Food Tactics

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     “Now, what the church has, when I
talk about churches, first thing,
universal distribution.
I could take you to 10 million villages around the world the
only thing in it is church. They don’t have a school. They don’t
have a clinic. They don’t have anything else. It is the only
social structure in much of the world….

    
“The church is bigger than the United Nations. It speaks
more languages than the United Nations. It’s with more people
groups than the United Nations. There are 2.3 billion people in
the world who claim to be followers of Christ. Now, that’s all
different varieties, factions, and levels of commitment. But
there are 2.3 billion people who are church members. That means
the church is bigger than China.”[1]
—Rick Warren

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In a little-noticed

Wall Street Journal article last week (1/2/09) a new way
to address the problem of world hunger was proposed. Rather than
simply handing out food to the poor and needy, from now on the
United Nations World Food Program (WFP) will be databanking
and monitoring food distribution to starving individuals.

“U.N. Tackles Rising Threat of Urban Hunger in Africa” authored
by Sarah Childress is subtitled “High Food Prices Spur World Food
Program, Usually Employed in Rural Crises, to Find Tactics That Work
in Crowded Cities.”

Just what tactics? According to the article, the “escalating hunger
in Africa is forcing aid agencies… to scramble for strategies”
that will help “identify who’s most in need of help.” As part of
this identification process, the WFP will be conducting an
“experiment with cash and voucher systems” ostensibly for the
purpose of avoiding the upset of local economies. The recipient will
receive a “beneficiary card” which they can show at “a local
office each month to receive vouchers” for cash, and a “local
microfinance agency… will take the vouchers and handle the
reimbursements.”

The aid groups are using “more nuanced surveys” as one of the
tactics to identify the “neediest people” and will be “evaluating
them on factors including access to clean water and the size of
their dwellings.” The article then says that the aid “organization
will analyze the data.”

In a perfect world this idealistic plan might work to help local
micro-economies. But that isn’t what this plan is all about. It isn’t
about simple food distribution to the poor, starving and needy
in
Africa. Rather, this plan represents a

fundamental shift in how aid will be given to people.
This shift is taking place at both the macro and micro levels in
tandem with international foundations, NGOs, corporations, mission
and aid groups.

This food voucher plan requires people to register first before
they receive food. Register with whom and for what purpose? From
the point that someone registers for and/or receives the voucher
they will enter the “system.” Everything they do from that
point on will be monitored, databanked and assessed.
This is how the emerging global governance system will work.

What

role will Rick Warren and his church-based health clinics play
in all of this? Perhaps none. But it is remarkable how similarly
structured this food voucher plan is to the purpose-driven formula
of “transforming health care delivery through the full engagement of
the local church linked to existing health care systems to work
together for the common purpose of community health.”[2]

The Pied Pipers of Purpose
monograph published in 2004 (Conscience Press) examined management
guru Peter Drucker’s activities on overhauling the conduct of the
Private Sector (the 3rd leg of his

3-legged stool concept).

Drucker, who

mentored Rick Warren, advocated an assessment-based system of
monitoring efficiency and effectiveness for charitable
organizations, which included the concept of merging State and
Church (including private charities) into faith-based endeavors.
A key facet of this results-based system was regulating “choices,”
which notably would include the concept of “vouchers.” These
vouchers, while purportedly giving people “choice,” would actually
function as a method of human control. “Accountability” for
quantifiable and qualitative results would be based on institutional
standards — benchmarks for human
performance that were inflexible, restrictive, unyielding, and
even punitive. And in Drucker’s model, human beings are referred to
as “human capital” —
their “value” is assessed in terms of how much they can contribute
to the

common good of Society. The monograph explained how “vouchers”
work in the education realm:

“Charter schools and vouchers
blur the lines between Drucker’s three sectors of society –
nonprofit, corporate and state – because of how the money passes
hands and who is ultimately in control. Charter schools and
vouchers, which are run by business corporations and/or
sub-entities of the government, operate in compliance with
education reform standards set by the State. The State defines
the results and prescribes the assessments to measure the
learners, who are technically public students. State monies are
then, in turn, paid to the corporations who operate the
charters.”

Now, apply this same concept of
vouchers to global food distribution and it becomes apparent that
this system could quickly become fraught with trouble. The Wall
Street Journal article does not mention the corporate partners
in this voucher-for-food program. But State (local, national and
international) corruption alone, including bribery, unseemly conduct
and unethical collusion, could easily cripple this system. The poor
starving individual who just wants food to eat could become caught
up in a web of unsavory

interconnections and

entanglements.

And what role would the 3rd leg of the stool — the church and/or
aid groups — play in this food-for-voucher scheme? What if the
local church “distribution center” in every local village became an
outlet for food voucher registration and management? It may not be a
far-fetched

possibility. The monograph observes the downside to all of this:

“Many advocates of
government-funded faith-based charities believe that the end
justifies the means, and will point to the ‘results’ as evidence
of a good work being done. These good-intentioned people
probably don’t realize that their activities further the
political goals of communitarian societal transformation. These
folks may not understand the long-term negative repercussions of
cooperating with this new system of governance. In a
communitarian worldview any truly private entity (family,
charity, church and small Christian school) poses a direct
challenge to the ‘common good.’”

This is an interesting statement in
light of Rick Warren’s recent activities in promulgating

Communitarian agendas and ideals such as the

“common good.” When one considers that his church-based clinics
in Africa are health-care data-driven centers, cooperating with a
multitude of

partners across the full spectrum of a global 3-legged stool, it
raises many uncomfortable questions about their ultimate “purpose.”
Is it really to offer care and meet physical needs? Or is there more
to it? What happens to the survey information once it is databanked?
Is this just a way to get poor people into the international
governance “system”? The monograph comments on the negative effects
of Peter Drucker’s plans for overhauling the 3rd leg of the stool:

“This is institutional charity,
not the private act of a widow’s mite. The Scriptural
admonitions to give to him that asketh thee (Matt. 5:42)
and freely ye have received, freely give (Matt. 10:8b) no
longer apply. If a charity doesn’t perform up to par, monies are
withdrawn. This is because organized charitable donations are
now being used as an instrument to effect change, to produce
transformation….”

Transformation is being

built on the backs of those who are the most vulnerable,
helpless, and powerless. To put this post in its larger global
context, check out
GLOBAL FOOD MANAGEMENT and follow the many links. It is not too far-fetched
to question any new-fangled global food management program. And it
is important to raise ethical concerns about how food is being used
as a lever for transformation.

The Truth:

“Give to every man that asketh
of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not
again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to
them likewise.” (Luke 5:30-31)

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Endnotes:

1. Link added. Transcript of
American Public Media radio program “Speaking of Faith” with Krista Tippett hosting, Part II: Rick & Kay Warren,

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/warren/transcript.shtml

2. Quote from a Larry
Ross Press release

http://www.alarryross.com/Client_Info.aspx?ID=37 and
http://www.alarryross.com/PressRelease.aspx?ID=347 (8/6/08)
“PASTOR RICK & KAY WARREN BRING TOGETHER LEADERS TO DISCUSS
UNIFICATION OF EXPERTISE TO STOP HIV/AIDS: Saddleback Church Hosts
International AIDS Conference Satellite Session on the Partnership
of Government, Business & the Church.” Cited in an ASSIST News
Service
story
published 8/6/08, “Pastor Rick & Kay Warren Bring Together Leaders
To Discuss Unification Of Expertise To Stop HIV/AIDS: Saddleback
Church Hosts International AIDS Conference Satellite Session on the
Partnership of Government, Business & the Church,” by Dan Wooding.
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2008/s08080030.htm

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