With the holiday season came a massive influx of requests for donations. Every non-profit I've ever given to and even ones I've never given to were soliciting donations. Unfortunately, this year I couldn't let my bleeding heart turn into a bleeding bank account. With less than ten hours a week on average at less than the minimum living wage, I just couldn't afford it this year. But AC's challenges to "spend less" and "give more" got me thinking. So I started researching ways to make my dollar go further and I stumbled upon microfinancing.
What is microfinancing?"Microfinance is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor." (cgap.org) How's that any different from giving loans and other financial services to the non-poor? If you or I were to take out a loan, it would likely be on the order of magnitude of thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. We would use it to pay for a major investment like an education or a car and we'd probably plan on paying it off over the course of a few to several years. But the needs of the poor are vastly different than the needs of the rich or middle class. Their needs are on the order of hundreds of dollars or less. The catalyst for the Grameen Foundation was a $27 loan.
Why microfinance?
Because I believe that when Jesus talked about talents, he was talking about talents.
Every time I've heard the parable of talents in Sunday school or in a sermon, the meaning has focused on the modern definition of talents-- skills. (Even Wikipedia says it's mostly about using our immaterial talents for God's kingdom.) And while I understand the validity of the analogy, I don't understand why no one likes to talk about the literal meaning of the text. Maybe this is just the part of me that used to say my English teachers made us look too deeply into texts. But what can we learn by taking the parable at face value?
Bad servants bury their talents in the ground.
The story mentions the wicked servant last, but I think it makes sense to talk about him first. Charity is the metaphorical hole in the ground. The ROI is awful. Not all charity, but a great deal of it. If I give money to a charity, they take the money to buy food, shelter, or clothing for the impoverished. While this helps to alleviate the suffering caused by poverty, it does nothing to solve the problem of poverty itself. (Other non-profits use the money for education or job development. This is far more fruitful.)
The good servants use their wealth to make more wealth.
All too many Christians are under the false impression that God calls us all to be poor. They cite the parable of the rich, young ruler as the universal call to poverty. But that is inconsistent with other biblical accounts, including the parable of the talents. Here we see that the expectation for those who have been given much is not for them to haphazardly give it all away. Rather, to whom much is given, much is also to be expected. The servants are entrusted with wealth so that they can go make more of it. That's just one of the reasons why microfinancing was particularly appealing. The vast majority of microloans are productivity loans; they help put people to work. Given enough start-up capital with a manageable repayment plan, the poor are capable of generating wealth. A microloan can enable an individual to not only provide for his/her family's basic needs for a day, months, or years but can potentially lift that family out of poverty. Rather than continuing the carry the burden of their forebears' debts, subsequent generations reap the benefits of their predecessors' successes. Organizations like Kiva allow you to make loans to these aspiring entrepreneurs. >99% of the time, lenders get their money back and can consequently use it to help someone else.
The good servants want to please the master. It is this desire that drives them to multiply the talents. Unlike the young ruler, the servants do not take pleasure in wealth itself. Rather, their true reward is in being able to share in the master's happiness.
[If the thought of making loans seems off putting to you, there is also this thing called crowdfunding. It works in much the same way as it sounds. Groups of people pool their resources in order to fund what they deem to be a worthwhile endeavor. For this, there is a cool and relatively new start-up called Catapult, which focuses on promoting gender equality. (No, you do not have to be a staunch feminist to get involved.)]
What is microfinancing?"Microfinance is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor." (cgap.org) How's that any different from giving loans and other financial services to the non-poor? If you or I were to take out a loan, it would likely be on the order of magnitude of thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. We would use it to pay for a major investment like an education or a car and we'd probably plan on paying it off over the course of a few to several years. But the needs of the poor are vastly different than the needs of the rich or middle class. Their needs are on the order of hundreds of dollars or less. The catalyst for the Grameen Foundation was a $27 loan.
Why microfinance?
Because I believe that when Jesus talked about talents, he was talking about talents.
Every time I've heard the parable of talents in Sunday school or in a sermon, the meaning has focused on the modern definition of talents-- skills. (Even Wikipedia says it's mostly about using our immaterial talents for God's kingdom.) And while I understand the validity of the analogy, I don't understand why no one likes to talk about the literal meaning of the text. Maybe this is just the part of me that used to say my English teachers made us look too deeply into texts. But what can we learn by taking the parable at face value?
Bad servants bury their talents in the ground.
The story mentions the wicked servant last, but I think it makes sense to talk about him first. Charity is the metaphorical hole in the ground. The ROI is awful. Not all charity, but a great deal of it. If I give money to a charity, they take the money to buy food, shelter, or clothing for the impoverished. While this helps to alleviate the suffering caused by poverty, it does nothing to solve the problem of poverty itself. (Other non-profits use the money for education or job development. This is far more fruitful.)
The good servants use their wealth to make more wealth.
All too many Christians are under the false impression that God calls us all to be poor. They cite the parable of the rich, young ruler as the universal call to poverty. But that is inconsistent with other biblical accounts, including the parable of the talents. Here we see that the expectation for those who have been given much is not for them to haphazardly give it all away. Rather, to whom much is given, much is also to be expected. The servants are entrusted with wealth so that they can go make more of it. That's just one of the reasons why microfinancing was particularly appealing. The vast majority of microloans are productivity loans; they help put people to work. Given enough start-up capital with a manageable repayment plan, the poor are capable of generating wealth. A microloan can enable an individual to not only provide for his/her family's basic needs for a day, months, or years but can potentially lift that family out of poverty. Rather than continuing the carry the burden of their forebears' debts, subsequent generations reap the benefits of their predecessors' successes. Organizations like Kiva allow you to make loans to these aspiring entrepreneurs. >99% of the time, lenders get their money back and can consequently use it to help someone else.
The good servants want to please the master. It is this desire that drives them to multiply the talents. Unlike the young ruler, the servants do not take pleasure in wealth itself. Rather, their true reward is in being able to share in the master's happiness.
[If the thought of making loans seems off putting to you, there is also this thing called crowdfunding. It works in much the same way as it sounds. Groups of people pool their resources in order to fund what they deem to be a worthwhile endeavor. For this, there is a cool and relatively new start-up called Catapult, which focuses on promoting gender equality. (No, you do not have to be a staunch feminist to get involved.)]
No comments:
Post a Comment