Reflection: Why Should Followers of Jesus Care about International Development? A Whiteboard Animation
WCIU Journal: Social Justice Topic
October 13, 2018
by Editor
View a 60-second whiteboard animation of biblical support for international development efforts by followers of Jesus.
Ralph Winter was an early advocate for the concept of “international development.” This became the only degree offered by the university he founded in 1977, William Carey International University. He claimed the heritage of pioneer missionary, William Carey who went to India in 1793. An article in this WCIU Journal shows that Carey’s way of bringing the good news to the people was to get involved in showing what God’s will looks like in many areas of society:
• Education (he began schools for children of all castes and launched the first degree-granting college in Asia at Serampore)
• The economy (he introduced savings banks)
• Physical needs (he advocated humane treatment for leprosy patients)
• Agriculture (showing how uncultivated jungle could be tamed to produce food)
• Astronomy (the heavenly bodies are not deities that governed our lives)
• Women’s rights (India was crushing the female through female infanticide, child marriage, widow-burning)
• Literacy (he pioneered the idea of lending libraries in India)
• Translation (he translated the Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit; he also translated Indian religious classics)
• Publishing (he brought the science of printing and publishing to India)
• Social reform (his English-language journal, Friend of India, was the force that brought about the Social Reform Movement in India in the first half of the 19th century)
View this 60-second whiteboard animation illustrating that Jesus empowers his followers to follow his example of going around doing good and overcoming evil, including disease. We can be display windows of God’s desire for humans to live justly with each other and in harmony with creation.