Explain what Christians believe about their responsibility for other people Essay Example

Explain what Christians believe about their responsibility for other people Essay It is important for Christians to be responsible and care for the people in countries of poverty. In Genesis it states that God made people in his own image. This gives the human person dignity as He made us to be like him. Human life is therefore sacred and should be protected. Humans are also dignified be were created to be above all other of Gods creations. In Genesis 1:26 God said and now we will make humansthey will have power over the fish the birds and all animals. God gave us gifts and talents that other beings do not have. This shows our dignity however with this comes responsibilities and as we are steward of the Earth we should protect all of Gods creations which includes Humans. At the incarnation God became human which gives us dignity as it shows how humans are special and that God became human and took no other form. As humans have this dignity, it is important to protect it. We should help one another and not take away the dignity of the human person. In Luke Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. it is about a Samaritan that helped a man who had been mugged and at a time when Samaritans were discriminated against. It shows us how to be a good neighbour by helping those in need. Jesus here shows Christians that they should take pity on people in need and by helping them maintain their dignity. It also shows that people are equal in the eyes of God and we shouldnt discriminate against others, like the man who had been mugged and the Samaritan, especially when it degrades them an us. We will write a custom essay sample on Explain what Christians believe about their responsibility for other people specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Explain what Christians believe about their responsibility for other people specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Explain what Christians believe about their responsibility for other people specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Also the bible shows Great commandment where Jesus told us to love your neighbour as you love yourself. It is because of this that Christians have a duty to protect the dignity of suffering neighbours. 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. Then we will be rewarded by entering into heaven and living for eternity with God.. 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 dont have enough food or water to live and dont have enough money to produce them. There are many other reasons to why human life is sacred that can be found not only in the Bible as shown but in Papal documents and the Catechism. These show the importance of protecting the dignity of the Human person. There are two extracts from the Catechism that I will mention, The first is 2258 from the Catechism, it 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. This means that people are created by God. It also says that because of our relationship with God that our life remains special because He is its sole end. It is because the catechism says that life is sacred that we must therefore have a responsibility to protect our life and protect others lives. Another extract 2069 from the Catechism says also that human life is sacred but in addition says that we can be closer to God through our good actions; by helping others. This help could be aid or financial support for people in deprived areas. If we help to protect the dignity of the of the Human person then we can keep life sacred and improve our relationship with God. During the last century the Pope issued letters Papal Document that showed how Christians have a duty to protect the dignity of humans and keep sacred Human life. The Decree on the Apostolate of lay people of Lay people says that lay people have the duty to help people in need and set an example to other Christians and people around the world that giving, to protect the dignity of the human person is the right thing to do. If we set an example and show the way to help people that are suffering, they can do the same and in their own way protect that dignity of people who are in poverty, dying or are in need of help. We should help others as God asks as we will be judged on our actions. The Papal letter The Church in the modern world Says that human dignity is very important. That human dignity needs to be maintained in the modern world. The document refers to the commandment of Love thy neighbour. It says that there should be reverence for people that are in need of help and to protect their dignity. We need to work for the kingdom of God. By helping others we can protect peoples dignity. In the Same way that we can show others how to protect peoples dignity, some people have become well known for their help for the poor. One person that helped to maintain the dignity of the human person was Dom Helder Camera. In 1952 he became bishop of Rio de Janeiro. He visited deprived areas on the suburbs of the city. His faith in Jesus and the teachings from the Bible showed him that it was sinful to deprive people especially when there were so many rich people in the city. This is like when Jesus said to the rich young man to give up his wealth and follow Him. The man couldnt and could not follow Jesus. Do Helder Camera realised that this was like the rich people not giving to the poor in the city. If they did they would grow closer to Jesus. Camera needed to maintain the dignity of people as many were poor and hungry. He worked with the poor and tried to get the government to change their situation. Camera developed liberation Theology. This loos at life from the viewpoint of the poor.. In this way he is an example to other Christians to do the same, to try and improve the situation for the better. The governments believed that that he had revolutionary views and statements and stopped him from winning the Nobel Peace prize. He believed in changing things for the better by protecting the poor with out violence. Dom Helder camera is just one example of a man that got local governments to sit up and pay attention to the real problem of poverty in this world and although at first politicians didnt pay attention his work resulted in a change of attitude towards the problem. Not everyone can be well known for their work as he was but everyone can donate money to charity and some people can go to the area and help there. But however people help they can learn from Dom Helder Camera that we need to give money and other support to people in poverty stuck areas to protect their dignity and to build on our relationship with God 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. It is important that Christians realise