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.

  • Love Jesus and Love [Pure] Religion! (A response to a YouTube phenomenon)

    Posted by Matt

    10 April, 2012

    I’m unashamedly proud of my local church. We have an incredible impact on our local community, from cell groups that gather people together to share meals and fellowship in homes, to our op-shop-come-food-bank that gives real help to our marginalised neighbours, and our RESPONSE program connecting new refugee arrivals from the Congo with an Australian partner family. I’m also passionate about the global Church’s impact on the world’s most stubborn issues; things like racism, global poverty, human trafficking. When the Church unites, she is an unstoppable force for good that no one can stop. That’s why when I saw Jefferson Bethke’s YouTube sensation Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus, something didn’t sit right. Are you one of the 20 million people who have watched the compelling video posted by 22-year-old Jefferson? What did you think? How did it leave you feeling? Pumped up? Justified in your own discontent with “the Church”? More in love with Jesus? Or perhaps confused ... wondering if you should hate... read more

    Comment on this post

  • I Love Needles

    Posted by Simon

    30 March, 2012

    It’s not often that you get to hear from a person in TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People. Sure, we hear speeches from Barack Obama on TV all the time and Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is used daily by the majority of people in the developed world. But last week, 200 plus people and myself attended a Child Survival Forum hosted by RESULTS International, primarily to hear Dr Seth Berkley speak, a 2009 member of TIME’s top 100 club. Who, you might say? A guy who, quite simply, loves needles… Dr Berkley is the CEO of the GAVI Alliance, a multilateral organisation that has given life-saving vaccinations to over 319 million children in the past ten years, saving an estimated 5.5 million children’s lives. Impressed now? Globally, the GAVI Alliance ranks as one of the most effective and cost-efficient multilateral organisations working to eradicate poverty. The GAVI Alliance is a unique public-private partnership that focuses solely on immunising children in developing countries against deadly diseases such as pneumonia,... read more

    Comment on this post

  • Can you measure happiness?

    Posted by Amanda

    6 February, 2012

    Ever since the economic crisis, people have been questioning whether money = happiness. For years we were told that economic growth was vital for our well-being and the best way to help keep the economic engine healthy was to spend. Japan, with economic growth of 1% pa (or less) was like a spluttering 4-door sedan compared with India and China's turbo-charged growth of over 8%. You just need to look at some recent headlines from Bloomberg's Business Week to get the picture – "What's New for China's Miracle", "A Thousand Desires Bloom" and "India's New Worldly Women". More was good and happiness was shopping, as confirmed in a blog from the Economist. But times change. It's OK to save, to enjoy simple pleasures and to be content with less. Of course, Christians should applaud this trend as it echoes the biblical truth that pursuing wealth at the expense of others is unwise, greedy and even, ungodly. Some economists and politicians now talk of national well-being in terms broader and deeper than... read more

    Comment on this post

  • Finding meaning on a cruise ship

    Posted by Matt

    25 January, 2012

    My good mate Morgan has spent half of last year aboard five-star cruise ships plying the well-worn route between some of Europe and America's most glitzy and touristy coastal destinations, entertaining giddy and sun-stroked passengers with his music. Sounds tough, doesn’t it?! Morgan is quite a character and the experience has given him some fantastic material—his emails regale those of us at home with a litany of hilarious anecdotes and analysis of the situations and people he encounters. His recent update began with the usual banter but shifted tone when he began, in his words, to “go on a rant” about tourists and their never-ending travel stories. “I'll tell you what really drives me crazy: listening to every man and his dog tell you how 'ah-ma-zing' everywhere they have been is. It doesn’t matter what country they are from, they all use the word “amazing”! People say tourism is good because it brings money to the country, but it can also turn places into tacky tourist dumps. That kind of... read more

    Comment on this post

Page 1 of 11
1  2  3  4  5 
Archived Blog entries