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Introduction

ai) Outline Catholic teaching on wealth and poverty Christians believe that wealth is a gift from God which can be used for either good or evil, so in itself is not a bad thing, it is our attitude towards wealth and material possessions that is at the heart of the issue. Consequently having the wrong attitude towards money can lead you away from God and therefore Christians should only gain money in a moral and lawful way, as it is a gift from God and not theirs along. Jesus taught his disciples in the parable of the 'Rich Young Man' (Mark 10:21-23) the difficulties the rich face in entering the kingdom of God as 'it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God' since they cannot give their worldly possessions to the poor in return for all the treasures in heaven. Furthermore Jesus' teachings (Matthew 6:24) show that you cannot serve both money and God, 'either he will hate one or love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other' as will you be dedicated to seeking more wealth than religion. Although money itself can be a good thing it is the quest for greed and power through wealth that causes the separation between us and the God since instead of being dedicated to God we are dedicated the for goal of having a vast sums of money. An example of this type of person in contemporary is a wealthy businessman, whom already rich seeks for more money by destroying other rival companies which although gives him more money it shows his lack of compassion for his fellow brothering. However since there are some people who look for money to help better there lives such as a poor family their quest for wealth is justified since they are the needy and Jesus always told us to help the needy e.g. ...read more.

Middle

Consequently the fact that Bangladesh has a high birth rate but low death rate is causes its population to increase and with only a small GNP it results in even more people being poverty stricken since Bangladesh doesn't have the resource to deal with the increase in population. Furthermore all this does is lower the life expectancy in Bangladesh to only 53 years compared to Britain's 77 as the people whom live in Bangladesh to don't have the facilities to allow them to live a long healthy life as for example there are approximately 1000 people for 1 doctor. aiii) Analyse and explain the work of one Catholic agency working for world development CAFOD (Catholic funds for overseas development) is an example of a charity that does numerous work with less developed countries overseas, the organisation itself was established by Catholics Church in England and Wales in 1962 who intended it to help coordinate and relieve work already being done by other organisations such as the National Board of Catholic Women. At this present moment in time CAFOD is now a major charity with 70 staff at its headquarters and supporting over 500 development projects in 75 countries across the world, with its aims being to educating British Catholics about the need for aid and to raise funds and distribute them to support development projects around in the poorest parts of the world. The charity raises this money in various ways with the core fundraiser being the Family Fast Days during Lent and October where parishes across the country raise money fasting and donating the money saved. This and other fundraises, such as the Friday Groups which asks people to give something up and donate the money to CAFOD and the Working in Partnership group which raises money for a particular project as well as allowing donators to get to know the community they are helping, has provided with CAFOD the financial backing it needs to relieve poverty in the world by supporting many projects. ...read more.

Conclusion

An example of this type of person who is a role model in a contemporary society is David Beckham. Being from a poor background, he used his God given talent in football to acquire wealth and now shares it with the poor through many charities he denotes his money to showing his compassion and love towards his neighbours. There aren't many people like this and who too share their wealth to help fight poverty, so although these people have earned their money in a sincere way through using Gods gift and talents it is only right that they give more back since they will have all the riches in the kingdom of God than they could ever have on earth. Therefore, we can say that there should be no rich religious people if many people in the world are living below the poverty line. In conclusion, I still believe that there should be no rich religious people if there is poverty in the world. Although many people would disagree with me because they believe a Christian can be rich if they take part in philanthropic activities rather than selfish, self-gratifying and material acts, but I still believe that even though many Christians contribute the wealth they earned through Gods blessing it is not very appropriate of them to enjoy a rich trouble free life while other staves and strive for the bare necessities to live on. Furthermore there are many scriptures in the bible such as the parable of the Rich Young Man that say to give your wealth to the poor to have wealth in heaven since you cannot serve both money and God so therefore if our own religion instructs us to seek for wealth in heaven and not earth then it must be wrong to have vast amount of money while other barely have anything to live on. ?? ?? ?? ?? Religion, Wealth and Poverty Derrick Gachiri 1 ...read more.

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