Last week I read this quote in The Week magazine.

“This is not a natural-disaster story,” said David Brooks in The New York Times. “This is a poverty story.” In October 1989, another quake of magnitude 7.0 hit the densely populated but wealthy Bay Area in Northern California; only 63 people died.

Here’s a few articles that explore this:

“The fault line in Haiti runs straight to France” explores some of the historical problems that left Haiti in such poverty.  I’m not interested in bashing the French, but, as the author states, “in few countries is there a more direct link between the sins of the past and the horrors of the present.”

“Why Tough Love is needed” explores the cultural problems in Haiti.  The country has been exploited and abused in the past.  But there is also  a culture of dependency on others, not least foreign aid.  Haiti needs material assets, but in the long term the country needs the intangible assets of skills, hard work and a desire for change.

“Haiti’s Avoidable Death Toll” makes the point that Haiti’s poverty is the result of severe corruption and restrictions on economic liberty.  Free Trade and transparent justice would dramatically improve the economy.

The conclusion, therefore, is “To Help Haiti, End Foreign Aid” (from the Wall Street Journal).  Lots of foreign money has poured into Haiti over the years, yet reports reveal very little (if any) long term benefit.  Foreign Aid can often destroy the local economy (e.g. if tonnes of food are imported, local food producers are forced out of business).

“More than a million dead” reminds us that 150,000 people die every day, and this article takes us straight to the gospel response.

The Lord has a salvation so audacious He can call earthquakes ‘birth-pains’.  (As can Paul – Rom 8:22).  Certainly they are birth-pains.  But they are birth-pains.  Jesus has a redemption so all-embracing that it will include even these evils.  It won’t simply side-step Haiti, or make the best of a bad situation, it will (somehow!) lift Haiti through this calamity and birth something more glorious out of the pain.

Finally, here’s a sermon by Mark Driscoll who visited Haiti soon after the earthquake.  I haven’t seen it myself, but I think it will be very good.

Update: My interest in these articles is not to accuse the Haitians of deserving the disaster. Of course not. But I am interested in the link between ‘natural disasters’ and human sin.  A lot of people instinctively respond to the earthquake with “There cannot be a good and powerful God.”  I think a better response would be “Humanity is deeply entangled in sin and suffering. Have Mercy O Lord.”

Neither am I suggesting that Disaster Response and Aid should not be given.  If we are tempted to think, “Oh, there’s so much sin to blame, I’d rather not give help” then that means we have entirely missed the point of the gospel.  “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”  These posts do show that Foreign Aid needs to be carefully thought about so that corruption and poverty is not maintained.  Most of all, they show us that the people of Haiti – like all of us – need Jesus Christ.

A report, Sinking and Swimming, published by the Young Foundation, looks at society’s “unmet needs”.

It warns that many families cannot provide support to help teenagers move successfully into adulthood.

It warns of a “brittle society, with many fractures and many people left behind”.

The report, backed by a group of 13 charities, argues that the services of the welfare state are no longer responding to the most pressing modern needs – which are now about social isolation and an absence of any functioning community support.

You’ll find the report (there’s a shorter summary article available) here.  Some very interesting statistics, such as the number of prescriptions for anti-depressant drugs increased from 9 million (1991) to 34 million (2007).  That says a lot about the health of a society.  For me, one of the most significant quotes is this one, which follows a description of the way the welfare system has managed to solve a lot of material problems…

Yet during this same period society’s ability to meet people’s psychological and psycho-social needs appears to have declined. The buffers of religion and family that helped people cope with setbacks have weakened. There has been a rise of individualism. A more overtly meritocratic society has encouraged people to be more ambitious for themselves, but also made them more vulnerable to failures – and more likely to blame themselves (rather than fate or the class system) if things go wrong. Some of the shock absorbers – from faith to family – that helped us cope in the past have atrophied.

This is what happens when a society turns away from the Lord.  Individualism rather than knowing who I am in the context of community (i.e. ignoring the Trinity).  And meritocracy (justification-by-works) that crushes those who fail.  How we need to preach Jesus’ gospel with more clarity and boldness!

Readers of the Telegraph will be aware of Christopher Booker’s repeated expose of the fake science behind Global Warming theories.  Here’s a great article to read: “2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved.” (As an aside, his articles also frequently reveal how useless wind turbines are, a conclusion I came to over 10 years ago while doing a project on them).

Another link: “Warming, or Hot Air” contains some good scientific points:

As regards global warming, my view is essentially the same as yours: Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is a scam, with no basis in science.

A few comments on my own particular view of global warming:

(1) I am particularly annoyed by the claims that the “the debate is over,” because this was exactly the claim originally made against the Copernican theory of the Solar System. Copernicus’ opponents said the idea that the Earth was the third planet from the Sun was advanced by Aristrachus in 300 B.C. (true), and had been definitely refuted by 100 A.D. The debate is over! Sorry, it wasn’t: the Earth IS the third planet.

