NEW YORK — Christian leaders from around the world will launch a major anti-poverty initiative Oct. 15 in New York City with an ambitious goal — to cut worldwide poverty in half by 2015.
The campaign, named the Micah Challenge after the Old Testament prophet of justice, represents more than 3 million congregations worldwide and 260 Christian relief and development organizations, including Baptist World Alliance and Baptist World Aid.
But those groups don’t plan to fight poverty alone, said Michael Smitheram of England, international coordinator for the Micah Challenge. Instead, they are “calling on their [political] leaders to live up to a promise they have already made,” Smitheram told Associated Baptist Press.
He referred to the United Nations-approved Milennium Development Goals, adopted by the U.N.’s member countries in 2000.
Those eight goals represent “kind of a benign framework [Christians] can get behind,” he said, adding, “We’re not asking them to get into an argument” over which anti-poverty strategies are best.
BWA through its General Council endorsed the Micah Challenge Aug. 1, calling Christians to take “prayerful, practical action in their nations and communities” and to hold their nations and global leaders “accountable in securing a more just and merciful world.”
So far, however, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the largest U.S. evangelical network, has declined to sign on to the Micah Challenge, although its humanitarian arm, World Relief, is involved. “NAE is broadly supportive of the Micah Challenge, but they’re not looking for a leadership role,” Smitheram said.
The group is trying to enlist 25 million Christians worldwide to endorse the movement through its Web site, www.micahchallenge.org.
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