"I hate poor people!"

I just got back from an organizational breakfast.  A good friend at church, who is a senior business executive in his day job, is putting together a group to help fund micro-enterprise development in the Third World.  It'll be under the auspices of World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to tackling the causes of poverty.  Several church friends whom I trust have been significantly involved with World Vision for a number of years, especially through Women of Vision.  There were probably 20 people present at the breakfast.  All but one of us were men; we were mostly business executives, lawyers, and the like.

The organizer opened the meeting by announcing, "I hate poor people!"  He put this in context by recounting how another friend of ours who was there at the breakfast, a former Scoutmaster of our troop, would stand up at training sessions and growl, "I hate Tenderfoot Scouts!"  The Scouts knew he didn't actually hate them, of course:  Tenderfoot is the next-to-lowest rank in Boy Scouts, and one of the principal goals of Scout training is to get young Scouts to acquire basic skills quickly and thus earn their way to higher rank.

Anyway, the organizer explained that he had asked us to come because he was passionately committed to helping the world's poor people develop sustainable, community-based ways for them to end their own poverty.  He and some World Vision people put on a just-the-facts presentation of how micro-enterprise development can achieve real results.

I was sold; that kind of teach-a-man-to-fish charitable venture "speaks to me" far more than simply handing out money for near-term relief.  I'm grateful that our friend is getting people moving for this project.