IRIN Global discusses the challenge of assessing hunger in the world. Just doing a district-level assessment to figure out levels of hunger and malnutrition can be very problematic. Without good monitoring statistics it’s hard to know where to put the limited resources that are available.
If it’s this difficult for a global, well-funded NGO (in this case, the UN-backed FAO), you can imagine how difficult it is for smaller Christian organizations and less-funded research groups. This kind of analysis demonstrates why it’s very difficult to know precise levels of Christianity within anything under the province level, and at anything other than an estimate. (You try showing up in a district in Somalia–not asking, “Who’s hungry” and seeking to weigh children but rather asking, “Who are the Christians?” and seeking to measure their discipleship level!)
Often times the best we can do in some instances is estimates. Yet even these are useful. For example, we know that the number of Christians in Iran may be large and growing fast (e.g. we hear reports of “over a million” or “millions”) yet we know that there cannot be more than, say, 2% because at some point they would have the political clout to demand concessions and protection–and before that point there would be conflict, because the government would fear that point (as China is discovering).
{ 0 comments… add one now }