It’s Christmas time and I’ve been thinking a lot about faith, charity, and international development. In the spirit of the season, I hope to explain why faith is not only an element of but essential to sustainable development abroad and at home.
Faith’s current role in international development is undeniable. Faith-based organizations (FBO) make up over two-thirds of active U.N. Civil Society Organizations (CSO)—non-profit, voluntary institutions typically established for societal improvement [1]. Religious regions in developed countries are among the most welcoming, capable, and committed for refugee resettlement [2]. 73% of all charitable donations are through FBOs and as faith declines in a country, charitable contributions and humanitarian participation also decrease in that country [3]. Religious organizations receive contributions from more diverse groups of people than other CSOs and they are more likely to encourage direct participation in charity [3]. It’s clear that faith is uniquely involved in development but for us to prove causation, we need to understand why.
As I see it, there are two reasons why someone might participate in charity. First is narcissistic altruism—the idea that charity benefits the recipient as well as the benefactor. A narcissistic altruist might donate to feed starving children in a developing nation because he believes that in the future these children, if provided for now, could grow up to invent something that could improve his quality of life or contribute meaningfully to the market. Narcissistic altruism says, “I do charity for me.” The second reason for charity is faithful altruism—altruistic behavior resulting from a desire to serve God and/or a desire to aid our fellow beings. A faithful altruist would donate to relief funds because he believes the innate worth of a human soul, increasing human dignity and joy is his responsibility, and/or it is his duty as a follower of Deity to bless the lives of others. Faithful altruism says, “I do charity for my God and I do charity for my brother.” Although all FBOs espouse faithful altruism, not all CSOs inspired by faithful altruism are FBOs. An agnostic or atheistic CSO could still operate under a faithful belief in the kinship of humanity, for example.
Narcissistic altruism is fallible at best and entirely inoperative at worst. If philanthropy had an actionable economic advantage, economists would measure it and business people would apply it. We do not see, however, businesses or individuals employing charity as a means of maximizing shareholder earnings or increasing future cash flows. When businesses do engage in philanthropy, it is usually at the behest of a faithful altruist or it is for “good press” and produces questionable results. If all fires of faithful altruism were extinguished overnight leaving behind only narcissistic altruism, there would be significantly less charity and the surviving charity would be ineffective. Take as an example charitable titans of industry like John D. Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates. They donate because they believe it is the right thing to do [4], not because they hope they’ll eventually get something in return. The effectual truth is that you can not do good for yourself and be charitable at the same time. After all, “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God,” [5] not yourself.
Faith also provides the "how-to” to charity as well. Faith provides congregations of people anxiously engaged in doing good, the international structure to have both far-reaching impacts and influence at home, and moral authority that uniquely poises it to lead social engineering projects. FBOs are therefore better equipped to lead projects that reduce disease, alleviate injustice, and end conflicts. This gives FBOs extra leverage in combating causes of extreme poverty [1] [6]. In the past, the WTO, USAID, and the UN invested in large projects that boosted the GDP of a nation in the hopes that this would benefit the people. It did. But research has found that the kinds of projects historically connected with FBOs that address a specific problem in a specific area are more beneficial. Hence, WTO, USAID, UN, and most CSOs have switched strategies to fund lower level, community-focused projects previously associated with FBOs. These benefits are not isolated to developing countries. Even in wealthy countries, development is usually headed by faith. Hospitals, educational institutions, large infrastructure projects, and liberal-democratic governance are all innovations of faith. Being such, countries with more religious freedom have more institutions that invest in people and develop society.
“Whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world” [7]. Sustainable development comes from making investments in society that do not directly benefit the benefactor. This investment is the fruit of faith. Therefore, faith is the root of sustainable development—faith is the root of hope. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” [8]. Faith, charity, and hope are hard to maintain but most good things are. So, this Christmas, take time to devote yourself to faith, to charity, and to hope.
