Compassion, poverty, and charity.

• I give my charitable money to the church.
• The government is responsible and I pay my taxes.
• I have given my 10%.
• It is their own fault.
• They need to go to work, handouts do not work.
• The money I send will not get to the people who really need it.
• The poor are with us always.
• They lack commitment to God, since God takes care of those who Love Him.
• There are organizations and programs which address those issues.
• I do not have anything to give.

Xeno.of.athens said:

Jesus told a story about a Samaritan who helped a man who had been beaten and robbed on a road, probably the man was a Jew, and there was a long standing intolerance between Jews and Samaritans back then. The mas was passed by a Levite and a Priest neither took pity and neither helped him. Only the Samaritan showed pity and compassion for him, helped him, and made sure he would be cared for until the Samaritan returned. There's a lesson here, Christians ought to see it easily. Why then is it so hard for Christians to acknowledge that the poor, disabled, and refugees in our times may need compassion and pity?

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ViaCrucis said:

In another thread about the visitors to Sodom I made a point, just now, about how in modern times we have gotten our moral and ethical priorities mixed up compared to the moral and ethical teachings of Scripture and the historic ethics of the Church.

And I think that's really what it is. Christ and the Scriptures are not treated as the moral and ethical foundation for Christian ethics in much of the modern Christian West. Instead, we have built our moral foundations frequently on various philosophical systems with highly different value-sets. In America, for example, the value set that is promoted is self-reliance and the pursuit of material success. Capitalism, and its many evils, are not viewed as evils but rather as virtues. The lust for material wealth at the expense of our fellow human beings is counted as a vice, and not just a vice, but as a chief vice, "The love of money is the root of all evil"; but we have twisted and contorted the word of God and have such misshapen ethics that we view the rich's love of money as virtue, but the poor's need of survival as a hindrance to the increase of wealth for the wealthy. So the homeless are treated, for example, as social parasites; those who are struggling and in need of welfare are looked down upon.

We view welfare as laziness, and laziness as the chief of sins; but regard greed as a godly virtue. And in some cases this perversion is not only tolerated in the churches, but some churches have built their entire religious identity on this perversion. And so good is called evil and evil good. And we become corroborators with our own self-destruction and even offer our "amen" to such godlessness.

-CryptoLutheran

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Xeno.of.athens said:

Jesus told a story about a Samaritan who helped a man who had been beaten and robbed on a road, probably the man was a Jew, and there was a long standing intolerance between Jews and Samaritans back then. The man was passed by a Levite and a Priest neither took pity and neither helped him. Only the Samaritan showed pity and compassion for him, helped him, and made sure he would be cared for until the Samaritan returned. There's a lesson here, Christians ought to see it easily. Why then is it so hard for Christians to acknowledge that the poor, disabled, and refugees in our times may need compassion and pity?

Click to expand...