When Helping Hurts

When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . . and Yourself is a 2009 non-fiction book by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. The book was first published on June 24, 2009 through Moody Publishers and explores and dissects common perceptions on poverty and the means to relieve it.^[1]

Synopsis

When Helping Hurts uses the Bible and the Great Commission to state that the church's mission should be to help the poor and the desolate. Corbett and Fikkert state that the definition of poverty will change depending on who is defining it, with the poor defining it through the psychological and social scope while more wealthy churches emphasize the lack of material things or a geographical location. The authors emphasize that this can cause a harmful cycle where North American churches provide material resources and evangelism to the poor, which reinforces the poor people's sense of inferiority and lack of self-esteem, which in turn increases the original problem.^[2] Corbett and Fikkert give several hypothetical scenarios to illustrate this cycle and then offer several solutions that they say can alleviate poverty. They promote the use of Asset-based community development as a strategy, arguing that focusing on what resources and abilities that the community already has is often more helpful and more empowering than focusing on what the community doesn't have. This prevents paternalism where outside workers provide the "only" answer.^[3]

Reception

Reception for When Helping Hurts has been positive, with World Magazine's Joel Belz calling it "solid stuff".^[4] Mission Studies gave a positive review for When Helping Hurts, saying it was "based on good theological premises" and "is a very useful and accessible contribution to Christian relief and development".^[5] Charity organization Children of the Nations cited it as one of their "favorite books" and as a recommended read.^[6]

References

External links

• Official website