Micah Challenge Australia Blog

 

The Micah Challenge blog is a space for discussion and debate about the issues of global poverty, faith, advocacy and justice and the Millennium Development Goals. This blog aims to provoke thought and challenge you to learn more about the issues discussed. We welcome your comments.

Micah Challenge is a global campaign of Christians speaking out against poverty and injustice. Click here to visit the Micah Challenge website.

  • "Ill-equipped" to work for justice

    Posted by Eliza

    29 March, 2011

    Our new Political Engagement Intern, Eliza Walley, on how she's feeling about her upcoming year with Micah Challenge. When I reflect upon these first 20 years of my life and consider the choices that I have made, there is one that I am yet to forgive myself for. I have an Amazon.com account. This account is linked to my credit card, making it too easy for me to spend too much money, on too many books. I don't buy fiction; I don't have time to read stories about made up people and impossible scenarios. I tell myself that if I have time to sit and read something other than the bible, then I should read something valuable - something that will teach me or prompt thought. So I read non-fiction. My latest splurge included titles like "Rich Christians in the Age of Hunger", "Generous Justice - How God's Grace Should Make Us Just" and "Make Poverty Personal". I'll tell you why. I have been interning with Micah Challenge for just over a month now and am so excited about this year and how God is going to use me. But this excitement that I now feel was born out of… read more

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  • AusAid corruption comfortingly miniscule

    Posted by Gershon

    24 March, 2011

    I awoke this morning to a few articles from the News Limited group of newspapers lambasting foreign aid. The articles decried the ‘systematic criminal behaviour', ‘widespread corruption' and ‘exorbitant wastage' of the Australian Government aid program. After a quick skim of the headlines, I was sure that our aid program was now being run by the likes of Tony Soprano and his gangland cronies , and this hard hitting expose was about to burst it all open. The giant multi-media banner pasted across the page, titled “Top Secret, Operation Fraud" just about had me convinced. A quick fact check however made me realise that the News Limited headlines may have in fact been a little (or enormously) overstated. I'm not saying that corruption in developing countries isn't a significant problem, it is. And I'm not for a moment trying to suggest that all AusAID's programs are corruption free, they're not. What I am saying is that we need to keep these headlines in perspective. Getting Some Perspective The total… read more

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  • Our friend Howie: The politics post

    Posted by Howie

    22 March, 2011

    Friend of Micah Challenge, Howie, got to thinking about Christians and politics and decided to write about it. From the outset of this post I would like to say that I'm no political junkie nor do 'I think I'm right and you're wrong' when it comes to politics. I know it sounds dumb but I guess it's been a journey for me. A couple of years ago I didn't really care at all about politics. I would read stuff on smh and watch the news and from that I decided if I liked or disliked a politician. So I thought I would try and answer some questions, I've tried to come up with a bunch of questions that I think are worth exploring. Stumbling through facebook (the one true source for views, emotions and photos of people drinking beer at parties) I find it interesting to see what people write on their profile under 'political views'. Some people are very exact in their views and say things like 'Labour party of Australia'. But on the whole, especially with Christians it typically says something like 'politics?????'. Partly I think it's a generational thing where politics just… read more

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  • Persistant prayer for justice (Luke 18)

    Posted by John

    15 March, 2011

    Unanswered prayer. What do those two words make you think about? What emotions do they raise? They make me think about injustice - because a vast majority of my prayers are requests that injustice would be replaced by justice - that God would make wrong things right. What happens to my faith when the thing I prayed to be made right remains wrong?I was thinking through these questions with some friends last week and I re-stumbled across a little parable in Luke 18:1-8. It's often referred to as the Parable of the persistent widow: Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come… read more

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