These sorts of statistics and facts could affect a Christian’s behaviour by making them want to do more to help the situation and can be done in several ways such as donating to a charity in order to fulfil the role of being a steward of God (he put us on earth and made us in his image, therefore we are all equal and should help one another).
We should be loving with our money, we should not hoard, we should be private in donations and should follow the example of Christ. The sources of authority for these sorts of teachings are the Bible, Church teachings and traditions within the family.
The Bible has several teachings which support the idea very strongly that the poor should be helped and that wealth is not necessarily a good thing. Firstly, the example of Christ who himself was poor encouraged others to be poor because having wealth was not the certain way to a good life which shows Christians today that being rich is not everything and even without a lot of money, a good life can be lived as shown by Christ.
Money can be seen as an obstacle to salvation and is emphasised in the Bible with sayings such as “love of money is the root of all evil” and it is “easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore this may encourage a Christian to give away the money that is more then they need to live a decent life for a good cause, and could be seen as a step in the right direction towards heaven.
“Flowers of the field, birds of the air are looked after by God.” Therefore we should not worry about what we are going to eat tomorrow or whether we are actually going to get something to eat because God is here to look after us. This would show Christians that even if they give away money, God will still be there to provide the essentials we need for life.
The Bible also says in Matthew’s book:
"Do not store up riches for yourself here on Earth where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for you in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are."
Christians agree with this as they say that you should not be sad if you give your money away. Jesus' preaching tells us that there is more to life than just money and greed. He suggests that you should live your life sharing with others and have a life of riches in Heaven. It is said that the moths and rust refer to the draw backs in life; He makes a comparison between heaven and Earth, almost suggesting that your life on Earth was really a test on weather or not you should be in heaven. The will power to give up all of your riches is hard, but he stresses that eternity in Heaven with God is worth sacrificing all of your riches and fancy clothes for a short time on Earth. Therefore in effect, Christians are faced with two options; save wealth and face hell or use the money for good cause and your reward will be found in heaven. This would affect a Christian’s behavior by making them think about the option they want to take and then taking action from there.
”Don’t let your Right hand know what your Right hand gives.” This is saying that you should give to the needy from the goodness of your heart and to do the right thing; not to show off. You should not want any sort of recognition or reward from it, your reward will come in heaven. The way this would affect Christians is that when they give donations, they would do it with privacy or anonymously.
Some examples of Christian teachings for the use of money are explained below.
Timothy 6 v.10 - The love of money
"The love of money causes all kinds of evil. Some people have left the true faith because they want to get more and more money. But they have caused themselves a great deal of sorrow."
In this paragraph, Timothy explains that money in itself is not a bad thing. Money provides food and roofs for the poor, money provides equipment for our health. He teaches that the love for money is bad, as it is hard to let go of money. The more money they get, the more money they will crave in the future. This will result in greed, and ambition to seek for more money - not giving away any to the poor. This is why Christians might realize that they should think about how their money should be spent and used so that they do not create a craving for money which in affect, goes against the teaching of Christianity.
Matthew 25 v45-46 and v40-41
"The king will answer,'I tell you the truth. Anything you did for my people here - you did for me'."
Jesus says that those who have helped each other in life have helped Jesus. This Christian teaching says that those who give up their lives to give charity will have a place on the right hand of Jesus. If a person has not helped anybody in their life on Earth, then they have done nothing for Jesus and so they will go to hell for all eternity.
"God loves a person that gives happily. And God can give you more blessings than you need. Then you will always have plenty of everything. You will have enough to give to every good work." ...."This service that you do helps the needs of Gods people. It also brings more thanks to God."
2 Corinthians 9 v.12-13
Here the bible text explains how God would like not for people to just give to charity but to also give "freely" to charity, to actually want to give out the money they have earned to the poor. Again the bible mentions how God will always return the effort put into giving the money to the poor in much greater rewards in heaven.
Corinthians 8 v.2-5 tells us of the Churches of Macedonia. It says that they could give more than they could afford and they gave as much money as possible. The bible text shows that this is what God wants of all people.
The church, as many of the other religions of the world, emphasizes change in the amount of poverty and hunger in the world. They give money to the agencies that support the homeless and the starving e.g. Christian aid and CAFOD. They also aid any protests for the poor. Sometimes they would even travel overseas to help.
To conclude, Christians should take action to help the fight against poverty because it is better to love God and enter heaven, then store wealth which is against the teachings of the bible, and go towards hell. It can be seen as a Christian’s duty to help others because we are stewards of the Earth and therefore should look after one another which is also supported by the idea that God made us all in his image. Due to these beliefs, Christians give aid to charities, to the church or even voluntary work in poorer countries in order to fulfill their duty and make their road towards heaven.