Since the population of the South is so much larger than that of the North, in reality the South should have more money than the North, however, this is not the case and so severe problems like hunger and disease occur.
These three main points can be summarised in to one simple statement; there is enough food and resources in the world for everyone to live comfortably, without suffering unnecessary disease and hunger, however, we do not live in a world where things are shared fairly, so this is not the case. Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’ (‘About New Things’) was written in 1891, after the Industrial Revolution. In it was written that: “Workers have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hard-heartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition…a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the labouring poor a yoke little better than slavery itself.” I feel that this can be used to describe the relationship between the North and the South.
Christians believe that God created the world with enough resources and food for everyone to live comfortably. This is illustrated in the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.
“He ordered the people to sit down on the grass: then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
Everyone ate and had enough. Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left over. The number of men who ate was about five thousand, not counting the women and children.”
This quotation illustrates the idea that if people, all across the world, were willing to share what food and wealth they have then everybody would have enough and everybody would be content. This would mean that nobody would suffer from hunger and there would be less disease in the South. If the North was willing to provide the South with some of the advanced technology that we in the North use in everyday life, without charging them or at least making a deal that is reasonable and practical to the financial situations of the South, then the South would have a chance to develop and prosper. This would eradicate the starvation that they currently suffer from.
Hunger and disease are both forms of suffering. There are many different ideas about the “mystery of suffering”. Some Christians find it hard to understand why a “God of love” can allow his people to suffer in such terrible ways. In the Old Testament there is a book called “The Book of Job” (pronounced Jobe), this book approaches the dilemma of innocent people’s suffering. Job is an invented man who has always had a good life. He is a good person; he is the richest man in the East and the head of a large family. Unexpectedly, he loses everything, his money is no longer there, he has no possessions, his entire family are killed and he suffers a hideous skin disease. Obviously he is devastated. Three of his friends visit him to offer their condolences and comfort him. How much comfort they were to him is questionable because they tell him that he must have committed terrible sins to receive such a terrible punishment from God. However, Job knows that he has never done anything in his life to deserve such a terrible punishment. Eventually Job questions God as to why he has such a horrifying punishment, he believes that the punishment would be easier to tolerate if he could understand the reasons for it. Instead of answering Job’s questions in the conventional way, God gives Job an experience of his wisdom and power; this proves very overwhelming for Job. This experience makes Job realise that he could never comprehend God’s secrets and from this Job learns to trust totally in him, through this, Job finds peace. The point of this story is that you will never be able to understand God’s ways but through accepting them and trusting in God you will find peace. Despite the example this story sets, many Christians still try to understand the reasons of God. Here are a few of their ideas:
- Christians believe that God has given us free will. This means that we are able to make our own choices and can live our lives as we choose. In other words, God does not make our choices, he does not stop us from doing wrong. If he did interfere with our lives and stop us doing something wrong every time we were about to then we would not have free will, we would be puppets of God. This does not mean that God doesn’t care, he has shown us how we should live and left it up to us whether we follow his advice, as such. However, if we do not follow his advice then we will suffer consequences. For example, in the “Creation Story”, in Genesis, it does say that they world was once without suffering. After each day of the creation god looked back on his work and observed that it was “good”. Subsequently, Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s orders and ate the “forbidden fruit”. They disobeyed God and followed their own “free will” this was their downfall. They were then punished, Adam was to “work hard all your [his] life” and Eve was to have further “trouble in pregnancy” and “pain in giving birth.” Not all Christians read this story to be literally true but regardless of whether it is taken literally or not it still illustrates a point. The point the story illustrates is that because humans have free will they also have an inclination to go against God’s wishes. A great deal of the world’s suffering can be traced back to human failings. Take Noah for instance, the people were going against God’s will and so God warned Noah of a great flood that would wipe out all the people as a punishment for their sins. Mother Teresa is quoted as having said that she believes “the innocent are paying for the sins of the world and this is one of the reasons for the existence of suffering.”
