The parable of ‘The story of the rich man and Lazarus’ teaches that people have been told for many centuries that they must not ignore the poor, and they have no excuses. The story is about a rich man who lived in luxury, while a beggar who lived outside his front gate had nothing and was ignored by the rich man. When the beggar and rich man passed away, the beggar was sent to heaven and the rich man was sent to hell. The rich man then asked to be allowed to warn his brothers of the consequences of ignoring the poor; however he was then told that they had, had many warnings already from the prophets.
"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”
(Luke 16:19-24)
In the Old Testament, the prophets often preached a warning of the punishment in store for people who did not treat the poor with more consideration. The laws that the people were given after the Exodus gave clear guidelines about how to care for the poor and avoid exploiting them:
“If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an immigrant or a temporary resident, so that he can continue to live among you. You must lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit”
(Leviticus 25:35.37)
This quote simply says that if someone becomes poor and cannot maintain themselves with you, you should maintain them, as a stranger and they shall live with you for a period of time. The amount of time they are capable of maintaining themselves. For this you should not take any type of interest from them in any way such as money or provide them with something that will be benefiting you in the future or at the time.
The poor were shown to have a special place with God. As all the Gospel writers show that Jesus always taught the message of love for others and concern and care for the weak. For Jesus the poor were just as important and equal as the rich. The main message of Christianity includes the poor as equals with everyone else. Some of Jesus’ teachings say
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you will laugh”
(Luke 6:20-21)
This teaching teaches that if you are poor today, you will be blessed because the Kingdom of God in other words the doors of heaven would be open to you. Jesus taught in both of his words and actions that ‘agape’-
Love is not just a feeling but it has to be put into practice. Two of the greatest commandments support this;
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength
You shall love your neighbor as yourself”
(Mark 12:30-31)
There are many different passages and biblical teachings of how Christians should treat the poor. The other two main teaching of treating the poor in Christianity are the parable of ‘The principal of agape’ and the teaching of ‘The prophet Amos’.
The principal of agape means un-conditional love. In the principal of agape Jesus preached that people should show their love for God by being and showing love towards their neighbour, by this he meant everyone including strangers and enemies. He also taught that “always treat others the way you would like to be treated”. In addition to this Christians should empathise with the poor. They should treat the poor in the way they would like to be treated if they were poor. Giving should be done generously, frequently and done in a way that preserves the dignity of those who are less fortunate.
The book of Amos is found in the Old Testament. Amos warned the people that God would send terrible and harsh punishments unless they treated the poor and the weak with more care. Amos taught that God is not interested in listening to worship and prayers if the people ignore the poor.
Explain how the followers of this religion may put these ideas into practise
SECTION B
Christians may practice, demonstrate and show their love and concern for the poor in many various ways such as; they may devote their lives into working with a developing country, as an aid worker in a refugee camp. If they cannot devote their whole lives to work with the poor the may work with them over a short period of time. They could also stay where they are and support and help a charity fund. An example of this is the Iona Fund.
The Iona fund was founded by George MacLeod in 1938in the island of Iona. He later on built a centre ‘The George MacLeod centre’, which was opened for the purposes of providing a place where young people from all over the world could come and live for a period of time in a community. When they are not working they follow a regular pattern of worship and study as well as having social enjoyment with other people in the community. The worship in the Iona community focuses on social concerns around the world. This is reflected in ways such as in daily prayers.
“Here is a gaping sore, Lord:
half the world diets,
the other half hungers…”
(Prayer by John Bell, of the Iona Community- from the SPCK Book of Christian Prayer)
The community members come from all stages of life; many are persuaded to come to Iona by or for personal or spiritual reasons. Most of the community members work away from Iona, these members then return to Iona for one week per year. They come back for the week to give a proportion of their income to the community.
A Christian could also make an effort by simply living in simple life style, meaning they could only buy what is actually needed and the money they save could be given into charity. They could also help buy giving unwanted, discarded clothing, books, shoes, toys etc in to charity for someone needy to use rather than just throwing it away as part of rubbish. Another way of helping could just simply be saying a small prayer for the poor and their supporters.
Christians give to charity in various different ways, some donate money on a regular basis others set aside a certain amount of money every month and then pay to the charities they have chosen to fund. Some Christians also keep small collecting boxes in their homes, as a reminder that there are people around the world that are not as fortunate as them. A small amount of Christians also tithe, which means they give up to 10% of their income to the poor and the church. A well known person who has done this is Sir John Templeton
Sir John Templeton is who at his poorest chose to give away ten percent of everything he earned. By his natural and clever understanding management of his money he became quite a wealthy man. He also helped other people to invest their money in order to increase their wealth. Sir john Templeton gives money to support projects around the world that further out understanding of spirituality and the actual importance of human character. He believes that there are good ideals in all religions and cultures which need to be followed to make the world a peaceful and better place.
As well as donating money to charities some Christians to voluntary work for the actual charities such as; they may work in local charity shops, bake cakes an sell them on a charity stall, knit small garments for the younger generations in the developing countries. Jesus taught that the size of the gift was not as important as the generous spirit behind the giving;
“…he sees rich people depositing their gifts to the temple, while a poor widow put in just two coins. He says, "this poor widow has put in more than the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."
