The Good Samaritan

we love helping anyone who needs it and have often taken in people. Someone in Birmingham took in someone and he later killed the wife and daughter but it wouldn't stop me taking in someone else. It's so rare to be mistreated or murdered. I'd rather be ripped off now and again. Thats the story behind 'Les Miserables' isn't it?

Granny23 I know churches like that ,in fact our local minister has been heard to say that "christians in that church are thin on the ground,the reason they go is showing off their hats , social status and booking their place in heaven" .I've been in thousands of churches over the years and found ministers and priests who would rather play golf than deal with parishioners or their problems in a large number of them.

eilyann yes love the sinner but for some it’s comfortable to quote Christ’s teaching on the Good Samaritan but dismiss caring for those in prison , missing from GrannyActivist’ quote from Matthew 25 is ‘I was in prison and you came to me’

There are those who will take advantage of the 'good Samaritan' and there can be a fine line between what is a genuine case of need /assistance and where choice was not an option. Were I to offer the homeless sanctuary and this offer was rejected I would question why? Just how desperate their need they could afford to make choices.

I did something similar, he stayed with me for a week. One morning he had gone,wanted for armed robbery and rape. I saw him on crimewatch.

I was at work one evening ( I was a support worker in a house for adults with learning disabilities), standing in their communal kitchen doing some ironing, when a young woman burst through the door crying and saying she had been attacked. Another member of staff had come in to see what was going on, so I took the said woman into our small staff room to calm her down, get the story and phone the police.

Cutting a long story short, she didn’t want the police involved. Now, as far as I could ascertain, she was never left alone at any time without a member of staff being with her or watching her through the glass panel in the staff room.

But after she had gone, we found she had pinched a staff members purse out of her bag which was in a cupboard in the staff room. How she did it, defied her, but it turned out she had mental health problems and was very well known to the police.

Back door was firmly locked after that!

One of the reasons I have rejected being part of a faith community was so many of the stalwarts of said communities were overly selective on the bits of teaching they chose to follow. Life is not easy... being kind sometimes takes effort... looking beyond our own needs is tough... putting ourselves in someone else's position is very uncomfortable. Easier to pretend your faith says you don't have to!

My faith certaintly doesn’t say I don’t have to follow the teachings of Christ

You're quite right about the whole quote including prisoners Annie, but for the sake of brevity I was only addressing my response to Anja's comment in relation to immigrants.

If anyone wants to read the whole quote they can find it here. I think there may be one or two surprises when the 'sheep and goats' are separated.

paddyann
1000s of churches
Let's see, suppose you're 70 (I've no idea how old you really are) and we keep the figure in the lowest thousands possible (2,000) + 100 (so it's easier to get a whole number result) That means (if your age is indeed 70) you've visited 300 churches every week of your life, starting from birth...and spoken to many of their clergy or ministers.
Wow!! That is some effort and that's a minimum number. You must be really dedicated and I applaud those to not only talk the talk but who also walk the walk, as a poster wrote on another thread Respect.

*who not to.

GrannyActivist ‘to one of these’, I very much doubt there will be many goats

I know a few.

Know a few what batty ?

goats.

Thanks for this OP Anja. How anyone can suggest that refugees on rubber dinghies can be less in need or less deserving, than 'our own homeless' for example, is simply beyond me.

Compassion without sense and rationality is at best neutral and can often be harmful. Random emotive gestures which make the givers feel good about themseves might do good to others - or they might not.

This seems heartless and I am not, absolutely not, advocating lack of empathy or good-doing. However, a clear assessment of the situation is needed before the appropriate help can be given. (Not, obviously, if someone is in need of immediate rescue!)

The question is , are they refugees ? No one knows

Anniebach what else might they be?

I agree, Lilyflower. Refugees are all in need of help most obviously immediate help. The problem of assimilating refugees into lawful society is urgent and is part of the overall help that refugees need. There are laws and refugees need to be informed of the laws like anyone else.

PECS, I don’t know, they were not asked were they ?

Someone will have asked!

But who? Were they allowed into this country, given a safe place , Where did they come from before France?

Does it matter? Did the Samaritan give the traveller a grilling before helping him?

Incidentally I’ve deliberately not used the word Christian in my posts on this thread, please note.