Remember Sally Struthers crying for the starving children and begging you to help the Christian Children’s Fund?
Well, a group called Ministry Watch blew the whistle on the organization in 2004, indicating that their research found no connection between the organization and anything “Christian” – other than to entice Christians to give. As a result of that investigation, the organization recently has been renamed to ChildFund International.
MinistryWatch describes ChildFund as more of a Community Development Organization – the organization has no statement of faith, doesn’t require its members to be of any faith, does no religious teaching and does not engage in trying to get people to become Christians. The fund was originally called the China Children’s Fund.
But the important thing is we’re saving the Children, after all.
Tags: Children, Christianity, Sally Struthers
Thank you for the post concerning our name change. We’ve made the change because this is a critical time for us to meet the growing needs of children living in poverty. Did you know that as a result of the spreading economic crisis the World Bank estimates that an additional 53 million people will fall into poverty?
The growing number of children living in poverty demands that we work in partnership with others to meet these needs. Our new name better aligns us with the ChildFund Alliance. Membership in the Alliance and having a unified name increases opportunities for collaborate activities, including expanded programming and fundraising activities.
As you noted in you blog entry, the work is all about the children. We empower children to thrive throughout all stages of life and become leaders of enduring change. We always have — and always will — serve children of all faiths, and welcome people of all faiths as employees, donors, partners, and leaders of our organization. We have not made evangelizing part of our work for more than 30 years.