of America. As such I was fascinated to read Bono's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast last week, where he once again urged America to take the lead in helping poorer African nations deal with crippling debt and poverty. It's an amazing speech for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is hearing Bono talk about the Old Testament. You can read the text here: http://www.data.org/archives/000774.php.

He concludes by saying that:

"There is a continent—Africa—being consumed by flames. I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did—or did not to—to put the fire out in Africa."

This speech seemed reasonable enough to me, ignorant as I am with regard to economic development in other countries. The travel-writer Paul Theroux, however, is apparently more savvy about these matters, and has expressed his disdain for Bono in an article in the New York Times from last December (note that Theroux was not responding to Bono's prayer breakfast comments, but rather to Bono's various speeches and activities from last year).

You can read Theroux's article reprinted in the Herald Tribune here: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/19/opinion/edtheroux.php

So, what am I supposed to think? Can someone tell me?

Just kidding. But seriously, although from other books I have read by Theroux I am used to his somewhat pompous way of talking about himself, and I do think that in large measure he is offended by the Christian element of Bono's work, he does raise some very compelling points. As long as trained Africans continue to leave Africa, and money is poured in without any paper-trail or accountability, nothing is going to get better. Giving money may appease our consciences while at the same time doing very little to ease the suffering of those struggling in extreme poverty or dealing with AIDS or civil war. Yet at the same time I do think there is real value to the work that Bon is doing, whatever his motives may or may not be. I think that although in the big picture things may look grim, in the small picture there are changes taking place, and I am confident that Christian organizations are working extremely hard to make a real, tangible difference in the lives of the poor and oppressed across the African continent.

A blog is hardly the place to hash out significant solutions to these problems, but I am throwing it out there for discussion anyways. If Jenkins is correct about the growth of Christianity in Africa, then we should have a deep passion for the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Christ. The problem, I suppose, is how to express that passion. Bruce WIlkinson, of Jabez fame, had a passion to help, but that ended with his retirment, not just from Africa, but from ministry altogether: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/002/8.76.html.

There must be some sort of middle ground between Bono and Theroux. It seems ridiculous that we could have so much money here in the US and there still be so much poverty in Africa. And it's tempting to assume that a redistribution of that wealth, even in small amounts, would solve everything.

My conscience compels me to do something. Or is it just my guilt about being affluent? Or both?