To help explain the challenges people in the West face reading the Bible, authors E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien refer to a social experiment in "The Forgotten Famine" by Mark Allan Powell.

Powell had twelve students in a seminary class read the story of the prodigal son from Luke's Gospel, then close their Bibles and retell the story as faithfully as possible to a partner. None of the twelve American seminary students mentioned the famine in Luke 15:14, which precipitates the son's eventual return. Powell then had one hundred people participate in the same experiment and the results revealed that only six of the one hundred mentioned the famine. The "famine-forgetters," as Powell called them, had only one thing in common: they were from the United States.

Later Powell tried the experiment in St. Petersburg, Russia. He gathered fifty participants to read and retell the prodigal son story. This time an overwhelming forty-two of the fifty participants mentioned the famine. Why? Just seventy years before, 670,000 people died of starvation after a Nazi German siege of the capital city began a three-year famine. Famine was very much a part of the history and imagination of the Russian participants.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Interpretation; Bible study—Our experiences and cultural perspectives will not change the meaning of the text, but they will alter what we see in the text. As we interpret the text, it's important to keep in mind our hidden assumptions and biases. (2) Cross-cultural Ministry—This story shows the need for careful listening and communicating across cultural lines in the body of Christ; (3) Poverty—This example shows how experiences of poverty have a profound impact on people—even years later.