For many developing countries, debt is a major problem. Countries such as Zambia, Honduras and Haiti, all had to take out large loans from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to support their economies and people. These loans have to be paid with interest and the countries often fail to meet payments. They are then forced to cut down spending on things such as education and healthcare. As the interest rate is so high, and unjust trading allows the developed world to change the price of cash crops at will, the countries find it hard to keep up, and soon are drowning in their debt. Countries who cannot support their population by providing healthcare, such as; hospitals or vaccinations, and can’t provide simple, basic education to help prevent people catching the disease or help them become employable, can’t help them at all. As these are all basic things which could make a big difference, simply knowing to boil water before drinking it, can help prevent catching cholera, caused by eating contaminated food or water.
When countries go to war, whether it is civil or national, they spend money on weapons and troops. This leads to less money to spend on developing the country’s infrastructure, healthcare, and also the food and goods they normally import. Being at war means that aid cannot reach those who need it most, also the enemy artillery strikes and bombing could kill civilians and destroy homes. As with the debt, this means they can no longer provide for the people, there is less money for preventing and controlling hunger and disease.
ii) What Bible teachings might they use in discussion about these issues?
When discussing these issues Catholics can use the many parables on wealth, and making the most of our gifts to help others. Examples include ‘Luke 16:19-31’ (the Rich Man and Lazarus’), Matthew 25:31-46 (the Sheep and the Goats), Matthew 25:14-30 (the parable of the talents) and many others. These all relate to how some of us have gifts and talents that could be used to help others in need, such as those stuck in poverty today. They could use these to discuss what they could do about the issues here, and also the teachings of Amos. In the Good Samaritan Catholics are told to love their neighbours and they are told that that includes all strangers, this means that we should share our wealth.
AO2: Using CAFOD, explain how Catholics may respond to world hunger and disease.
CAFOD stands for the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development. Its aim is to “promote human development and social justice witness to the Christian faith and the gospel’s values. Funds raised will: empower people to bring about change; raise public awareness about poverty and injustice; act for the poor and challenge governments, and international bodies to adopt policies with social justice”. This basically means they educate British Catholics of the need for aid, raise funds, and distribute them to the poorest parts of the world. The 4 main things CAFOD does to achieve this are short and long-term aid, fundraising and education, all of which Catholics can respond and help them with.
Short-term or emergency aid is for quick response to natural disasters, providing food, water, shelter and medical supplies to victims. These are the charitable works identified in the Bible, as the duties of all Christians. Countries send support such as sniffer dogs and modern devices to help find survivors lost in wreckage. The UK sends the RAF to drop aid and save stranded people in floods. This is normally sent as actual goods, such as blankets, tents etc. instead of money, as they can be utilized faster. But CAFOD needs money to help buy these things, and here Catholics can help by raising awareness, making personal donations or helping fundraise themselves.
Long-term aid is an attempt to help communities out of the poverty cycle. This is achieved through long-term projects and investment, such as building a school, or a clean water supply. But in these cases, CAFOD tend to support local charities by providing mainly money, but they also send Catholic volunteers, who go out to the developing countries and help by using their skills and talents, such as brick-laying to help in the projects. With these new schools, hospitals and water supplies, communities can keep safe from disease and learn new skills so they can become employable. With a decent income and good health, communities can develop in new ways, and support themselves. This is all very much based on the phrase “give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and feed him for life”. This is a way of providing sustainable basic life needs.
AO3: “Christians are responsible for each other, no matter where in the world they live”
The Bible teaches many things about the poor. In some places it concentrates on the care for the poor and helping those in poverty. Christians are taught that they are responsible for, not only themselves and their communities, but also anyone who comes for or is in need of help.
This is not only shown in the ‘Good Samaritan’, where those with supposedly nothing in common, and even many boundaries of race and social hatred, can still find it in there hearts to help those in need. This is an example of God’s agape love for us all, that Christians should follow.
But this is also taught in ‘Exodus 22:21-22, 25’ that you should not ‘ill the alien or oppress him’ but instead to welcome the stranger and treat them like yourself or a brother. This relates to one of the main teachings of Christianity- ‘Love your neighbour, as you love yourself’.
But the main statement suggests Christians should be responsible only for Christians, not supporting the world as a whole, like in Exodus 22.
Being “responsible for each other” means that they make the most of their talents and gifts to help those they can. In ‘Matthew 25:14-30’ Jesus taught that Christians must use them for everyone. The parable tells of how a father sent out his sons into the world with a lot valuable gifts, those who came back with more were praised, while the one who had saved was punished for not making the most of his. This shows that God wants Christians to go out and make the most of their gifts instead of keeping them hidden and not sharing them. This teaches you not to judge someone, as well as many other things, explaining that it shouldn’t and doesn’t matter where in the world you are from or live. Another example is of Cain and Abel, in Genesis, this story is where after killing Abel because of jealousy, he claims he is “not his brother’s keeper”, and is not responsible.
The ‘Parable of the Sheep and the Goats’ (Matthew 25:31-46) is when Jesus told of how people will be ultimately judged at the end of the world. He refers to the idea of how God is in us all, and that when we help those in need; we help God. But those who did not help God will be condemned forever.
Although there are other views, a Christian cannot disagree with the teachings of Jesus. Some believe that it is no longer reasonable to expect Christians to be responsible for the whole world, as they are no longer a major ‘power’ in the world as they once were in past centuries. Groups such as G8, the EU and the developed world should help those in need by helping stop the poverty cycle, along with the charities who rely on the goodwill of people from the developed world already, as the governments could do so much more.
Many people also take a much more selfish view. They believe they should help their ‘closer neighbours’ first, such as in the UK sorting out the NHS. The main flaw I see in this view is that no country will ever be perfect; someone will let the country down somewhere. This is why communism, although supposedly a perfect idea, can never work. And if a country is never perfect, there will never be time to help those in more need, further away.
Personally I believe that Christians should take it a step further than “each other”, as this is what they believe in. They should be helping all those in need, like the Samaritan did, and not leave the ‘aliens’ to help themselves. To remove the hunger and disease in the world, everyone should be doing their part, and Christians should be setting an example in the meantime. The parables are also not just for Christians, they hold important moral values that bring out the best of people across the world. We should not do this through fear and religious leaders should never use fear as a weapon to force their followers to be this way. Christ taught that we should act through love not fear.
Bibliography-
‘The Roman Catholic Tradition- Christian Lifestyle and Behaviour’ Joanne Cleave
‘Catholic Christianity Today’ M. Elson & V.W. Watton
‘Dimensions of Christianity’ Sister Anne Burke SND