Are you a good Samaritan or a good Christian?

[hiddley]

Don't know why this occurred to me tonight. Listening to too much Stormzy for my age I think lol.
I would consider myself a good Samaritan but not a good Christian.

For e.g., I don't go to church, I don't praise the Lord, I don't pray, I don't engage in charitable works. On the other hand, if I see a homeless person on the street I will give them whatever change I have in my pocket (usually fuck all) and roll them a cigarette.

I am also the type who will stand up for the one being picked on, which usually lands me as the new central victim. But ..........

I actually think actions speak louder than words and songs of praise.

I do recognise that the Christian and other religious communities are social centres for people also, but often, they don't carry anything spiritual out of their prayer service.

I just don't usually find people to be both. They are either one or the other.

So basically you simply guessesguessed that the people who weren't generous to you were churchgoers. Hmm. You've heard of confirmation bias I imagine?

well, firstly, being a 'good' christian doesn't make sense, the whole point of christianity is that us misersble lot can get back to God, even though we aren't good and don't deserve it. It is nothing to do with good deeds earning a place in heaven.

on the other hand, as someone who does have a faith/believe in God, that should express itself through caring about others - love your neighbour etc

You are mixing 2 things up, yes, to me going to church has a value in that I worship God as a response to who he is and what he has done for me. That is totally separate from the idea/need to go out and show love to our community.

Our church does the following:
-worship God on Sunday together, the highlight of our week
-runs the local foodbank
-runs a furniture project to support people in need
-runs a drop in cafe in the town centre, which also has a toddler group and other stuff. This cafe also employs people on the margins, eg homeless as a way of getting them back inot housing/work etc.
-this year is running a toy project to collect and distribute toys for families across our town at christmas
-individuals in the church are involved in the homeless shelter, distribution of meals to the homeless, fostering, mother and baby fostering, looking after vulnerable adults, advocating for vulnerable adults with authorities, counselling women in crisis and so on.

that is all unpaid stuff obviously.

And steppemum - which of those activities do you involve yourself in?

Polidori - if that's what you read from my posts, I ain't going to waste my time explaining any further.

There is also the possibility that people who go to church already contribute a significant amount to charity or charitable works and therefore feel they have done enough. I know that it is advertised a lot, not to give to people begging. I guess you can't blame people.

The ones that got to me though were the preacher types (the Lidl security man and the Catholic priest).

And steppemum - which of those activities do you involve yourself in?

what is it about my post that makes you assume I am a hypocrite and not involved in amy of them? What an unecessarily bitchy comment.

When you posted that 'churchy types' walked past and didn't help, I would be willing to bet that you have NO IDEA if they were church goers, had faith etc. You may be right, hypocrites abound in all walks of life. but you have assumed they were churchy by their appearance.

I am really sorry that you had such a crap experience on the streets, and horrified at the priest kicking you, but I think you have made massive, pretty strange assumptions.

(and, just for the record, I am involved in several of the things mentioned, as well as others, and I regularly buy homeless people food and give them money)

and yes, I do think that sometimes people have donated a lot of money to things/chrarities that they trust, and so don't always feel the need to reach out eg to a homeless person. But I have been told many times not to give people homeless people money as it is spent on drink and drugs.

It isn't easy to do the right thing, are you making it worse for someone if you give them money then spent on drugs? Better to give the money to the homeless shelter, who know properly how to support people?
maybe, maybe not. I don't know.

Weak cop out OP. You were clearly guessing, and "believe me, I can spot them a mile off" is pure unadulterated bullshit

See what?

The other week DD had to be somewhere for a certain tike on a Sunday morning.

The city was littered (for want of a better word!) with cold hungry homeless people who were all being moved on by the pcsos.

They were no christians around helping.
They were all in church.

Where do you think Jesus would have chosen to be?

*time

I can’t stand the bashing and uneducated nonsense levelled towards Christianity

I can't stand the privileged of Christianity in this country, I'm forced to pay tax towards something I do not believe in and to be discriminated against.

If you are not a believer, where do your notions of good or bad come from?

Have you read the Bible? I don't need 'commandments' to tell me not to kill other humans. Take a look at Exodus, round about chapter 20 it tells you how to treat your slaves, including advice abut not beating them to death.

