It's a Caring Society - Do we love our neighbour?
Uploaded by Lainey on Apr 30, 2001
At a moments thought we might say yes – yes it is a caring society and yes I do love my neighbour. Who does your neighbour include? It is very easy to love our “respectable” neighbours, but do we have the same capacity of love for our “underprivileged” and not so “well off” neighbours?
It’s a lovely idea to have all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics singing in a voice of equality. However the reality is very difficult to achieve.
Some wise person once said, “Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind. It requires the same effort of the brain as it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.” Perhaps if there was more toleration in our society it would be more caring.
We live in a so-called “Democratic Society”. We are all created equally. We all have a heart and a brain. But because of some small difference, be it race, religion, sex, colour, moral values or a disability we are not all treated with care or love.
Shakespeare once wrote: Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands organs dimensions senses affections passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us do we not seek revenge?
Very ancient words, forgotten all too soon. For a moment, take your self-aside. Substitute “Jew” with any one of the following words –traveller, woman, Negro,disabled person, unemployed person, refugee, underachiever. Now you will get a clear picture of the “Democratic Society” in which we live. Let us think again – substitute “Christian” with your own name. Can we now say our society is caring and we all love our neighbour – no matter who he is or where he’s from?
“If you can learn a simple trick you’ll get along better with all kinds of people. You never really know a person until you consider things from their point of view. Until you climb into their skin and walk around in it.” Harper Lee penned those words nearly half a century ago. Once again ancient words, which have been forgotten, but could...