Christian cant
Sir: Damian Thompson is right to charge Christian Aid with 'intellectual dishonesty' (Politics begins at home,' 28 July): it is the sheerest cant for this charity to claim that it is 'political but not party political'. Name a left-wing cause that Christian Aid doesn't support. Its trouble is that it is handicap- ped by the old-fashioned Marxist idea that the poverty of the undeveloped world is caused by the prosperous West. P. T. Bauer refuted this long ago but it dies hard. Christian Aid publications seem to be motivated as much by hatred of West- ern capitalism as by a charitable desire to help the Third World. It is an ideology which leads it into the most bizarre ex- pectations: recent ones include the belief — until the recent elections — that the Kingdom of Heaven was being built in Nicaragua and, since the triumphs of Swa- po, the imminence of the Second Coming in Namibia. No sensible person can donate to a charity that has such peculiar notions. How much money is wasted on such political enthusiasms that might have fed the hungry?
Bernard Smith
30 Clifton Road, Worthing, Sussex
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