(2) It is obvious that anthropogenic global warming is not science at all, because a scientific theory makes non-obvious predictions which are then compared with observations that the average person can check for himself. As we both know from our own observations, AGW theory has spectacularly failed to do this. The theory has predicted steadily increasing global temperatures, and this has been refuted by experience. NOW the global warmers claim that the Earth will enter a cooling period. In other words, whether the ice caps melt, or expand — whatever happens — the AGW theorists claim it confirms their theory. A perfect example of a pseudo-science like astrology.

(3) In contrast, the alternative theory, that the increase and decrease of the Earth’s average temperature in the near term follows the sunspot number, agrees (roughly) with observation. And the observations were predicted before they occurred. This is good science.

(4) I emphasized in point (2) that the average person has to be able to check the observations. I emphasize this because I no longer trust “scientists” to report observations correctly. I think the data is adjusted to confirm, as far as possible, AGW. We’ve seen many recent cases where the data was cooked in climate studies. In one case, Hanson and company claimed that October 2008 was the warmest October on record. Watts looked at the data, and discovered that Hanson and company had used September’s temperatures for Russia rather than October’s. I’m not surprised to learn that September is hotter than October in the Northern hemisphere.

Read it all.

Not heard even one time in the last two decades:  “I am concerned about my poor performance in laying up treasure in heaven.”

[From Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum]

Obama’s Extreme Pro-Abortion stance.

Obama’s anti-Christian policies.

What people were looking for in a President, and why only Jesus can provide.

From the incredibly insightful Cerulean Sanctum, two great articles calling on Christians to repent of our hypocrisy, stop trusting politicians to be our Saviour, and start living like Jesus.

1. On Election Eve

2. Aftermath

Here are some good quotes:

Well, conservative Christians are most definitely prolife, right? Not really. What we are is antiabortion. We are by no means prolife. If we were truly prolife then orphanages would be relegated solely to Dickens’s Oliver Twist, and nursing homes would be empty, instead of filled with our elderly parents. Again, what we are against and what we are for are not the same thing. We have to stop pretending they are.

Evangelizing the world is much tougher, especially in a post-Christian West that has been inoculated against the Gospel by Christians who talk a good faith but who live it haphazardly. Heart change only comes, though, when Christians stop talking about evangelism and actually start doing it. It’s when our walk matches our talk. When our rhetoric matches the Bible and is lived out before the world, then people might sit up and take notice. We have to stop dedicating so much time to erecting our individual kingdoms and spend more time working with the Lord to build His Kingdom His way.

So let’s look to Jesus!  Two articles from Christ The Truth will help you do this:

1. Election results – latest.

2. Sending our Man to the seat of power.

There’s a good chance this could be the next “big” thing to a) get some charismatics very very excited, b) confirm conservative evangelicals in their anti-charismatic prejudice.  Oh, and make us look weird in the eyes of the media.  If you want a heads up, go see this page for a criticial look from a charismatic blogger.  And while you’re there, look here and here for more wise comment from one charismatic to others.

For something far more edifying, the same author wrote this list of 100 reflections based on 30 years of being a Christian.  Some fantastic and provoking thoughts to be read. Here’s a few good ones to do with Family and Youth Work:

• We do a great disservice to families in our churches when we split them up the second they hit the lobby.
• A youth minister’s primary responsibility isn’t to teens directly but to their parents. A good youth minister teaches parents how to teach their own teens, leaving the bulk of the responsibility to them.
• We make an idol of the nuclear family if we raise it above the needs of the household of Faith.
• We spend too much time trying to keep our youth from sleeping with each other and not enough time teaching them to be husbands and wives.

Update – here’s another report from Lakeland, the sad story of a family who went with their autistic child and the abuse of religion they experienced.

The thing about a society in collapse is that people are both culpable and victims.  Someone such as Karen Matthews (mother of the mercifully-found Shannon) has been through a horrendous time and our first reaction must be relief that Shannon has been found, and a desire to comfort the family.  Nevertheless, she has seven children by five different men, and sees no problem with this.  Mostly because she lives in a society that has no problem with it.  Melanie Phillips has a very good article about this, and be in no doubt that this is not a “oh those terrible poor people with their bad family life” rant.

I am no prophet, but it seems to me that all it will take is a financial crisis to make people realise that Mammon is no Saviour, and as the false comfort of material wealth and possessions is stripped away people are going to realise that this country is morally bankrupt.  My prayer is that, at that moment, the Church will be present in all areas of society saying “Come to Jesus and he will give you rest.  Take his yoke upon you and find life.”  Because if not Jesus then some other (false) saviour will be sought after.

Later I was reading the Sunday Telegraph and found this article about some of Iran’s clerics. The summary says it all:

“The Ayatollah Khomenei brought millions on to the streets of Iran to overthrow the decadence of the Shah. Now the late leader’s grandsons and other Iranian clerics face a backlash over their families’ fondness for fast cars, big houses and hot tubs.”

(NB the sermon is here)