BOOK BRIEFS
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger
by Ronald Sider
(Intervarsity Press, 1977, $4.95)
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger is a dangerous book. Although in a few places Ron Sider shows that his heart is in the right place and balances his pronouncements in a biblical fashion, the book as a whole displays incredible naivete. This naivete results in a mishandling of both biblical and economic realities. Errors in the book are legion. Due to space limitations, I will deal with only three of the problems.
1. The false assumption that government action will provide ultimate solutions to the hunger problem recurs throughout the book. Sider says that a simpler lifestyle for Christians is not enough — they must go on to challenge “institutional evils” via governmental reforms. Tragically, most of the reforms that Sider urges would result in more centralized, planned economies. Such socialism destroys incentives and thus would aggrevate, not alleviate, the crisis of world hunger. If world hunger is a fire burning out of control, we, as concerned Christians, must not pour on the gasoline of Sider’s solutions.
2. Sider regularly mishandles Scripture. He confuses the basic concept of the Jubilee (a return of property to original owners; see Leviticus 25:10,13, 28) with a massive redistribution of all wealth (a removal of property from original owners). He consistently ignores or only lightly touches on the Scriptures which contradict his position (see 1 Tim. 6:17-18; Phil. 4:12-13).
3. The central problem with Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger is its tendency to induce giving out of guilt rather than out of joy (see 2 Cor. 8:2 and 9:7).
I encourage Christians not to read this book. If you do read it, I encourage you to be very careful about what you believe or try to apply.
(Doug teaches at the School of Practical Christianity and pastors an evangelical fellowship in Moscow.)
Originally published in Roots by the River, a publication of Community Christian Ministries, circa 1982.