Overseas poverty and justice: attender attitudes

Abstract

Overcoming the absolute poverty faced by many of the globe’s poorest people is regarded as an issue of moral importance by increasing numbers of Australians. The roots of poverty, and our relationship to its causes and solutions, are often complex. In the 1991 National Church Life Survey 90% of attenders thought there was a responsibility to share in meeting the needs of people in developing countries. In recent decades Christian NGOs, and churches themselves, have played an increasing role in both delivering aid and in advocating with governments to increase the size and effectiveness of national responses to poverty and injustice. In late 2011, the National Church Life Survey asked a sample of Catholic, Anglican and Protestant church attenders about their views on the Australian Government’s involvement in a range on issues that are regarded as relevant to the question of ending global poverty.