The moral of this story is to not use your power to demand personal and sentimental belongings from others. But ‘Bob Geldof’ has twisted this parable by using his power to help poverty stricken people (Make Poverty History fund).
3. Human life is sacred
Genesis (1: 26 – 27)
‘All men and women are created equal. In Genesis we are told that every individual is special because we are all made in the image of God. Rich or poor we are all of equal importance and every life is sacred.’
This teaching is emphasising Christians to treat everyone equally disregarding their creed, colour, culture or finical purposes.
4. The Golden rule
Luke (10: 25 – 37)
The Good Samaritan
There was once a Jew who was travelling along a long and dangerous road. All of a sudden a group of robbers beat him and stole his belongings, they left him stripped and half-dead by the roadside. A priest walked past and saw the body, but quickly moved on, afterwards a Levite walked past and did the same thing. Then a Samaritan walked past, no Jew had ever been nice to him, but he still helped the injured man by wrapping his wounds in bandages. He carefully lifted him onto his donkey and took him to the nearest inn, ordering the inn keeper to look after and treat the injured man well, offering to pay all expenses.
This teaching stresses the importance of ‘loving thy neighbour’ disregarding their creed, colour or religion.
5. The need to follow Jesus’ example
Luke (7: 11 – 17)
Don’t Cry
Jesus and his friends were walking to Nain when a funeral procession headed towards them. Many mourners were crying and friends walked along side them, carrying a stretcher bearing the body of a boy. The boy’s mother was beside him, tears rolling fast. Jesus looked in sympathy as the mother was now a widow as she had no husband and the boy was her only child. She now had no one to care or provide for her. Jesus walked over and placed his hands on the boy, ‘Young man, get up.’ he demanded. The boy shot up, ‘Who are you and what’s happening?’ Jesus took the boy to his mother as the crowd gazed in awe. The crowd did not know who Jesus was, but they saw God’s love and kindness in all that he did and recognized that God was working through him to help everyone in need.
This story has taught Christians to care for poor people whom religious leaders ignore and despise.
TASK 2
Although there are many parables within the Bible, teaching the word of God and his expectations; there is no point if a Christian will only read the parable and not act upon the moral. This means they are not ‘helping thy neighbour’. But there are many Christian based charities set up to help combat poverty. One such organisation is called ‘Christian Aid’. Although the name may be misleading, Christian Aid does not purely help Christians, but many of the poverty stricken people around the world.
In Africa alone 500,000 people die of TB every year. More than 2 and a half million people live with TB, and if already diagnosed with AIDS then they have a 60% higher risk of catching TB. These are shocking statistics but unfortunately true, every day Christian based charities and hospices (set up in and around poverty stricken countries), struggle to help the ever increasing number of victims.
Christians feel that they can assist this problem by helping on three individual scales,
- Local
Christians can help on a local scale by joining with local charities. Funds from money raising events can be sent to larger groups (e.g. Cafod, Tear Fund, Christian Aid) and then used in third world Countries. Or a Christian can live very simply and send unwanted clothes and belongings to shops such as Oxfam.
- National
Christians can help on a national scale by raising awareness through advertising and persuading the Government to do more about poverty in third world countries. By joining a charity such as ‘Tear fund’ they can promote the work they do, therefore encouraging people to help combat these problems.
- Global
Working on a global scale is probably the hardest but most effective. Charities such as ‘Make Poverty History’ are now known world wide, thanks to the help of celebrities. Christians can help on a Global scale by preaching the word of God throughout many Countries, and promoting the work of worldly known charities.
From the above it is obvious that the local, national and global scales are all closely linked. The local scale can help raise funds to promote movements on a national scale, which can then help promote movements and charities on a global scale.
Christian charities do make all the difference to poverty stricken lives. They help set up small projects in local communities (e.g. new water pump for clean and healthy water), send out workers and volunteers to help share the technology used in the West, provide informative and helpful health education to stop diseases spreading as quickly and most importantly they raise awareness in Britain.
TASK 3
‘We should help people who are the same religion as we are but we need not bother about other people.’
I thoroughly disagree with this statement as it feel is undermines all beliefs and practices set up by Christians. ‘The Good Samaritan’ perfectly depicts the lifestyle that Christians go by, and it is fair to say that on a global level other people aspire to this parable as well. God made Jesus in the imagio dei (the image of God), and then made all Christians in the imagio dei. Jesus helped many people throughout his life, but he never contemplated their beliefs, colour or existence, if Christians are made in the imagio dei, then surely they should have the same principles as Jesus? If this is to be true, then the statement is incorrect when perceived through a Christian perspective.
If the statement was true and people followed its moral, then many world wide problems would escalate. Poverty stricken villages are filled with people of the same religion. Who would help these people if this statement was true? I feel that it is a human duty to help others around you, despite their colour, creed, religion, finical terms or way of life. Helping people in need (regardless if on a local, national or global scale) can also send a positive and influential messages to others who wish to follow in that person’s footsteps.
By helping other religions and coloured groups, it creates a varied multicultural society, that can learn from other religions and practices. Without this knowledge of other creeds or lifestyles, we would probably live a very basic life and not be introduced to a colourful and more attractive way of living.
Overall I feel that this statement is incorrect as it goes against many
Christian concepts, and also many other religious concepts. The simple commandment ‘Love thy neighbour’ shows that this statement is untrue to many people, and regardless of someone’s colour, creed, religion, finical matter, living prospect or lifestyle any human being would freely help a person in need.