the importance of supporting people less fortunate than themselves as it protects their dignity and brings Christians. Closer to God The people that generally need the most help are people in less developed countries that are suffering from hunger and poverty. One of the main causes of poverty in the world is unfair trade. This is due to the fact that food sellers in the Western world do not pay enough money to the people that produce the food in third world countries and small farmers are loosing out to large international countries. This is going on all over the world in places like Africa, South America and Asia. Out of the money that consumers that pay for the food sometimes even as little as one percent of the cost goes towards the grower, and the farmers are staying poor just making enough to feed themselves. One way that Christians could help would to buy special fair trade products with the fair trade logo. There are products that ensure the consumer that a fair price goes toward the farmers that produce the food. Paying a little extra for the good or buying different goods for the sake of fair trade means that you can help people to survive in less developed countries where they are poor. Helping people in need is the duty of Christians and just like the Good Samaritan we should help those in need. If Christians only brought fair trade goods than food sellers and distributors would realise that the should all sell products that gives everyone an equal pay, and so this would give the farmers in less developed countries more of the money reducing their poverty. Another big problem is hunger. Most people in less developed countries do not have the resources or money to produce their own food to eat. This results in hunger, starvation, malnutrition and death. This can strip someone of their dignity and when it gets so bad that people are dying something definitely needs to be done as life is sacred and needs to be protected. This is mainly to due to the fact that the distribution of the world resources goes towards the western world where 25% of the worlds population own 75% of the wealth. One way that Christians can improve this situation would be to donate money to charities like CAFOD which raises money to give aid to countries and finance the tools and equipment they need to produce their own food. It is important that we help others as the teachings of the Catechism talk of the importance of human life and how our good actions need to go towards helping people as shown in extract 2069 in the catechism. Another thing that Christians can do is if they have a lot of spare time like retirement or a gap year in their education, is travel to some of the area where aid is most needed, to organise development projects working for charities. However most Christians donate to charities and by doing so invest in Long term for people in desperate situations where hunger is a problem for many people. These projects could be building wells and hospitals for villages. In the event of a crisis like a flood a charity will sent emergency short term aid to give the area enough money to recover from the situation. By donating to charity Christians can give what they have to help others and this is the best way of reducing hunger in the world. It is vital that people who are in desperate situations are helped. As the bible says we should love our neighbours and as mentioned in Question one we must protect the dignity of the Human person 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 generally supposed to be a way of helping those in need of aid, those who are starving, dying or suffering from the treat or the effects of war. Short term aid deals with these and emergency other issues. Long term aid is given to invest in these in these people futures so that they can continue to live their own lives. However there are some people who argue that giving to charities makes people in developing countries lazy and too reliant on Western hound outs. So which side of the argument is most accurate to the truth? Here I will discuss both points of view. There are people who think that giving money to charity to be given to people in the third world make the people receiving the money or equipment lazy and will get them too used to accepting handouts. This may result in them stopping trying to provide a future for themselves. However it could be argued that the money doesnt go directly to the people as it goes to the governments to spend on the people. It could also be argued that if they were given charity and were seen to be in a position of financial security then there would come a point where charities would not give anymore money and they would have to work. So charity only operates where there is a problem. Another view is that charities make ordinary people lazy as they do all the charity work and make us lazy as we dont feel we need to help the poor directly when really we will be judged by God by our actions and not by our donations. The work of the charities also relieves the burden of work from the governments of the western world when really the governments could play a vital role in helping the governments of developing countries to work in the best way to help their people. This would be good as a lot of governments in the third world do not work efficiently and often have personal political agendas resulting in the country not advancing at all and allowing the situation to continue. Charities, it could be argued make the governments lazy. Other people might say that the main aid given Short term aid doesnt really help the people but the problem which helps the people, and therefore dos not really make the people lazy. However Short term aid does not invest in peoples futures and doesnt solve the problem but just reduces it. It is because of this that people could become reliant on handouts and people in less developed countries will not use their God given talents. This is like the parable of the Talents where the servant was given money but he buried and wasted the opportunity because he was lazy. And it say in the Bible that people that waste their talents are banished from the kingdom of Heaven. 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 there fore 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. The main statement is also forgetting one essential point, that no one in the western world who makes that statement can judge others who are suffering from starvation, the effects of war or drought, when being in a very comfortable position in the western world most of us are naturally lazy and dont have to work that hard to earn lots of money. Christians should not make this statement because it is their duty to protect the dignity of these people. 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.