World Hunger and the Christian Conscience

The year 1965 was the year when the American Protestant churches, almost with one voice, declared intolerable the fact that more than half the people of the world live in perpetual hunger.¹ Although the North Atlantic countries – predominantly Christian — enjoy a standard of living and a level of economic affluence unprecedented in history, hunger is still on the increase in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The brutal disparity between the “haves” and the “have-nots” is an offense to the Christian conscience.

This situation caused the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. to call on its “Division of Overseas Ministries to press on with its analysis of United States church programs abroad with the view of making recommendations as to how the churches may, more effectively and more ecumenically, play their proper role in meeting the needs of the hungry.”² In response to this mandate, a survey³ was conducted during 1965 by two agencies of the Division of Overseas Ministries, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Life (CARL) and Church World Service. This article is based on the findings and recommendations that resulted from the survey and on the guidelines for future programming suggested by it.