Poverty. What do Christians teach about causes of hunger and disease?

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Religious studies – Poverty Coursework

A01. (i)

What do Christians teach about causes of hunger and disease?

Christians teach that one of the main reasons for poverty and causes of hunger and disease is unfair trade.

Large companies exploit people who cant find a better wage elsewhere. People like farmers are encouraged to grow whatever they can most cheaply and sell it worldwide. The big companies use third world citizens for cheap labour and pay them unfair wages. This helps the profits of the big companies but is bad news for the farmers. Farmers do not get a fair price for what they produce, which means they still cannot afford to support themselves and their families fully. These people become hungry, they cannot afford enough food. These people become diseased, they cannot afford healthcare or healthy living.

Christians also teach that another one of the causes of hunger and disease is arms race. Arms race is where different countries put all of their money into developing arms and weapons for war rather than focusing and spending the money on the more important things such as poverty and developing health care. They do this in competition with other countries. This leads to another cause of hunger and disease, a corrupt government. Governments and leaders who put the wrong things in the wrong order in terms of priorities are mainly corrupt. Governments spend their money in the wrong way, they should care about the people of their country rather than developing weapons which lead to violence and war.

Another cause of hunger and disease, which Christians teach is the inability to recover from natural disasters. Natural disasters like floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts and land slides can lead to many homeless people who’s houses, possessions and food sources are destroyed. Because people in poorer countries/areas are not prepared for these disasters and because they are so poor, they cannot recover from natural disasters easily with a lack of money and resources, which causes hunger and poverty amongst masses of people. Waste Materials that are exposed to many people from these disasters can also cause disease.

Christians also teach that another one of the causes of hunger and disease is war. War has a big impact on hunger, as the government spends more money on the war rather than the people, therefore there is no money for food. War also has a big impact on disease and ill health, as those soldiers that do survive can be very badly injured (poisoned by gas bombs, loss of limbs, horrific burns and long term effects). Soldiers can also catch diseases, which can then be spread through the nations. Bombs destroy homes and people are left with nothing, causing hunger and poverty.

Another cause of hunger and disease that Christians teach is a lack of education. Many people from poorer areas of the world have not been educated simply because their families could not afford it. Many people cannot read and write which means they are naive to things through no fault of their own. For example they do not know how to prevent illness and disease so they could make mistakes, which can affect their health like drinking dirty water, they are thinking they are doing the right thing and becoming ill because of this, as nobody has told them that drinking dirty water can cause disease. A lack of education can also make it hard for people to find jobs to get money to support their family, which can lead to hunger and poverty.

Christians teach that the cycle of debt can also contribute to hunger and disease worldwide. The third world is constantly in debt, as it owes money to the developed half of the world after all the money it has borrowed. As time goes on where the debt has not been paid, it increases. As the third world borrow more and more money, they owe more and more money. This is called the cycle of debt.

This is the poverty cycle that many people in less developed countries are experiencing.

Lack of food

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This is the poverty cycle that many people in less developed countries are experiencing.

Lack of food

No money so less food Hunger

Earn less money Less Energy

Unable to work

A01. (ii)

What bible teachings might they use in a discussion about these issues?

The following references from the bible are those of which Christians may use in a discussion about hunger and disease.

One Bible story which shows the teachings about hunger is “The Feeding of the 5000” (Mark 6:30-34). This Bible story is about when Jesus managed to feed many people with a limited amount of food sources. I think that this story shows that you should feed the hungry and help those in need whether you feel you can or whether you feel you cannot. I think it means that you should always try to help people, even if people say you cannot. I think the message of the story that we can follow up on is that we should help out the starving people of the third world as they have nothing and we have plenty. Even though we feel we can’t, we must do something about it. “The Feeding of the 5000” is an important story because it shows how Jesus helped people who were in need and how we should follow in his example.

Another story, which Christians might use in a discussion about hunger and disease, is story of “Jesus Cleansing Ten Lepers,” (Luke 17:11-19). In this particular story, Jesus heals 10 lepers. This teaches us that we should try and help those people who are in need. Where Jesus deals with lepers, it shows that we shouldn’t judge people and help them anyway because everyone is equal on some level. Lepers were discriminated against in the time when Jesus was alive, and to see that these people turned to him for help when they needed it the most shows that they knew he was a healing man. Jesus could have easily turned the lepers away, but he didn’t. He helped the diseased and he treated them as he would have treated anyone else which is an important lesson, which we can learn from this particular passage.

Love one another, taken from John 13:34. This is telling us to love one another, as we want to be loved ourselves and how Jesus loved us. This story’s message is that we should treat others how we would like to be treated ourselves, and if we do this, we will get treated the same way. We should treat the hungry and diseased with love and respect and help them out, as we would of liked if we were in their position. We are all equal human beings.

Exodus 22: 21-22.25-“do not ill-treat an alien or appress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a money lender; charge him no interest” This quote from Exodus 22 shows that we should not treat the hungry and diseased in a bad way, as we once may have been in that position. There is also another message in this extract which says that if we lend money to the third world countries, we should take into account just how poor they are and how much they need the money to feed themselves and keep themselves healthy, and not charge them interest as this will just contribute to the cycle of debt, the needy will end up having an increasing debt to handle.

