Stephen Thompson

ISM Period 7
Corbett, Steve, and Brian Fikkert. When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without
Hurting the Poor-- and Yourself. Chicago, IL: Moody, 2009. Print.

This book talks about the harmful cycle where North American churches provide only
material resources, which only reinforces the poor people's sense of inferiority.
Fundamental Relationships we are designed to have: Relationship with God, Relationship
with Self, Relationship with Others, and Relationship with the Rest of Creation.
The lack of these create 4 types of poverty: Poverty of Spiritual Intimacy, Poverty of
Being, Poverty of Community, Poverty of Stewardship
One of the main points in the book is that we must embrace our mutual brokenness and
poverty in order to help low income people, so we dont reinforce the sense of inferiority.
Our efforts to help the poor can hurt the poor and ourselves
Poverty alleviation is about reconciliation, moving people into better foundational
relationships with God, self, others, and the rest of creation
Material poverty alleviation is not just ensuring that people have sufficient material
things
Material poverty alleviation involves the task of empowering people to earn sufficient
material things through their own labor
Relief - urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering
from a crisis.
Rehabilitation seeks to restore people and their communities to the positive elements of
their pre-crisis conditions. Key is working with the people
Development process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved in right
relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation.
Paternalism is doing things for people that they can do for themselves.
Types of Paternalism: Resource Paternalism, Spiritual Paternalism, Knowledge
Paternalism, Labor Paternalism, Managerial Paternalism

This book describes different types of poverty and then ways to work with the poor by
reconciling fundamental relationships, without reinforcing people's sense of inferiority, and
hurting ourselves in the process.