Gordon Brown praises christian relief efforts!

THE CHURCHES are successfully teaching the parable of the Good Samaritan to the nation, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, suggested this week.
Mr Brown was speaking in an interview to mark the tenth anniversary of the chain-of-debt campaign for the relief of debt in the developing world.
“I do applaud the way churches have made this a test of being a good neighbour,” said Mr Brown. “People are helping people they will never know or meet. These people ought to recognise they have helped to transform opportunities for people all around the world.”

Mr Brown, when asked whether he went to church, replied: “I try to, I try to.” He said that campaigning against poverty in the developing world was “about the text, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ It is about a world in which people recognise that a neighbour is not simply [the person] who is geographically next door, but people who are in every part of the world. . . We are not moral strangers to each other; the more we can find a common ground — people sharing the same moral sense around the world — the more we will be able to achieve a future in making the world a safer place.”

The Prime Minister listed some of the measurable benefits of debt relief. “It has achieved an enormous amount, but obviously there is more to do — there is always more to do.” He said: “Without the work of churches and faith communities, we would not have been able to achieve so much.”
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A Good Samaritan

You've broken down by the side of the road, and someone kind stops and helps fix your car. Or you're at the supermarket checkout and find you're just short of having the right money, and the person behind offers to make it up to the right amount. They're both good Samaritans, people who help out and maybe even rescue you, when you're having a hard time.The phrase goes back to a story Jesus told about a Jewish man who was robbed and beaten up, and then helped by a passing Samaritan. The story was shocking, because for Jewish people of the time, Samaritans were foreigners who were hated and distrusted. In Jesus' story, the people you think would be bound to help don't, and it's the despised foreigner who comes to the rescue...

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. "Look after him," he said, "and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have."
Luke 10:30-35