Saturday, September 14, 2013

Do No Harm?


After reading Do No Harm by Mary Anderson, our class decided that our book on development would probably be called something more like Do Good... and as little harm as possible.

Because in research, development, missions, and so many other fields, you are probably going doing to do some harm even with the best intentions.  So what to do? Well, if you don't know what to say in Dr. B's class, just raise your hand and say prayerful discernment.  It sounds like just another cliche Christian answer, but really that is one of the main lessons I learned at Eastern.   In the middle of really complicated, messy, and grey development work, we can enter into a process of prayerful discernment, trust in the guidance of the holy spirit, be humble, do our homework on best practices, keep learning from others, and a bunch of other things, but you get the idea.

This is more a reminder for myself than anything else, but since lots of people ask me what I read at Eastern and what I learned, here it is for you to consider as well.   And I would recommend the book for those interested in development.  There is a lot to be gleaned from Mary Anderson's arguments and the case studies she presents.

1 comment:

Heidi said...

thanks for being a conversation stimulant, Christine...so helpful to be reminded about!