Mandy Tubby

2002

Christianity Coursework

Name:

Mandy Tubby

Candidate Number:

4121

School:

James Allen’s Girls’ School

School Number:

10828

Subject Number:

1730

Titles:

R1)

Explain what Christians teach about the causes of hunger and disease, and the biblical teachings they might use.

R2)

Using Christian Aid or CAFOD explain how Christians may respond to world hunger and disease.

R3)

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

Do you agree? Give reasons to support your answer and show that you have thought about different points of view. You must refer to Christianity in your answer.


It has always been considered that in respect to wealth and poverty, the world can be separated in to two obvious sections, the North and the South or the Developed World and the Developing World. The North consists of North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand; these countries boast a high standard of living. The South consists of countries, which suffer a very low standard of living, i.e. Sudan, Nepal, Somalia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, etc. Most of the countries in the Developing World suffer from very serious problems, which effect the whole population, these are:

  • Low life expectancy. Life expectancy is the age that a person can be expected to live. In the North people are expected to live in to their late seventies, however, in the South people are lucky if they live to their fifties.
  • High rate of newborn transience. Malnourished mothers cannot nourish their newborn. This means that approximately 75% of the 20,000,000 people who die of malnutrition, in the world each year, are less than five years old.
  • Increased level of malnutrition. In the South, 75% of the population attempt to make a living from agricultural farming. Most people can only grow enough produce to meet their own basic needs, therefore having little or none left over to buy the other food products that they cannot grow. This means they live on an unbalanced diet, consisting of just one food type, this, in turn, causes malnutrition.
  • Increased level of disease. In the South there are not the facilities that we have in the North. This means that often the nearest doctor or medical clinic is several days walk away and probably would not be very well equipped. When people around are suffering from severe malnutrition and the only drinking water is contaminated with various diseases and bugs disease and illness is quick to spread.
  • A primarily uneducated and illiterate population. When hunger and disease are a big problem in a country it seems that that is the most important thing to sort out. This means that education takes second place meaning that most of the population has little or no education, therefore cannot help fight themselves out of poverty.

All of the problems stated above stem from two main causes these being hunger and disease.

In 1987 an encyclical was published, this was called Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (‘Social Concern’). Pope John Paul II published this encyclical. In this was written various important issues concerning poverty, hunger and disease. It also outlined the three major causes of hunger and disease in the South, according to Christianity.

  • With the current situation of the “world markets” the rich and the powerful are the ones who get most if not all of the profits of world trade. “World markets” are things like world trade. This can be seen clearly when looking at the distribution of wealth in our world. Statistics show that in the North there is only 25% of the world’s population but 80% of the world’s wealth. Whereas, in the South there is 75% of the world’s population and only 20% of the world’s wealth. For example, a person living in Switzerland, which is one of the richest countries in the world, a person earns, on average, $30,270 a year. However, in a country like Sudan, a person is lucky if they earn $700 a year. This amount would be thought of as rich in a country like Sudan but to our standards it would be extremely poor and definitely not enough to live on. As you can see this is an extreme inequality. In the USA there are approximately 145 billionaires, this is an immense amount of the world’s money in a very small percentage of the world’s population. From this it can be easily seen that world profits are not shared evenly. This causes problems for both the countries in the North and in the South. In the North it causes homelessness and unemployment. Whereas in the South it means that the countries cannot develop their economies suitably and their population is kept suffering from hunger and disease. They live in severe poverty.
  • Countries in the South tend to be in severe debt. This is because many of these countries have serious political problems and are often at war, either civil war or with neighbouring countries. This means they must spend money on arms. Given that these countries have little or no money that it can spend on arms they must get a loan from the World Bank. The World Bank is more than happy to loan the money to these countries; however, it does expect it back and with interest. Since the country still has little or no money it cannot afford to repay the money that it 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 that leaves these countries with severe international debt. Although the North does give some money, in the form of aid, to the South, they take away a lot more in the form of repayment. This means that there is no money left to spend on the population and as a result, the people suffer.
  • The population in the South is much larger than that of the North; approximately 80% of the whole world’s population is in the South. This is because of several different reasons some of them being:
  1. With the lack of education in the South, people don’t understand the concepts of contraception. They don’t know what it is or how to use it. Seeing as every time intercourse takes place there is a 30% chance, 1 in 3 chance, of a resultant pregnancy. This means that statistically every 1 in 3 times a couple “make love” they will produce a baby. Although infant mortality is a big problem in the South there are still millions of surviving babies each year.
  2. A lot of the people in the South belong to Roman Catholic Church. Being Roman Catholic means that they are not allowed to use contraception because it goes against God’s wishes. This is supported by many bible passages and quotations, one of them being, “God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase, fill the earth….”
  3. Often in the South there are not many ways to entertain oneself. Habitually, intercourse becomes one of, if not the only, joy in a person’s life therefore it is done repeatedly.
  4. As a family must work to grow its own food and must provide by itself and cannot afford to hire people to do things, it is seen that the larger the family, the more help there is available. The parents, when they get older, immobile and ill, need their children to help them to live. Obviously the more children there are the more help there will be.
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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 ...

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