Philosophy of World Vision

To further understand and comment on World Vision, one must understand why and how the organisation operates as an aid agency, and what it is trying to achieve.

The two following examples indicate the underlying philosophy of World Vision. Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision has been criticised for spending donated dollars for other than religious reasons. Pierce replied: "First I must meet their need, then I can meet their real need". (Los Angeles Times, Jan. 22 1975).

The latter figure has an asterisk above it, followed by this note: "World Visions entire ministry is evangelistic in its outreach and therefore it is really impossible to separate evangelism from child-care or emergency relief activities."

It is obvious that one of World Vision's aims is to evangelise. Later in this report we will comment on some implications of their evangelism.