Practically Speaking

The Chinese have hundreds of billions of dollars in trade surpluses with us that they use to build up their military.  Let them use it to help their own people.  We shouldn't be helping them...we have our own people who are in great need.  China is NOT a poor country like Burma.

Kyle's reply: I know what you mean, however, the distribution of wealth is very uneven (the rich 10% of the population possess 45% of the nations wealth while the poorest 10% have only 1.4%) and the Chinese do not value human life.

Plus, this is charity--not a mandatory contribution. You donate if you feel so led. My choice would be through World Vision or one of the missionaries that I know of in China, so that the gospel would be shared with the recipients. I think you would agree that most of the Chinese people are poor in spirit! (Out of 1.3 billion people, only about 100 million are Christian.)

Well, the Chinese government has the resources to help their own people and we have many people living in poverty that need the help and that can be done charitably as well.  I support Christian Appalachian Project for one.  It does not serve our interests to help our enemies when our needs are great at home.  Contributions to China MAY free up government money that will be used for military purposes.

Of course, I agree with you that it's up to each individual to be led to support those in need wherever they may be.

The Chinese have rich spiritual traditions:  Confucian, Daoist, Islam, Buddist, and Christianity.  We have no right to proclaim them poor.

The US has a far worse distribution of wealth. The top 1% of families control 38% of the wealth.  The top 10% have over 70%.  (2004 data,www.faculty.fairfield.edu/.../income&wealth.htm

We outspend the Chinese on military by a factor of about 8.

Give, please, if you are so moved.....

Kyle's reply: Contrarian, I am a Christian. I believe the Bible is true. Therefore, if a person does not believe in Christ, they are spiritually poor. Jesus said,  I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6  This is true for me, the Chinese, and even you.

My point about the distribution of wealth was just that it was misleading. I really do not care that in the US there are some very wealthy people--that is the American dream. I feel very blessed even though our household income is below the average and median for Brookfield. If others are more fortunate--good for them!

But the contrast between what is considered poverty in the US and China is sharp. According to the census the 2006 poverty threshold in US for family of 3 was $16,079, and I don't think that includes food stamps and other welfare benefits. China's is around $265 per year for their typical family of 3. According to China.org.cn "At the end of last year, China had 23.65 million people living below the poverty line. But China's poor actually totaled 120 million to 130 million, using the internationally accepted US$1 per day guideline, said Wu. The 23.65 million [people] below the Chinese poverty line are actually people struggling in abject poverty and even food, clothing and shelter are a problem for them."

Wow, INTEWEDM, your "Christian" outlook is inspiring.

Kyle, thanks for the info.  It sounds like a lovely way to raise funds for people in need.

Kim, you miss my point entirely!  We give a percentage of our income to charity that you would probably not believe, but we give wisely to organizations that are Christian, spread the gospel along with the relief, and are not our enemies.  There are numerous organizations that help the needy and I only suggest that with all of the impoverished people in the world, why help those with a rich government that is out to dominate us?  The Bible says to "love your enemies", but it doesn't say to help them build up their military by meeting their domestic needs so they can spend their money to get us.

We have NO assurance that any aid will reach the needy anyhow.  Have you been following what is happening with the aid in Burma?  Wake up before it's too late!

The fact that millions are in poverty in China is a result of their Communist leaders' corruption and it's insane for us to support their policies with aid...we've already sent them our manufacturing base!

All may not be as dire as you presume Kyle.  I know some Chinese Christians, and based on their counts, and I was surprised by this and it may be optimistic if you promote Christianity, but they believe close to 50% of Chinese are Christian, rather that the less then 10% number you used in your reply. As very spiritual people, at least as high of a percentage of Chinese would consider themselves strongly spiritual compared the the US. The typically recognized Chinese Christian number is without a doubt inordinately low due to possible discrimination by the government and because Christianity is not a 'state recognized' religion in China.

On a side, someone recently used the term 'Chicom' (not in this blog at all), referring to Chinese people and the communist politic system. Do you think this term is a little bit of a racial slur? I am in no why Chinese and I likened the term to other commonly known racial slurs.  If nothing else it is clearly not a nice term to use when referring to the people of China.

Kyle's reply: Oh, I hope you are right that 50% of Chinese are Christian. I know the people are very hungry for Christ's love and forgiveness. (The Korean church is growing by leaps and bounds too.)

I got the 100 million Christian Chinese from a reliable source involved in the underground Chinese Christian church movement. Can't say more, it's underground!

By the way, I don't consider shortening Chinese Communist to Chi-com as a slur. That would have never occurred to me. We shorten things all the time. Whenever I have heard the term, it was referencing the political leadership or political system in China. IF they are Chinese and Communists, how is that a slur? (I am being sincere here.)

On another aside, a Chinese Christian stayed with an acquaintance a few years back. He said that he was anxious to return to his own country. His host found that surprising. He explained that in our country, where life was so easy, it was too easy to start losing his dependence on God. He said his Chinese church prays regularly for American Christians because we are so wealthy it is too easy for us to trust in our things rather than God. What a touching statement. They pray for us because we have it so easy! (How true)