Fractured by Freedom, South Sudan's Christians Show Off Successes

South Sudan is the kind of place where a sermon anecdote about gunfire draws hearty laughter. The sound of a firearm is such an everyday occurrence that South Sudanese only question whether it came from a pistol, an AK-47, or an M-16. “Many people right now are praying, ‘Thank you God for not making me South Sudanese,’ ” says the pastor.

Listening near the back of the sanctuary in Juba is Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision. He is visiting the world’s newest and most fragile state in his quest to revive the compassion American Christians had for Sudan years ago. The South gained independence from the Muslim-dominated North in 2011 with the solid backing of evangelicals. But two years later, a political power struggle engulfed the Christian-majority nation in bloody conflict.

“It’s a hard sales pitch,” he told Christianity Today as he stood among 50 mothers with malnourished children at a clinic. He said South Sudan is a perfect example of how enormously difficult it is to fulfill both the Great Commission and Great Commandment amid chronic conflict and violence.

CT joined Stearns as he toured World Vision projects in South Sudan to gather evidence to make his case. His appeal—for US churches to focus their aid on where poverty is worst, not where it is almost gone—is counterintuitive. But perhaps the best argument for it are the successes South Sudanese Christians are already achieving, far from the war- and poverty-focused eyes of the international media.

Africa’s Broken Breadbasket

The view flying into Juba is peaceful. Many metal rooftops are painted welcoming shades of blue, red, and green—the national colors. But once the plane lands, it’s clear not all is well. Parked near the terminal are cargo aircraft bearing logos of several well-known relief and crisis intervention groups, including the United Nations World Food Programme and the International Red Cross.

South Sudan is now considered the world’s No. 1 “fragile state,” according to World Vision’s own algorithm of 50 variables of human suffering. Half of South Sudanese children are malnourished. A 15-year-old girl is more likely to die while giving birth than to finish school.

The landlocked nation slightly smaller than Texas has long been one of the UN’s most expensive missions ($1 billion per year). Its rainy season renders roads impassable and requires all aid to be delivered by plane. It’s now also one of the most unstable, after a rift between the president and vice president in 2013 led to armed conflict along ethnic lines.

The problems are easy to see. But what’s difficult is raising direct aid from Christians. Only a sliver of World Vision’s $64 million emergency-response budget in South Sudan comes from private donors. It is much harder to raise relief money for manmade disasters (wars, riots, or civil conflict) than for natural disasters, explains Stearns. Donors have more empathy after crises that could happen to them than after crises that are someone’s fault.

The numbers betray the empathy gap. After Haiti’s earthquake, World Vision raised $68 million in 6 weeks. After Nepal’s earthquake, the ministry raised $8 million in 2 weeks. After 4 years of civil war in Syria, World Vision has raised only $2.7 million. After 4 years of independence in South Sudan, it has raised only $1.4 million.

US evangelicals are widely credited with motivating George W. Bush’s administration to help secure the historic peace agreement that led to South Sudan’s 2011 independence. Four years later, those evangelicals are largely absent.