The parable of the sheep and goats explains what will happen at the day of judgement, ‘And when the son of man shall come, all the nations will be gathered together before him, and he will separate them one from another, like a Shepard separates sheep and goats, he will say to the people on his right, come ye blessed of my father posses you the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me a drink and in prison and you visited me. They will answer, Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink and in prison and visit you? The lord will answer when you did this for the least of my brothers you did it for me.’ This passage is stating that God can work through good people and, can give good people strength to help his fellow man. The rich man and Lazarus explains how a rich man never showed mercy in his life time and when it came the day of judgement he was sent to hell and was shown no mercy by God. This tells Christians that they should be merciful to others if they want mercy to shown unto them. The parable of the rich young man tells us that all earthly possessions are not needed because if your soul is pure then that is all you need to get into heaven, it tells us to sell what we don’t need and give the money to the poor.
Jamie McCue
617 Words
RE course work
Skill AO2
Choose 2 specific examples of problems concerning developing countries and explain how Christians might apply the beliefs you have identified to the problems.
There are lots of problems concerning developing countries such as debt, climate, poverty and hunger. All are linked to each other, debt causes poverty and poverty causes hunger, and the climate is usually extremely hot which prevents crops growing well. The 2 I am going to look at are Debt and Poverty.
Debt is closely linked with Poverty because it is debt that causes poverty and debt keeps people in poverty. First of all, debt was caused by the colonies that the western countries owned in other countries, parts of their empire. The country then became reliant upon that country for funding and government, then when the countries became independent they were poor, this was solved by a loan off a rich country, when they got the loan they spent it on getting the country back upon its feet. When the loan was called in, they didn’t have the money because the economy was not up and running, every penny they made was called upon in debt so the country had no income and no money to spend on its people, this led to POVERTY. The ways, which Christians today deal with debt, is to give money to a certain organisation. Lots of people support such organisations like ‘Drop The Debt’ such organisations do peaceful rally’s against debt and how it should be dropped to give the countries a chance to become ‘First World’.
Poverty is where you can’t provide the basics in life, sometimes called absolute poverty, you can’t get enough food and there is no clean water available to you. People living in poverty usually have a very low life expectancy and what life they have is very hard, usually full of mind numbing, hard, manual work, or no work at all. In the poorest parts of the world some people survive on only a bowl of rice a week, the housing that they live in is very poor, often constructed by the family themselves, often the houses are made from corrugated iron and become ovens in the middle of the day. The houses are also a breeding ground for disease, hot moist bodies in close contact can be dangerous, especially when the people living there have not been immunised against such simple diseases such as tuberculosis ands smallpox. Christians deal with poverty in the same way, which they deal with debt, send money to teach them a trade so they can earn a living themselves.
Such agencies like CAFOD (Christian Aid For Overseas Development) set up projects that teach trades such as carpentry or joinery. CAFOD works by people sending them money to build houses and hospitals, the people they employ are volunteers so they do not get paid, but get the satisfaction of doing something good. It provides a way in which Christians can practice their beliefs, by offering them a chance to travel abroad to another country to help build homes, it involves less enthusiastic Christians by giving them the chance to give money.
Jamie McCue
527 Words
RE Course work
Skill AO3
‘Charity does not have the effect that 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 1 point of view.
Charity effects the poorer countries in different ways, some money may be GIVEN to a person, this would keep them poor because they have not gained anything they can keep, the have gained food for a week, when that money is gone its gone. If that money had gone towards teaching that man a trade e.g. fishing or weaving, the man could feed himself for the rest of his life. Some charity goes to building houses and hospitals ect. This money could of gone toward teaching and employing men to build and be employed to build others around that area; this in turn would employ more doctors and policemen. The economy would then slowly grow. It is easier to just give money out to people, and this is what is happening so the economy isn’t growing. If more funding went to help people help themselves, then there would be a lot less funding needed and people could work themselves out of debt.
In conclusion, the funding would be better off going towards training people to do specific skills even if it only keeps them in a job for a while, they know that skill and can use it to make money, rather than being handed money to use.
Jamie McCue
251 Words
