Initiatives to alleviate poverty that empower

 Robin and I are giving a talk this evening at The Village Academy on "When Helping Hurts.." based on the book by the same name.

Here are the slides.

Fact Collecting by Robin McKenzie

Fact Collecting

Child of the enlightenment 

Going from one extreme to the next 

Throw the baby out with the bathwater 

Purging that which can’t be replicated in the lab

Makes no sense of love or intuition 

One must know, only the facts

Overthink, analyse, scrutinise 

Analysis paralysis 

But true wisdom is knowing what can’t be known 

Embrace the mystery 

Accept the contradictions, shades of grey

It doesn’t have to make logical sense.

You don’t have to be able to understand 

Forget fighting the slippery thin edge of the wedge

What are we so afraid of?

The prompting of the spirit?

Feelings that can’t be calibrated? 

Our forefathers rejoiced in their new understanding 

Why the sun sat

Where lightning came from 

How to kill a germ

Would they be aghast to see the baby disappear with the water?

Our denial of things immaterial?

Is fact collecting always preeminent?

Surpassing the value of spiritual engagement?

Do facts alone lead to sanctification? 

Ah, The fear of the thin edge of the wedge

      

Engineering principles undergird  bridges

But just as important is the soul 

A corrupt heart leads to use of shoddy material

And bridges falling down.

Who is man that he assumes he is capable of knowing everything?

That knowledge is the answer to all predicaments?

As God said to Job “ Why do you confuse the issue?

Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about? 

Pull yourself together.  Up on your feet!  Stand tall. 

I have some questions for you and I want some straight answers… 

Tell me since you know so much!”