- The world, or earth, that we live in is not a moral one; it is a carefully balanced environment. Some things that happen in the world are bad and some things are good but the world as a whole remains balanced. There are “natural laws” that decide what will happen, the outcome is often good for some people and bad for others. For example, a flood, a perfectly natural disaster, will kill many people in one town but will water the land of another town, which enables them to live. Christians believe that in the “greater scheme of things” every living thing is part of a delicately balanced whole. In the same way that a car engine has many small parts which all fit together and work to make the car move. God is like the driver; he turns the key and sets the world going, although unlike in a car God leaves it to follow its own natural pathway. In the same way that human’s have “free will” the world has a type of free will, God does not intervene in the acts of nature, such as earthquakes and floods, they are acts which God chooses not to control, if he did then it would disrupt the laws of nature. However, saying God did act when these natural acts occurred, how could he chose between saving one group of people and the next?
- “Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and existence of free will involve, and you find you have excluded life itself.” Said C.S. Lewis, who is a Christian writer. This essentially means that suffering is an inevitable part of life, of being a human being. The suffering of Jesus confirms the idea that suffering is a necessary part of life. Before Jesus died he prayed to God and said, “The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me.” However, he also said, “It is accomplished!” this implies that all Jesus’ suffering had happened for a reason, as indeed it had. God made his own son, a part of himself, suffer so that he could save the sinners, so humans could join God in eternal life after death.
A good way that Christians can help and act out against hunger and disease is to join a charitable organisation such as C.A.F.O.D. (Catholic Fund for Overseas Development). C.A.F.O.D was set up in 1962 by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales. C.A.F.O.D has no members, however it does have full time staff. C.A.F.O.D works on the principle that every Catholic in England and Wales is a part of C.A.F.O.D, this is because C.A.F.O.D is supposed to be a way that the Catholic Church can act out part of its faith, helping others. C.A.F.O.D does not set up new organisations but uses the ones that the Catholic Church have previously set up, i.e. schools and parishes. Through these organisations C.A.F.O.D puts its message across and raises funds. One of the main things that C.A.F.O.D takes part in is the practice of deliberately going without food i.e. fasting. The money that would have been spent on food is then donated to C.A.F.O.D and C.A.F.O.D uses that money in its projects around the world. Although it is the “Catholic Fund”, C.A.F.O.D. is not specifically a Catholic charity and will help all people who are in need. C.A.F.O.D. offers help to developing countries in times of emergency, such as a natural disaster i.e. earthquake, drought, flood etc, but it also offers long term help. Which means that C.A.F.O.D. will set up programs to help the country and the people in it to work themselves out of poverty. Long term help that C.A.F.O.D. offers include educating the people and teaching them improved skills, such as farming, growing and cultivating the land, these skills will be with those people for life. Long-term help is more beneficial for the population as it gives the people a chance to help themselves so they will no longer be dependant on “hand outs” from other countries
Another such Christian organisation is Christian Aid. Christian Aid is very much like C.A.F.O.D. in many ways. Christian Aid works to battle poverty in overseas countries from experience Christian Aid has found that the best way to help improve people’s lives is when they, themselves, decide that they want their lives to change and how. Christian Aid, like C.A.F.O.D., do not only work with Christian people, they help people of any religion or no religion. To them we are all God’s children and “created in the image of God”, therefore it is a Christian’s duty and responsibility to help and care for everyone in the world.
