On the 4th of February 2025, BBC Headline: “What is USAID and why is Trump reportedly poised to close it?” A report by Sean Seddon.

Hi, my name is Terence, and I’m your host for the Daily Monsoon, a podcast where I connect current events to matters of faith.

I used to think US AID, stands for United States Aid. To my big surprise, it does not. U.S.A.I.D. is an acronym for United States Agency for International Development. Agency for International Development. What does that mean?

Consider this… would it be out of place to have an Agency for International Development in … Russia? … Iran? … North Korea? You see what I mean right? International Development can mean foreign aid, it can mean turning other countries to look like Russia, Iran, North Korea… America? Do we want to look like America?

From Sean’s article:

The range of activities it undertakes is vast. For example, not only does USAID provide food in countries where people are starving, it also operates the world’s gold-standard famine detection system, which uses data analysis to try to predict where food shortages are emerging.
Much of USAID’s budget is spent on health programmes, such as offering polio vaccinations in countries where the disease still circulates and helping to stop the spread of viruses which have the potential to cause a pandemic.

All sounds good. What is there not to like? And yet, the President of the United States want to shut it down?

According to the article:

Trump is a long-term critic of overseas spending and has said it does not represent value for money for American taxpayers.

Does Trump not care at all about the weak, the poor and the sick?

At this point, we could do a smooth transition to discuss Christian love and charity. But that would be too easy. I want to talk about realpolitik and religion.

Let me state upfront what I think is an ideal world and then let us consider whether it matches with what the Bible says.

In an ideal world, we have a small government. A high proportion of giving, acts of charity, are done by individuals, not by the government using taxpayers’ money. The government makes it easy for individuals to give, maybe through tax reforms, or through regulation of NGOs to make sure they are not scammers, and so on.

To make my case, let me argue from the extreme. Which is better, a world where every individual takes care of their communities or a world where all the resources are with the government and the government has to take care of everyone cause nobody else will do it?

Why should I give money to the government for the government to give to a charity? Why can’t I give money directly to the charity?

I say this even for religious charities. Yes, sure in the short term, Christian organisations will feel the pain. Some may even close down. But if your charity’s main source of funds is coming from the government, which doesn’t even share the same beliefs as you, and if they take that money away means you have to shut down, then that just means nobody else cares about your cause.

Your charity needs to tell society why what they do is so important, that sacrificial giving is necessary to protect the weak, the poor and the sick.

Someone might say, “But I have no money. The government has money. So the government should give.”

And this is why I say, “in an ideal world”.

The government has money because everyone gave them their money. If the government taxed everyone less, then everyone would have money to give to charity.

Ah hah! The problem is that people will not give to charity. People will just buy more junk. They will spend the extra hundreds on junk.

That’s true. That’s true. Three points:

1. The government also spends hundreds on junk. It’s hundreds of millions. If anybody is going to buy junk, it might as well be me.
2. Charities need to be more resilient. It needs to broaden the contributors because one day the government may not be able to pay all the bills.
3. A great and prosperous society is not measured by its technology or its GDP per capita. It is, or should be, measured by how that society takes care of the most vulnerable. And that society needs to take ownership of that collective responsibility.

It can be done. Look at crowdfunding stories. Consider this, raising a million through crowdfunding versus raising a million through a government grant. It’s a million either way, but crowdfunding generates a lot of goodwill, encourages the recipients to do good in the future, and I think there is more genuine thanksgiving. Family, friends and strangers, took the time to give directly to you in your need. More gratitude leads to a better society.

We don’t live in an ideal society but we should work towards it.

Consider this: African leaders have become more critical of foreign aid. They have seen how foreign aid, even when it comes with the purest of intentions, has created a generation dependent on others. More and more beggars when what they need are entrepreneurs, builders, inventors and artists.

For similar reasons, charities should be more critical of government money.

Let me share a story that might give another perspective to this issue.

A long time ago, missionaries came to this side of the world to share the gospel. They built schools, hospitals, orphanages and, obviously, churches. Now, these missionaries were white. The local people were not.

The church thrives under the missionaries’ efforts. They know the Bible. They can teach the Bible. They know all the songs.

These missionaries know that if they do not teach the local people to lead their own churches, to teach and preach the Bible, to sing in their own languages, then as healthy as the church may look on the outside, it will die once the missionaries leave.

In those days, those missionaries were financially supported by churches in the US or UK. With a mind towards handing over responsibility to the local leaders, the missionaries had to prepare the local leaders to have a trained pastor, to financially support their pastor from their own means, and to lead the church to continue the mission.

So, the mission work, all those years spent in the field, is a success if the mission continues after the missionaries leave. The missionaries go to a place to work themselves out of a job.

I think that should be the goal for International Development. Many people know this already, as I said, African leaders are sensitive to this, if they take foreign aid, they want it to lead to something that helps them help themselves.

America gets a lot of grief for their failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. For now, their international development efforts do not seem to lead to a great and prosperous society for Iraqis and Afghans. But I wonder… and perhaps I shouldn’t mention this because I do think Americans already think too highly of themselves… but is it fair to say that post-World War II, the Americans have contributed to the development of Germany and Japan.

“But these were already industrialised countries before the war.”

True, but Western magnanimity meant helping them instead of punishing them. This in itself could be a lesson drawn from World War 1.

If we exclude Germany and Japan, can we say Taiwan and Singapore have benefited from American generosity? Or is that giving the Americans too much credit.

I want to point this out because I think if people are willing to work hard to become independent, then foreign aid can do wonders. But if people are just waiting for a handout, then all the money in the world does nothing in the end.

But doesn’t the Bible teach us to care for the poor and the sick? Yes, it does. But the New Testament is a lot less focused on national governments and a lot more focused on the individual and community.

And the Apostle Paul famously chose to work rather than depend on contributions.

He also rebuked those who were just waiting for a handout by writing, “Those who do not work, do not eat.”

Before we end, I just want to say that today’s topic is not a straightforward one for Christian reflection. There will be many Christians who see Trump’s action on USAID to be a betrayal of trust. Christians who grieve for the consequences and find my reflection here un-Christ-like. Showing Christ-like love to others is not in question. The question lies in the effective use of foreign aid.

This is the Daily Monsoon, a podcast where I connect sometimes very complex issues like international development to matters of faith. Thanks for listening.