Leviticus25:35,37 “if one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would help an alien or a temporary resident so that he can continue to live among you, you must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit.” Christians may use this bible reference in a discussion about hunger and poverty because it teaches us a similar message to the previous extract i wrote about, which is that we should support the poor people of the world so they can continue living to be a part of our world. Also, again, to not charge the needy interest or make a profit from them which is what is going on in the world today (exploitation), because they are much more in need to stay healthy and prevent their hunger than we are, as we have a lot more money to aid us.

AO2.

Using CAFOD, explain how Catholics may respond to world hunger and disease.

Catholics may respond to world hunger and disease using CAFOD in a very positive way. CAFOD stands for Catholic Agency For Overseas Development.

CAFOD operates because it believes in the basic equality of all people in the sight of God. The catholic community as well as the general public fund the organisation. Without organisations like this, it may be difficult for Catholics to individually respond to world hunger and disease.

A worldwide problem as big as poverty cannot be tackled without money. Hunger and disease cannot be overcome without the appropriate funding. CAFOD collects money from the catholic community, catholic schools, churches and the general public to help raise a fund to help some of these problems in the poorer areas of the world. The money is then sent to organizations in the different countries in order to save money and to get the money to the places that need it the most. The money helps to improve the problems, which the places are facing, for example building schools and homes, improving the water and food supply, buying medication etc. This is an example of CAFOD working along side people in need to reduce poverty.

One of the main aims of CAFOD is to bring about understanding within the catholic faith about injustice and poverty. CAFOD provides many Catholic communities with education on how to help the world be rid of poverty. They provide information on what is actually happening in the world and what we can all do to stop it. CAFOD also provide more information of the different ways in which their techniques are developing, how they work to help fight poverty and how they are going to need the funding if they are going to make these changes.

There are two types of aid that can help overcome problems. They are short-term aid and long-term aid. Short-term aid is mainly used after natural disasters where materials and resources are needed to help temporarily recover from the natural disaster and maintain a way of life for the people of the area hit for the time being, until they are ready and able to start rebuilding their lives again. Long-term aid is used for problems like poverty and disease, which are already huge problems in parts of the world. People are born into this way of life and have no choice but to live the life they have been given. CAFOD use various ways to improve the lives, which the people have been given so that they enjoy at least a reasonable standard of living.

After CAFOD has made the changes to provide the aid needed, they educate the catholic community and the general public of what work they have been doing to help so that they know where their money is going and how they are helping to improve the lives of so many people.

As well as asking for help by giving money, CAFOD requests the help from the catholic community in a spiritual way such as praying. Catholics pray that the worldwide hunger and disease situation can be improved and they pray for all those people who are suffering. They pray with thanks that they do not face the problems that the people in the third world do as they are blessed with a wealthy lifestyle. In giving money to CAFOD, the catholic community put their prayers into the money they give. Collecting money for aid for those in poverty and educating people is not all CAFOD does, they promote social justice and challenge governments, international bodies and general ruling authorities when what is required from them is not being done, to help fight injustice.

A03.

“Christians are responsible for each other – no matter where in the world they live.”

I do agree with this quote because there are some Christians in the world who are born into a life of poverty in which they are trapped and cannot escape on their own, they need the help of others.

We must take responsibility as Christians to give help to our fellow Christians.

I do not think it is fair that there is enough food to feed the world one and a half times, yet only the developed half on the world seems to be getting the food and there are masses and masses of people in the third world who are starving to death and living in poverty. We have enough money to aid them, to help prevent hunger and disease in their areas and so we should look out and care for the Christians all over the world, not just close to us.

We must take responsibility to make a change in the world and try and balance out the inequality. I think that we should take into consideration that we are Gods children and so should be helping each other, especially those in need.

The bible tells us (“The Final Judgment” (Matthew 25:31-46) that helping others is helping God, and God will reward the righteous people that help others and therefore help God with eternal life. This is what I believe in.

The Bible also says the people who have the power to help those in need but do not help, will not be helped themselves when it comes to the day of their judgment, and those who do help those in need will be blessed and rewarded when it comes to the day of their judgment.

It is not only the fact of being blessed and rewarded when it comes to the day of their judgment that some may appreciate, they are also blessed with knowing that they were responsible for helping a fellow man and giving the help to a fellow Christian so that they could stay alive and maintain a reasonable lifestyle.

I can see why some people may not agree with this quote, they might say that Christians are not responsible for each other but for themselves, they might argue that not a lot of people would accept responsibility for them so why should they accept responsibility for anybody else?

They may also think about what would happen if the positions were switched, the now wealthy people would take responsibility for those now in need.

They may think that they are reluctant to take responsibility for those in poorer countries because they feel that they should learn to be less dependant on us and learn to look after themselves a little bit more.

The people who disagree may also think that the problems are so far away from them that the responsibility they take on and the help they give wouldn’t be appreciated anyway, and the problems are too far away so therefore they shouldn’t get involved in them. Sometimes because people of our wealthy world are so far away from those suffering, they do not have any idea what it is like so therefore do not really care about it.

Another point of view from a person who disagrees with the statement could be that it is not their fault that the world is how it is and it should be up to the people who’s fault it is to do something about it and help stop the worldwide problems, not them.

The final point of view that i am going to mention is that some people feel that they cannot take responsibility for fellow Christians as they do not feel it will make any difference, the help needed is out of their hands.