Christian Aid works in “partnership” with local organisations of the country that they are helping. The organisations that seek help from Christian Aid must approach them prepared with descriptions of the work that they want done, the means of doing the work and how much the work should cost. Then, Christian Aid will decide if they are able and willing to support the project. Some projects that Christian Aid will support include, providing money for equipment to grow crops. For example, in 1993 the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, appealed to Christian Aid for support. Near the Ethiopian Rift Valley, where there is a tiny cluster of houses, there was a drought in the 1980s and the district was badly affected. With the drought and then the following civil war in the early 1990s, the soil was in very bad condition and many of the trees had been used for firewood. For many of the families living in the area the soil was in too bad a condition to produce much food. During times of drought or crop disease these families could easily suffer from starvation. However, since 1993, the Church, supported by Christian Aid, has been working with over 4,000 households to help them to cultivate and improve the land and soil. Now many of the families grow fresh vegetables, like lettuce, cabbage, beetroot, chilli peppers and fruit like apples and tomatoes. Here is the response of one of the people who was affected by this help and support. Kelem says, “My family has seen nothing like this before…now we can have vegetables whenever we feel like it and we’re much healthier.” Another way which Christian Aid has improved lives of people overseas is enabling fair trade in Nicaragua. Coffee is one of the most bought and sold product across the world (second to oil), with this in mind you would expect the growers to be wealthy land owners but no, most coffee growers are some of the world’s poorest people. Carmen Gutierrez and her family are perfect examples of how Christian Aid can help they are all coffee growers. A few years ago, they joined up with a group of families who were all suffering the same injustice. They ended up forming the Luis Alberto Co-operative. They now get a fair price for their coffee beans. They sell their produce through PRODECOOP, a Nicaraguan union that Christian Aid helps and supports, to Cafédirect. Cafédirect are a fair-trade company that offers the families long-term orders at an agreed minimum price. For that reason, they can now start planning for the future. Carmen Gutierrez says, “In the past the merchants just came and took the coffee away. They only wanted to make a profit for themselves. Now PRODECOOP advises us on how to grow organic coffee and to conserve soil by planting in terraces. We get fairer prices too so we can now afford to buy medicines and send the children to school.”
Not only does Christian Aid work directly with the overseas countries to help them, there are other ways that can help as well. For example, Christian Aid spends time educating people in developed countries to understand the problems and the causes of poverty, hunger and injustice in the world. When people in developed countries see the suffering of hunger and disease that the South have to face they do want to help but the problem is they don’t understand why it has come about that there should be so much suffering. Christian Aid send members of the team to give talks at schools and functions so that people can understand the issues.
Campaigning is another way that Christian Aid members help. The poverty of developing countries is very often caused by the international systems that rich countries, such as America, Japan and the United Kingdom have set up. However, many people are unaware of this, therefore campaigning is an active way that people can get involved and informed about such issues. For example, Christian Aid asked its supporters to contact the managers of their local supermarkets and other grocery shops to ask for reasonable earnings and working conditions for the people of the developing world, where the merchandise, which is sold in the shops, is produced. The larger supermarket chains are now starting to establish reasonable wages and fair working conditions for the producers.
Another problem that the countries of the Developing World are suffering is severe debt. Many developing countries have serious political problems and are at war. This means that they need money to buy arms. Seeing as the country has little or no money of its own it must get a loan from the World Bank. Although, the World Bank is perfectly happy to loan the money to the countries, it does expect it back and with interest. Given that the country still has little or no money it cannot afford to repay the money that they borrowed in the first place, let alone the interest that the loan has accumulated. As a result, the country borrows more money to pay off the first loan and the interest and the problem starts over. It is a never-ending cycle. Christian Aid and a number of other organisations, which are collectively called “the Jubilee 2000 Coalition”, are trying to get the build-up of the developing countries’ debts cancelled. However, obviously, this is an idea which few (i.e. the people who are owed the money) are reluctant to do.
Obviously, a big part of what Christian Aid do is fundraising. Christian Aid’s funds come from two primary sources the government and Christian Aid supporters. As the Second World War was coming to a close Christian Aid was coming to a beginning. It was originally formed in Britain and Ireland; it was set up to help refugees and churches recover from the devastation of the war. However, soon Christian Aid grew to include various countries from all around the world. Seeing as Christian Aid was formed in Britain and Ireland it is accepted that most of the supports are from there. People in the United Kingdom and Ireland give money to Christian Aid, as well as people from around the world. This money is either given by the individual or as a collection. During Christian Aid Week many collections are made and this boosts the income of the organisation. Also during Christian Aid and at various other times of the year there are various fundraising events, such as sponsored walks, sponsored fasts, silences and the like, there are book sales and bake sales. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom and Irish governments, along with the European Union, give grants to the Christian Aid foundation. Below is a pie chart to show where Christian Aid gets their funding from.
Most of the money that Christian Aid raises goes towards their projects overseas. However, Christian Aid also has other commitments to spend the money on too, such as educating the Developed world about the situation in the Developing world, campaigning and some of the fundraising events, which are all important parts of the world that Christian Aid do to fight poverty. Below is a pie chart that shows how the money that Christian Aid raises and collects is distributed through out its various commitments.
