We kid ourselves we are rational beings, with a capacity for reason we use as and when we want. The World Bank sees health, nutrition and population as integral to its economic policy. It admits it does not have the technical competence of WHO, but it has a lot of money and intends to use it, one Bank economist saying 'Policy based lending is where the bank really has power - I mean brute force', The Bank also sees itself as a 'knowledge bank', but if it thought brute force could win patient concordance or community participation it would possess knowledge without wisdom.

Part of Christian mission is interpreting God's view of his creation. The age of medicine as pure public service is not over. Unless there is more reason than economic policy to care for the 1.3 billion people living in absolute poverty, mankind is likely to destroy himself and commit 'globicide'. But there is a creator who has given man rationality and in Christ has given reason to use it for a higher purpose than self interest.

Why are Christians not having more effect on world health? It must be the result of the combined choices of every individual who could have been involved. Yet one individual's choice based on truth is ultimately more powerful than all the brute force of a policy that is not. That choice is to implement faith by action and not succumb to the brainwashing of the world, however weak the action based on faith may appear. The cross is inevitable in the Christian life but it is the way that leads from truth to God's kingdom.