business and the world

I've been thinking a lot about whether a business can change the world. Undoubtedly, you can bring material possessions, more productivity, clean water, technology, medicine, all wonderful things. But I'm starting to believe that absolutely none of this will change a person's life enough for them to be happy.
"Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good… . Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted. And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone, and the machete."
- Matthew Parris, quoted in Christianity Today

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