I can't stand the bashing and uneducated nonsense levelled towards Christianity

Firstly, it's not uneducated, many of us have spent years, decades inside the church so uneducated is something it most definitely is not.

Secondly, there is no law which says Christianity can't be criticised.
That's as batshit as the people who complained against the treatment of the christian on the television recently who was clearly being homophobic.

I have noticed a particular bias among church-goers and non church-goers in terms of how they treat people.
I'm simply asking whether anyone else has noticed similar

I’ve not noticed this tbh... I think it’s maybe a popular view among some groups. I’m sure I heard it a lot when I was at university in my early twenties, from people who thought they were making a really original and clever point; “it’s ironic that the people who claim to be Christian are the meanest”.

The most selfish, money driven, uncharitable bastards I know come from all walks of life. The one who I think is the worst is an ardent atheist.

So, I think your argument is overly simplistic and yabu.

It's fair enough if you think I'm being unreasonable. I posted in AIBU but I firmly believe in my heart that I'm not. Not from what I've witnessed anyway. But, as is the luxury of AIBU I get to be told that I am being unreasonable and another view of things can never be a bad thing.

But I'm still right

Where do you think Jesus would have chosen to be

I think you've just summed up my whole rant in that one sentence JonSnowswife

But it's not what you've witnessed OP, it's what you've guessed

'There were a lot of church-going-types (and I just know you're going to pick that apart, but believe me you could spot them a mile away) '

How though? I think you actually mean just normal everyday people. There is no way by looking you can tell who goes to church and who doesn't. So if 'picking it apart' you mean saying it's bollocks then yes.

I give money or whatever I have to homeless people. My dm is a 'church going type' and she does exactly the same.

Some people are kind, some aren't. Faith has nothing to do with it.

I don't think you can generalise tbh. My maternal grandparents struggled to make ends meet but they opened their doors to everyone (random people that my papa had picked up on his shift as ambulance driver were always invited for a meal if they had nowhere to go for example). My DM talks about two of her friends who were being abused at home practically living with them for years. I once caught my GM sending money anonymously to a much younger friend when she'd heard she was worrying about how she'd pay for new school shoes for her daughter. My GM made me swear not to tell anybody. They were Christians, very accepting, non judgemental and went out of their way to bring more kindness to the world.

I also know another relative who is the worst kind of born again Christian who is horribly judgemental and intolerant. I don't know that you could pick out who is who on the street.

What I have witnessed is what I have witnessed. I have had preacher types apart from the two mentioned, trying to convert me to God and he would solve all my problems. I could write pages on those incidents, but they annoyed me so much that I have blocked them out of my mind.

You're starving with the hunger, dying for a drink in case you go into DT's and some gombeen comes to lecture you on God's fucking love? Lol. Yup. Really converted me.

'But it's not what you've witnessed OP, it's what you've guessed'

Yes, a huge rather silly generalisation based purely on what people look like. What do these church goers look like and is is only Christians and not other religions? How do Buddhists and other faiths perform?

Cracklesfire. Your people are the kind of people who I love. They don't demonstratively do anything. They just give. It's somewhere in the bible where a preacher or whatever they were called back in the day disparaged a little old woman for giving only a penny or something in alms. I think it was Jesus who said that she was actually the most generous as it was all she had to give. It was her last penny.

You meet people like that. One little old lady with one of those push things that help you walk (can't think of the name of it - Zimmer frame!), came to me one day with a little plastic bag with a cigarette, 2 chewing gums and twenty pence in it. I don't know whether she had noticed me there for days or whether she did a similar little package for every homeless person she saw, but it made me cry. The sheer kindness and consideration. She thought of everything. Cigs, stinky breath and the 20 pence for myself.

I'd challenge any one of you to spend one week on the streets and you'll have your eyes opened fairly lively.

Why was your post deleted hiddley? I didnt get chance to read what you'd wrote.

What Christian has reported a post of mine to have it deleted? Can't even remember what I said that could be against posting guidelines.
Lord, it takes all sorts. *sigh

Haven't a clue JonSnow. Can't remember what I wrote that could be offensive.