The Good Samaritan

Posting on a thread for posters with mental health problems where support and understanding is given, and referring on another thread to ‘nutters’ is a posters right ? True , honest and kind ? No.

I watched I Daniel Blake and it rang so true. I spent a large part of my life battling with the benefits system on behalf of my patients. The Tory desire to see everyone in work (in spite of disabilities that make it untenable) has made the whole situation a disgrace. There is a basic assumption that every claimant is a scrounger till proven otherwise. And consequently the process of claiming can be totally humiliating. You need top be in the know and have all the buzzwords at your fingertips in order to wade through and come out the other end.

The process is also dehumanising for those working in the system.

annie - I agree that anyone and everyone, regardless of faith or absence thereof, can try to live decent Samaritan-like lives and that we all fail at times - faith or no faith. My concern is not about individual Christians (or members of other faiths) who, like us all, fail at times, but about the institutions of those religions that fail on a mass scale, and indeed cause misery to so many. Churches and religious institutions should follow their own teachings.

Luckgirl what man does in the name of God and what man does because of what God asks,

do we say all who are members of this forum are trouble makers, unkind, uncaring because some are ?

I speak out in defence of nuns and priests who have and do
Follow the teachings of Christ because some choose to condemn all nuns and priests .

Christians are people, I accept this , as those of all faiths and none are. There has only been one perfect human being.

If anyone still wants to see I, Daniel Blake, it is on BBC iPlayer and on YouTube.
People seem to be divided into those who are really affected by it and want to change things and those who deny that it reflects the truth.

No different to the views of some on faith, an unwillingness to accept not all of faith are hypocrites , not all needing benefits are cheats.

There has only been one perfect human being

I find that a thoroughly depressing sentiment. I think to dismiss the entirety of the human race as somehow flawed and imperfect is ridiculous and to turn life into a battle to achieve this idealised perfection is ludicrous. Do we demand perfection from our friends, children and Grandchildren? Of course not - We love them just the way they are.

I think it is important not to assume that just because some members of a faith (and indeed more importantly sometimes the organisers of that church) fall far short of what we might all wish that all members are being tarred with the same brush. I am certainly not suggesting that.

There are good people who live by decent values in every walk of life and every faith and none. What I struggle with are the institutionalised faults within many faiths.

Yes we do accept people as they are, if only atheists could include Christians in their accepting . When I said there has only been one perfect human being this meant ‘do not expect all Christians to perform miracles or walk on water.

If one doesn’t believe Christ existed why critcise those who do believe

Annie it's not so much whether he existed or not (there's much evidence from those times that he did exist) .
It's who he was and what he represents.
I agree it's pointless to criticise though.
eg your view of Jesus is completely different from mine, but both our views, and others, are valid.

Yes Fennel other views are valid, I am only expressing my views, I do not sbout down anyone else’s, I respect people are entitled to their views, would be nice if some could do the same to me

Anniebach you're entitled to your views. I support your freedom to hold whatever views you like and I support my freedom possibly to disagree with your views.

PS I welcome disagreements about Jesus and other historical or religious matters if the disagreements are well argued.

Gabriella I'm 65 .Been in my job 50 years yesterday. As photographers we've attended and met the clerics at over 4000 weddings during the life of our own business and several hundred in the years before we started our own business.I've met and got to know many ministers and priests and count some amongst my close friends .When I started in the wedding business it was possible to photograph 3 or 4 weddings in a day ,an 8am early mass, an eleven am Ch of Scotland 2pm back to an RC church and a late 5pm . The studio I worked for did 50 or 60 weddings a week Thankfully that changed to one a day or 2 at a push ,now every weddding is a 12 hour event from getting ready to first dance or even the fireworks late in the evening.We're retiring very soon .

anniebach I am a humanist, one brother is an atheist and my younger brother a Christian. My younger brother and his wife are warm and good hearted people living their faith everyday in their actions. They do not mention to anyone what their faith is unless asked directly. They worship regularly and lead services and are out in their local community demonstrating active love for their fellow human beings. I admire and love them very much. However there are still a great number of people who go to places of worship, spout the words of their holy books but add no goodness to the world. Same for those who have no faith.. some are just great human beings and others are not!

paddyann what an interesting career it sounds. You will have plenty of material for a book I am sure! It must be much more exhausting now having to watch & capture the bridal pair almost from waking up to bed time!
I remember our photographer whizzing to our reception from the church so he could get mock photos of us cutting the cake and get the prints back to us later in the day!

I remember those days well Pecs,we used to proof weddings that were over 100 miles north of our studio ,coming back to process and print it and take it the 100 miles back before the reception ended.Long days then too ,been a great job and I wouldn't change it for the world ,its lovely being around happy people on special days .

paddy I can imagine how heart-warming it must be! Was it a career plan or serendipity?

Anniebach wrote:

"Posting on a thread for posters with mental health problems where support and understanding is given, and referring on another thread to ‘nutters’ is a posters right ? True , honest and kind ? No."

The word 'nutters' is that sort of slang that is not unsympathetic as the tone of the word is such that any of us 'sane' people might at any time be a nutter regarding some cherished belief or other. We are each of us daft in some way or another.

It's okay to condemn or otherwise criticise a belief.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

zazarickoty Why have you posted the first half of my post above on this thread? I am really

I think somebody did that earlier, and then sneaked in a link or two.

Anja I too am not religious but believe in helping other human beings when they need it. Faith and arguments about it shouldn't come into it!

I once took my 3 DSs on holiday to a Welsh holiday camp and on our return broke down in a wild moorland area. A very kind man stopped and drove us back many miles to a pub where we could contact a garage (no mobile phones in those days). During the conversation we found that he had to drive all the way back to Yorkshire. By now it was about 8pm. I don't know his name but will never forget him. The guy from the garage came out and fixed the car only charging for the repair because he had a chance to take his daughter with him for the drive out! I will never forget him either.

More recently I met a lady in our local shop looking for a cash machine (not available). She had run out of money for a taxi fare after a fun day out. I drove her and her daughters into the nearest town where there was a machine, only about 3 miles but they would have had to walk. She was so grateful but hey ... give a little take a little.

I have tried to teach my own DC the same message and am proud to say they too have given support in different ways though often I didn't find out till much later. People are more often nice than nasty regardless of religion!

Exactly Grandma2213. I can’t see why certain people just don’t get that and keep trying to turn this into a debate about religion.

I agree, kindness and caring about others isn't related to religion. I've found Geordies very kind - at the risk of offending others - moreso than those in the SE.
I'm not sure why it is, it was the same in rural France, people had more of a feeling for communal sharing and responsibility.