(Luke 21:1-4)
There are many charities registered in the UK some support certain types of disabilities such as, for the elderly, the poor, disabled, younger children and animals. A Christian is more likely to fund a charity which is based on teachings of Christianity which may include charities such as; Christian Aid, CAFOD, Tear Fund, Eurovangelism, The Salvation Army, The Leprosy Mission and many more.
CAFOD stand for Catholic Agency for Overseas Development. It is a major British charity that has been fighting third world poverty since 1962. They believe that all human beings have a right to dignity and respect and that the world's resources are a gift to be shared by all men and women, whatever their race, nationality or religion. CAFOD helps countries to become more independent. They do this by helping the poor with clothes and medicine and campaign for social justice e.g. fair trade products.
Christian Aid is a charity in the UK and Ireland which works with people in
Poor country’s around the world. It believes in "Life before death". Christian Aid wants everyone, everywhere to have a decent life it wants people to: have enough food to eat and clean water to drink, have somewhere safe to live, has medicine when they are sick and to be able to go to school. Christian aid is a multicultural charity as it helps poor people regardless of their religion and race.
Christian’s believe greed for money can often prevent people from having a proper and a good relationship with God. They believe that the rich should share what they have with the poor. The bible teaches that the people who are rich and who care too much about their own possessions should sell what they have and donate their money to the poor, otherwise they will not be able to have a good relationship with God.
“On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn….”
(1 Corinthians 16:2)
Paul said the early Christians to make a habit of setting aside some money out of their wages for the poor. Christians believe money should be earned fairly and honestly.
“We should help people who are the same religion as we are but we need not to bother about other people”
Do you agree? Give reasons to support your answer and show that you have thought about different points of view. You must refer to the religion which you are studying in your answer’’
SECTION C
‘We should help people who are the same religion as we are but we need not to bother about other people’
There are reasons as to why Christians may support this statement and disagree with it as well.
Firstly a Christian may disagree with this statement because some Christians would want to help the poor whatever their religion is because not all Christians are evangelical Christians. Also some Christians believe helping someone gives them a sense that they’ve done a good deed, regardless of the religion. Another thing is that Christians may feel the need to help everyone as they feel that they re supposed to as the bible teaches that they should love and care for one another. ‘Love your neighbor’ this quote taken from the Bible connotes that you should love everyone as the term ‘neighbor’. Christians believe that it is their duty to help and care for everybody no matter what race or religion they are. They also believe that God wants you to love and support each human being the way you would treat yourself and any close members of family, for instance if a young child was dying of hunger and thirst, would you not feed them because of their religion?
One the other hand some Christians’ may agree with this statement because some Christians are evangelical Christians. This means that they believe that only Christians will enter heaven. Therefore they believe that they will only help Christians as it will be a reward for them to enter heaven. So the people that believe in this statement ‘we should help people who are the same religion as we are but we nee not bother about other people’ this statement is saying that they believe that they shouldn’t help a non Christian. In the bible Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth and light’. This means that if you believe in Jesus then that belief will take you too heaven as Jesus is as Jesus is the most dominant and most important person in Christianity.
As a Muslim, I strongly disagree with this statement. The reason is because all other people are human and surely each human is made by God and in the same way. In addition to this, no matter what religion you follow God’s teachings always teach love for one another, bringing peace to the world. I follow the religion of Islam; Islam clearly means "peace" in Arabic. Islam teaches to offer humanity a life filled with the peace and well-being in which God's eternal mercy and compassion is manifested in the world.
God invites all people to accept the moral teachings of the Qur'an as a model whereby mercy, compassion, tolerance may be experienced in the world. In Surat al-Baqara verse 208, this command is given:
You who believe! Enter absolutely into peace (Islam). Do not follow in the footsteps of Satan. He is an outright enemy to you
In this verse it explains, people will experience well-being and happiness by living according to the moral teaching of the Qur'an. In the Qur’an it teaches to bring peace, happiness and justice to the world. Therefore, it also say’s to treat other with love, manners, care and loyalty no matter what ones race, culture, height, looks or beliefs are.
A small minority in each faith would say that they have a responsibility to the believers of their own religion and faith first. A minority of Christians such as the Evangelical Christians that they should take care and help their own faith first and then they may go on to helping others of other beliefs. In this case neither religion deny helping any other being of other faith however they believe they should sort out their own individual faith first before going on to helping others. Christians believe in this as Jesus taught that there is no difference between any beings, in the bible it says;
“There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one union with Christ Jesus”
(Galatians 3.28)
Christianity also teaches to love and care for others. As in the bible it teaches it is impossible to a have a genuine love for God whilst at the same time you ignore the people in need. In addition, to this Jesus also taught “always treat others the way you would like to be treated”.
In my view, it is quite clear that all teachings of all religions teach love, care, loyalty and respect for one another. In addition to this all religions teach to bring peace to the world therefore I sturdily believe that the statement is wrong.
