The bible teachings that could be used in a discussion about hunger and disease are: “The Good Samaritan” in Luke 10:25-37. This is a story where a man was beaten and left at the side of a road to die. The only person who stopped to help him was a Samaritan. The Samaritan cleaned his wounds, bandaged him and poured on olive oil and wine, a common healing practice. He then loaded his victim onto his own animal and took him to an inn where the man could recover. The Samaritan paid the innkeeper about two days wages and promised to return and pay any additional expenses.
The moral of this story shows that Jesus wants us to be kind and help anyone who may be in distress no matter who they are.
Another story is “The Feeding of the Five Thousand” in Mark 6:7-13. In this story, Jesus sailed alone with his disciples to a deserted place on the north coast of the Sea of Galilee. News spread, and great crowds hastened round the coast and were waiting for him when he landed. There were five thousand people there and he spent the day healing the sick and teaching the healthy. Evening drew on and his disciples suggested the people should go away to the farms and seek food and shelter. Jesus told the people to sit down and he took five small loaves and two small fishes. He blessed them, broke them in pieces and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the crowd. The disciples expected all the food to have gone before finishing giving it to even a few people! However, the more they gave away, the more there seemed to be in their hands. Everyone was satisfied and when the meal was over, the scraps left filled twelve large baskets!
The moral of this story is that you should care for your neighbour no matter who they may be. Rather than send these people away, he fed them so they wouldn’t go hungry. This was very generous of him.
Many Christians are concerned and worried about the injustice and inequality in the world today. There is a Christian organisation that works for the world’s poor. It’s called The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).
Christians should not only want to help the poor, but actually get out and do it! Christians cannot travel abroad and help the less fortunate in person very often though. Fortunately CAFOD makes it possible for Christians to help the needy by sending money to buy food and clothes. It works with more than 500 organisations worldwide to tackle poverty. Through a varied range of development work it is helping people all over the world shape a better future for everyone.
Depending on the situation, CAFOD will decide what is best to do. They have the options of sending short term aid or long term aid. They could also send the money to projects which help.
CAFOD works because it believes in the basic equality of all people in the view of God. It believes that human dignity demands a reasonable standard of living. CAFOD works to make people aware of the troubles the world has with poor people. It raises money for a number of projects including food production, water supplies, preventative medicine, education, nutrition schemes etc. It makes links between the continents of Africa, Asia and Latin America and people in Britain. A CAFOD group in a school or parish learns about the problems facing the poor, and they raise funds to support the self-help projects started by CAFOD.
CAFOD’s priorities include increasing awareness of and bring down HIV and AIDS. Helping people provide for their basic needs - clean water, reliable food supplies, access to education, health care and much more.
“Christians are responsible for each other no matter where in the world they live.”
I think some people would agree with this statement because Jesus taught us that we should love our neighbours. To achieve this we must tend to each other and not judge anyone by their skin colour, race, religion, education etc… but treat everyone equally. Jesus said we are all brothers and sisters. There is absolutely no one who is excluded. Love is another name for this unity. This is what the life and teachings of Jesus symbolised. In my opinion, the Christians who send some of their money to CAFOD are most likely aware they will not come face to face with the majority of people in distress in the world. They send their money in the hope it will alleviate many people’s suffering.
Some people may disagree with this statement because they are not concerned with people they don’t know and most likely will never meet. They may believe that it’s not their problem. Seeing as they won’t be able to see their money being put to good use with their own eyes, they may choose not to spend any on CAFOD at all, even if it were just a few pounds. Some people may want to help though. I believe some people want to help but want to see the effects of their money being spent. There are poor people all over the world in all countries. I think a lot of people would prefer to have their money spent on hungry and diseased people living in the area which they live in. If all Christians thought like this, a lot of people living in, for example Africa would get completely neglected.
Looking at the two different points of view, I have decided I agree with my first point. I think Christians are responsible for each other, no matter who they are or where they live. I think it is unfair that there is so much suffering in the world and if people are true Christians they should not sit by and do nothing. People from economically developed countries have a majority of people who can easily afford to buy expensive clothing, decent food, a comfortable place to live and have jobs which pay a good wage. Farming tends to be important and heavily subsidised by governments. However, in poorer countries the reverse is true, making it hard for small-scale farmers to compete on the world market. There is no genuine reason why people from rich parts of the world cannot contribute some money to help poorer people, even if it is just a small amount.
