A weighty voice

I chased a couple links this morning and came across an interview with Richard Stearns, President of World Vision. This interview is held on a business blog. The interest here is not religious conviction but rather the extraordinary success of this nonprofit organization.

Not all voices that we hear are of equal weight. There is an important concept I learned in speech class, often forgotten in today world, speaker credibility. I was fascinated reading and thinking about this interview because I am convinced the speaker, Richard Stearns, is highly credible.

So often we can hear someone stating things like: "The number one reason for ____ is ____." or "The key to ___ is ____." Most of the time, we would do well to let such statements pass us by. However, there are some special people who truly know some things. When they speak, we should stop and take note. I am suggesting that this interview is one of those occassions.

Here's the link: Ten (or so) Questions with Richard Stearns, President of World Vision on the blog, How to Chang the World (Guy Kawasaki).

-------A few samples--------------------------------

To really change the world, values must change.

When enough ordinary people embrace these issues, things will begin to change. Margaret Mead once said: "Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

I can't speak for God, but I believe God is pleased whenever anyone does something out of love to help the downtrodden.

One word: apathy. The very frustrating part is that we actually have the knowledge and the ability to end most extreme poverty. The world just doesn't care enough to do it.

What's the biggest obstacle to get rich people to care about poor people?

There's a tendency among those uninformed about global poverty to say, "This ain't rocket science. People are hungry; let’s feed them." What they don’t realize is that the deeper you get into relief and development, you realize it really is rocket science.

Do the efforts of rock stars and movie stars really help alleviate poverty and AIDS or are these people just seeking more publicity to sell albums?

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I hope you'll read it