This was brought to my attention via twitter update from Zach Lind:
Below is a screen shot of the two highest lending groups on the micro-lending website Kiva: Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious, and Kiva Christians. As you can see in the "Total Loaned" section it shows the Athiest group with $432,950.00 loaned, and the Christian group with only $349,250.00 loaned.
(click for larger view)
It's pretty interesting to see that the group with the Savior who spoke so much about the poor is more reluctant to loan out money than the group with no Savior, or God with a heart for the poor. This should be pretty disheartening for those of us who call ourselves Christians, especially since this is the loaning, not even GIVING of your money.
Here are three of the over 300 verses in the Bible on the poor, and social justice:
Matthew 5:42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Deuteronomy 15:7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother.
Luke 16:19-25 There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell,where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
If you are not yet a member of Kiva or have never tried micro-lending, the passages below were taken from their website. I signed up for the site today and made my first loan to a man named Haytham in North Lebanon for his CD & Cassette shop on behalf of the Kiva Christians group. They're doing some really cool stuff with this site, please consider it.
What is Kiva?
We Let You Loan to the Working Poor
Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.
The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.
Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.
Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT: julioanta.tumblr.com
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