The Good Samaritan

[Dunkopf]

To answer the OP's questions. I try to give food to vagrants when I can. Sometimes I will give them money even though I can usually assume what they will spend it on. Yes I would pay more in taxes for everyone to be covered under health care. It not only helps those people but our nation as a whole. Someday I might not be able to afford health care.

I think that people in the US are very generous to their own circle. That would mean people they know or are related to, or groups that their church wants to support. Obviously there are others that really go out of their way to help total strangers.

I agree about charities. Most of them have a very high operational cost. The people managing them tend to make quite a lot. I know that places like Goodwill go through and dispose of a lot of their donated goods or sell them in giant boxes for very cheap. It would be nice if they had a way to get some of those donated goods to people that really need them.

I would rather see money go to our former enemy Russia to help them out. than go to our former enemy Red China. Their human rights record is notorious and continues to be. The only reason it is tolerated is so we can buy cheap and poorly made goods and increase the bottom lines of our true leaders.

 

[Orchid]

My favorite "charity":

www.heifer.org

They help people in countries all over the world, and IMO the best part is that they teach people to be able to help themselves, and to teach others around them to do the same.

Yes, I would give more of my income for universal healthcare. I have had friends, good, hardworking people, who couldn't afford their own insurance but made too much to be on any form of state subsidized healthcare. If they had worked less, they could have received. That's not right.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

The PARABLE of the Good Samaritan should not be referenced if you do not want religion brought up. You brought it up yourself first, so I feel like that opens the door for me or anyone else to reference any other part of our religion if we so choose, regardless of your request. If you do not want that door opened, leave it shut to begin with. Calling our(Christians) belief a fable, is just antagonistic. I'd appreciate if you'd reword it.

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
Teaching people to be able to help themselves is the key to a lot of problems in our society.

 

[PineappleMama]

Hear DH, the Philosophy major, going on about the Greeks all the time so... from Wikipedia's entry on The Golden Rule... no deities (and there were plenty then) mentioned...

The Golden Rule in its prohibitive form was a common principle in ancient Greek philosophy. Examples of the general concept include:

* "Do not to your neighbor what you would take ill from him." – Pittacus[11] (c. 640–568 BCE)
* "Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing." – Thales[12]
* "What you do not want to happen to you, do not do it yourself either. " – Sextus the Pythagorean.[13] The oldest extant reference to Sextus is by Origin in the third century of the common era.[14]
* "Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others." – Isocrates[15]
* "What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others." – Epictetus[16]
* "It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly (agreeing 'neither to harm nor be harmed',[17] and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life." – Epicurus[18]
* "One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him." – Plato's Socrates (Crito, 49c) (c. 469 BC–399 BCE)

Now these were the 'great thinkers' of their time, the scholars, the teachers... and they tried to spread this message. 2500 years and we're STILL trying to get everyone on the same wavelength... I think it's interesting that we've got this in common with folks that were living so very differently from us... and a bit depressing that after 2500 years we still have so many folks just totally NOT living by it at all.

As to how far I'd go... I don't know honestly. Did you ever see that episode of friends... Phoebe trying to do a selfless good deed? Nitpicky as all get out, but it brought up an interesting point. Look at the clothes I donate to Mission Arlington... that's not selfless, it clears out the clutter in my house, and relieves me of the guilt of adding to the landfill... so it's not selfless... still a good thing to do, but not selfless.

I think a lot of people don't really know what they are capable of until they're there. Could you take a human life? Many would say NO! But if someone had your child by the throat? Might just find out that you can. Same goes here. Until you're offered the opportunity to help, and then make the choice to help or not (for whatever reason) then you just can't really know... you can say, but not really know.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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I absolutely agree, and Thaiturkey, you even more certainly brought religion up when you wrote your OPINION as fact.
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There has been a tremendous amount of studying and researching of the Bible (both old and new testaments as well as other works that were not accepted into the canon), and not all were for specifically religious purposes; many were scholarly research.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Sorry, Cindy. I was responding to Thaiturkey, and should have made that clear by mentioning his name. My intention was in supporting your posting that he already brought it up. The quote I included was from his first post. I will go back and edit my post to make my meaning clear.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
Oh...

I thought I was being unclear.

 

[matthewschickens]

The Roman Empire fell as they all do in time. Circumstances change and the mighty nation weakens and is eventually overtaken by another. A lesson for today, perhaps, but nothing to do with this thread. Perhaps a new one.

Sorry, I didn't get the meaning of the thread. I thought you were looking for examples of past occurences that could help us today in our nation and world. Sorry.​