The money that Christian Aid spends overseas is spent on various different things. Money is spent on emergency relief; this is when there has been a natural disaster for example, an earthquake, flood or drought. This money helps rebuild the damage that was left from the disaster. However, only a small percentage of the money raised is spent on emergency relief, most of the money is spent on development work. Development work is long-term, small-scale projects, such as the ones that I have previously mentioned, the example from Ethiopia and the example of the coffee growers. The main objective of the development work is to help the people to help themselves out of poverty, to give them a chance to work for themselves and live without being dependant on the handouts of others. There are many other aspects of development work, other than the two that I have previously mentioned: improving health and sanitation, protecting refugees’ rights, improving standards of literacy and innumeracy in countries where opportunities are inadequate, fighting for greater equality and freedom for everyday people. Also, some money is spent on other overseas work that is neither emergency relief or development work. Other overseas work would include temporary relief for a community, such as providing food for starving people or providing medication. Below is a pie chart, which shows the distribution of the money that is spent by Christian Aid.
Christian Aid is a continuously growing organisation; many Christian denominations find it more beneficial to support the work of Christian Aid rather than setting up their own rival organisations. This is partially because if everyone groups together as one body it is easier to help more people. After all if six people have one penny each then they cannot buy very much but if they got together then they would have six pence and would be able to buy much more.
“Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” This means that you should treat everybody, in the whole world, the same way you would expect to be treated. Using this quotation, from Jesus, it is easy to see that Jesus is telling us that Christians are responsible for each other no matter where in the world they live. The church teaches that we are “all one body” and as in one body, one part of the body cannot function without the rest. We are all joined together as one and we need one another to survive. This is a good reason why Christians should help those in need, wherever they may be. The Vatican II instructed Christians by using God’s words, “Feed the man dying of hunger, for if you do not feed him, you are killing him.” This means that Christians have to feed people dying of hunger or else it would be as good as killing them and in the Ten Commandments it states, “Thou shalt not kill”. So not feeding the man would be going directly against God’s wishes. This can be applied to a worldwide scale; therefore Christians have an obligation to feed the hungry.
It is said that we are “made in the image of God” this does not mean that we look like God. Being made in the image of God means that in some sense people’s minds are like God’s. Seeing as we are made in the image of God, Christians believe that each and every life is sacred. Therefore, protecting and preserving all life is very important for Christians as it shows love for God. Jesus said that the most important commandment is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Therefore taking responsibility for God’s people who are in need, wherever they may be, is a way of showing love for God.
However, some people may argue that Christians, while they have a certain degree of responsibility to look after everybody in the world, should first sort out the problems in their own country first. For example, in Britain there are many homeless people who have no food, no shelter and nothing to call their own, bar the items they carry with them, some people would say that Christians should first sort out, or help, this situation in Britain before spending money and giving time to people in overseas countries. As Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, “How can you remove the speck from your neighbour’s eye if you cannot remove the log from your own eye?” some people interpret this to mean that they should sort out their own problems before trying to sort out other people’s. A different argument against this statement is that why should it just be Christians who have this responsibility? Surely every human being has a responsibility to another to help them when they are in need. It should not just be Christians who feel the responsibility; everyone in the whole wide world should feel a responsibility to help those in need.
Yet another argument against this statement is, some people feel that if we aid countries that need help then they might stop working for themselves. They may decide that because they are receiving this help they no longer need to work and they can sit back and relax and all their problems will be sorted out for them.
To conclude I would like to say that I agree with the statement. I think that because of the way Christianity is as a religion all Christians have a responsibility to help others no matter where in the world they live. Christianity is a faith of love and forgiving, the Christian God is a God of love, and therefore Christians should show love for one another. Having said that I agree with the statement, I would also like to say that I do not think that it should just be Christians who have this responsibility. I think that every human being has the responsibility to help a fellow human being in need.
- The Bible
- Christian Perspectives on Contemporary Issues – D. Morgan
- Christianity in Today’s World – C. Clinton, S. Lynch, J. Orchard, D. Weston, A. Wright
- Religion and Life – V. Watton
- Christianity and Social Issues – M. Keene
- Christian Perspectives – Educational Focus Publications
- Christian Aid information booklet
