Recently, my friend Shane Claiborne and I took part in a debate on Christian responses to poverty. To call it a debate might be a bit of a stretch, especially when the prevailing image of a “debate” is rancorous TV personalities angrily shouting over each other. Still, in the midst of our discussion, we...
Thirty years ago, a greater percentage of China’s population lived below the poverty line than in most other countries, according to the World Bank. Drastic economic reforms were undertaken. From 1981 to 2005, the proportion of China’s population living in poverty dropped from 84 percent to 16 percent. Photo courtesy of Joel Esler China’s...