I am often criticized by people who believe that we should not ask our government to give more assistance to other countries. Don’t we do enough already? Don’t we give more than other countries? Isn’t the money just wasted? Shouldn’t individuals and not our government give money to help the poor? The church should do it. Well, you get the point. The answers to these questions are messy, seemingly contradictory and complicated at times.

But let’s at least start by getting some facts straight. Did you know that only 15 cents of every $100 of our national budget is given to poor countries? Much of the aid we give goes to “strategically important” countries and initiatives. In fact we give less per capita globally than just about every other developed nation. We are 29 of 30 countries on a list I saw recently.

I think an argument can be easily be made to increase aid to the developing world, but that is another post. We have greatly benefited from globalization (see my recent post on this topic), by extracting countless resources and by having access to a seemingly endless amount of workers who provide labor to us at rates that barely keep these folks alive. Who benefits from all of this? Well, look around, we do as do many others who reap the products, services and resources that are provided by these workers.  And the benefit we receive is largely inequitable.

But arguments like these ultimately fail if we are not giving ourselves. They are mute if I refuse to do as I am asking others to do. So I’ve begun tracking my giving to ensure that I am doing more than I am asking our legislators to do.

What are we asking? (I love asking myself rhetorical questions if you haven’t noticed.) We are, I am, along with millions of others, asking our government to ramp up development assistance to the poorest countries to .07 which is consistent with meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). I am targeting 1% of our gross income each month and will be tracking our progress to make sure that we are giving at least that amount. Yep, it’s a tiny chunk per month when you consider one person. But I’m imaging what it would be like if our entire church committed to this goal. Or how about all of the churches in our community. And so on.