It is hard to believe that it took a humanist composer to point out the weaknesses and flaws in the modern methods typically used to counteract poverty. Peter Buffet created an uproar when he famously coined a term in a New York Times article — “the charitable industrial complex” — and declared, “we need a new approach” to our loosing battle against global poverty.

While I disagree with Buffet’s conclusions, it is time to rethink how we seek to help the least of these, now numbering about 2 billion of our neighbors.

Having spent more than twelve years invested in the eradication of poverty, I’ve witnessed many of the solutions that churches, ministries, non-government organizations (NGOs), governments, businesses and generous individuals have deployed.

Source: Chuck Bentley, www.realclearreligion.org