The bible also states the ‘Golden Rule’. This is to do unto others as you would do to yourself. It is because of this rule that Christians feel that they have a duty to help those in poverty. Those who help those in need will get to the kingdom of heaven. This is shown in Matthew 25:31-46.
If we are righteous God will separate us into the righteous and unrighteous. The people that look after and protect the dignity of the human person will be at the right of the Father as shown in the parable of the sheep and goats.
For these reasons we need to help people in need. These are people who live in the third world or are in poverty. People who don't have enough food or water to live and don't have enough money to produce them. In cases like this, Christians need to give everything they have, like the widow did in Mark 12: 41-44. Christians may also be able to try and share the food and drink and wealth between the poor, as Jesus did in the feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6: 30-44).
In addition, within the Catechism, two extracts sum up what we are saying. The first is 2258, which says “Human life is sacred because from its beginning to end it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with our Creator its Sole end”. It means our relationship with God is special because he created us and is our life’s only end.
The second is paragraph 2069. Part of paragraph 2069 states “One cannot honour another person without blessing God, his creator. One cannot adore God without loving all men, his creatures”. This means that to worship God, you must love all his creatures, and to love a creature, you must worship God. This shows that whatever you do, you must love both God and his creatures.
Christians feel it is necessary to hold their dignity, and to keep their faith to God true by loving both God himself, and all of his creatures. In keeping their faith true, the Christians help those in poverty to keep their dignity, as well as getting on the Lord’s right hand side.
Catholic Christians believe that God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them … Love for the poor is incompatible with immoderate use of riches or their selfish use.
Methodist Christians believe that Christians should:
- Go to the relief of those in need.
- Ensure the rehabilitation of victims of natural disasters.
- Assist in fundamental development – so as to enable people to become responsible for their own future
Question two
Choose two specific examples of problems faced by people in developing countries and explain how Christians might apply the beliefs you have identified to the problems.
For Christians, it is important to help people less fortunate than themselves, as it protects human dignity and brings Christians closer to God.
The people that are generally suffering are people in third world countries who have a distinct lack of essentials such as food and water
Unfair trade is a big cause of poverty. This is because Western food businesses do not pay enough money to the producers, and this is forcing farmers in the east to produce more crops to sell, and less for themselves to eat, but seeing as many other farmers are producing the same thing at the same rate, there is too much to be sold in the west, so the amount paid for the crop goes down. This is keeping the farmers poor, and they are making only just enough to feed their families.
Christians can help resolve the fair trade problem by buying goods with a special ‘fair trade’ logo on it. This ensures a fair amount of the profit goes to the producer in the east instead of the 10 percent or less as in non fair trade goods. Paying that little bit extra for the goods means that people in the east are able to feed their families and not starve. Just as the Good Samaritan helped the mugged man on the road to Jericho, we can help others in the eastern world. If only fair trade goods were brought, farmers in less developed countries would get a better share of the money and reduce their poverty. Just as the old widow did in the widows offering (Mark 12: 41 – 44) and the woman in the Syro – Phoenician woman (Mark 7: 24 – 30), we should give all we have to offer.
Another main problem is hunger. People in less developed countries are unable to gain the resources or money for food and drink. This results in starvation, malnutrition and death. This reduces a lot of people’s dignity, and something also needs to be done, especially if people are dying. The main reason for hunger is distribution of wealth as 75 percent is in the hands of the western world.
One of the ways that Christians are able to improve this situation would be to donate money to charities like CAFOD, which gives money to help third world countries so they can gain resources to help themselves. It is important that we help others as in extract 2069 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
“One cannot honour another person without blessing God, his creator. One cannot adore God without loving all men, his creatures”. (an extract from paragraph 2069)
If Christians are in retirement or have a lot of spare time, they can travel to an area where aid is needed, and plan, or help to organise development projects, with charities, such as CAFOD. Most people however, stick to donating money, which invests in long-term aid. These projects may be hospitals or water wells.
If a disaster such as an earthquake may occur, a charity will send out short-term aid to give the area enough help to recover from the situation. By donating money, like the widow did, we can help people out of poverty, and give all we have to aid those poorer than us, because as the bible says we should love our neighbours. This is also portrayed in the rich young man (Mark 10: 17 – 31)
Question three
"Charity does not have the effect Christians want. It makes people lazy and keeps them poor."
Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer showing that you have considered more than one point of view.
Charity is meant to be a way of helping those in need. Short-term aid is supposed to help those who are ill or dying, those who are victims of war. Long-term aid is a way of investing in less well off people’s lives and countries. However this may not always be the case. Are eastern people taking advantage of the western world’s help? Here I will discuss both points of view
Some people believe that giving money to charity makes the receivers of the aid lazy because they will get used to being given handouts of essential things such as food or drink. This may result in them stopping to make a future for themselves. However it may be argued that the governments get the money first, to give to the people, but is spent inappropriately, such as on firearms.
However other people believe charity makes us feel lazy, as we do not feel the need to get off our posteriors and do something physical, instead we just phone up the charity with the credit card number, but we do not get the same satisfaction as doing something, such as helping to build a hospital in a third world country, or even help organise a charity event.
Some other people think that short-term aid doesn’t help the people, but the emergency, which also helps them people, but they also have to work to help themselves. Charity is like the parable of the talents because most people work hard to help themselves like the first two servants who doubled their money, but there is always the odd lazy person like the servant who buried his money.
On the other hand people could also argue that long-term aid is still in place providing for peoples' futures. This aid can put them in a position to work for their own living and therefore charity would be a positive thing. Providing a prosperous future for someone restores their dignity and self-respect.
It is also unfair to say that if you live on aid then you are lazy. Even with aid people in poor countries work harder than anyone else, travelling miles just for water a life essential when we worry about our degrees and how many thousands of pounds that we may make.
There is one essential point we are forgetting, that no one in the Western world is dying of starvation or drought, while even the poorest Westerners are in a comfortable enough position, so we are naturally lazy and don’t work overly hard to earn our money. As John Paul II said, "if you do not feed him you are killing him".
In conclusion I would say that the statement that charity makes people lazy is false. If someone is suffering then they should be helped through the good will of Christians and by the aid of charity. Most people who are in need of charity are the people who work hardest of all, not to make money, but to stay alive. The charity helps them, but if we are going to try and help people in developing countries build up their living standards to the luxury of ours, we need a lot more money, work and time to do it in. There should be equality in human life, but instead there are poor people and rich people and the people who have enough to live. Most people in developing countries do not even have that. I would love to see all people feeling comfortable and with enough money to live, however this will take a long time to achieve, and if charities are going to achieve it, they need cooperation.
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