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Consider the following...
“Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
“But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; …
“For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?” (Mosiah 4:16–19.)
i've thought about these issues a lot. I think the issue revolves around JUDGING.
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“Judge not, that ye be not judged” (3 Ne. 14:1; Matt. 7:1)
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This is the classic scripture used to get good people to go along with just about anything. Typically, people know, intuitively, that it's not right to do anything anyone wants you to do or support simply based on the argument "who are you to judge me?". Or, in the case of handing out money to people on the street, "who are you to judge whether i deserve your charity or not?"
Forinstance, I am not in support of legalizing Gay Marriage. Typically, the argument to that is "Who are you to judge them?" (i can expound more on that subject, if anyone cares)Pretty powerful argument against a Christian unless you examine the issue of judging a little more closely.
Let me refer you to a really excellent talk about judging. This should become mandatory reading for conservative christians trying to make a difference.
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"Judge Not and Judging"
~Dallin Oaks
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The fact is this. Life requires us to make judgments all of the time. As far as charitable giving goes, no one has unlimited resources so you will have to judge and prioritize and make decisions about where you can best help.
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When I was in the military I made $900/month. I lived near San Francisco and we made it up there a couple times just for fun. In San Fran, you will get hit up for money every 5 feet in some places. On my pay, at that time, if I had given money to each one, I would have been on the street myself. Would that have been the right thing to do? The answer is obvious but if you expand that concept to much broader issues, the question is still valid.____________________________________________________________________
I think it is our duty to make approriate judgments, guided by the Spirit, with no guile or malice or politcal agenda. And then we need to ACT on the judgments we have made. It is appropriate for a Christian to do so.
In fact, I think God expects it...
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7 comments:
Hey Ted...it's Shelley, I changed my icon. Anyway, I'm sorry I missed the debate...wow! And, by the way... I thought Sheila was an awesome moderator.
Here it is from me...You know I live in Mexico. Even though it borders the US I would totally consider it a 3rd world country. The basic standard of living here would never be acceptable for a US Citizen. Unless you have lived here you cannot possibly understand the gravity of the problems that the people of Mexico face.
In many ways the country is very socialistic, health care would be an excellent exmaple. We do have both private medical services as well as government provided health care. Well, I have really used that term loosely calling it health care. More people die at the hands of "government health care" because of poor care and negligence. The people have demanded it and they got just what they are paying for. Governments are not here to solve our problems, we are here to solve our problems.
One thing I do know for sure is that the people of Mexico don't depend upon their government for much. They have learned to survive on their own. There is not much personal debt here because there is no credit here. If I want to build a home, I must have all the money in the bank ready to do it. If I want to grow my business, there is no financing to help me. There are no government subsidies to help the farmers here, but we still have to compete with the farmer's who basically have everything given to them. When their crops fail the gov. steps in and saves them. Not here. We stand or fall on our own!
Mexico's government basically has nothing to offer it's people except extreem corruption. We cannot look to them for security or safety. We have fought to make a living, of which we are very grateful. We have had to fight the very govenment in order to progress in business, and they have basically done nothing to help us, but everything to hinder us.
Hats off to you for working and building a business that offers jobs, which supports economic growth! We too hire hundreds of people and offer them the best working conditions that we can. And they are grateful for the work and we are grateful for them. Work is a great thing.
I am not too good at expressing my opinion, but I guess I feel things on a bit of a different level considering where I live. I think that personal responsibility has been lost in the American culture. There is too much blame and the people expect too much from the government. If everyone would take a little more personal responsibility and learn to eat beans and tortillas the world would be a better place!:)
HOLY COW! I that was way toooo long...sorry! Hey congrats on being a fancy schmancy developer! That is awesome!
no, 15 paragraphs is too long. you're not even close to my tolerance level.
no worries shelley- you have not broken any etiquette ruls...loved your comment
2 Thessalonians 3:10,11,12
I think the debate is great! It is very entertaining to read. My husband and father-in-law are fancy-schmancy developers to, so I find her comment very funny!! :) If we don't stand up for what's right who will? By the way, This is April. Roger's daughter, from St. Johns.
Ah dad you are so smart. I wish all my liberal friends would get a clue.
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