(September 2, 2012 at 6:33 pm)MeOwnThing Wrote:(September 2, 2012 at 11:44 am)Napoléon Wrote: Does seem like there's a shit load of different christians to keep track of lately. At least with atheists you don't have to worry about what organisation they belong to or what the specifics of their beliefs are.
Atheists all belong in one group, one "orginisation"?
They don't which is why I think the church can be a stronger force for good. Right now, I'm in a country where Christians are only a small percentage of the population. But more than half of the welfare homes here are run by Christian groups. The Salvation Army here runs many orphanages, there are welfare homes run by the Anglican church, the Methodist church, the Presbyterian church and RCs have theirs too. There are even hospices with doctors run by a combined group of Protestant churches that include the Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Lutherans. The 7th-day Adventists also have a hospital here. I spoke to a native here and he said that most of the people prefer to take their unwell folks to hospices run by churches than those run by Buddhist groups (Buddhism is a majority here). The Buddhist groups are not so caring and they don't provide many things for the patients. They say the Christians are "dumb". They do all the good things for nothing.
I know there will be a deluge of angry replies about abuses by the church, etc. I don't deny there are abuses in ALL organisations. I'm just saying that the FACT is Christian groups do run charitable organisations more than anyone else and even in this country I'm in where Christians are only a small percentage of the population (I'm told it's only 15%), the bulk of the charities are run by Christians AND the locals here prefer going to them than to those run by their own religious groups.
When you are poor and dying and in need of a good hospice, surely it doesn't matter if the kind people happen to believe in a Fairy Godfather who they insist exists in a Trinity? If they are kind, they are kind.
