The Good Samaritan story is a parable from the Bible (Luke 10:29–37) about a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who is attacked by robbers, beaten, and left for dead. A priest and a Levite pass by without helping, but a Samaritan stops to help the man, binding his wounds, taking him to an inn, and paying for his continued care. The story teaches that one should show compassion and mercy to everyone, regardless of their background, because everyone is a "neighbor." Indeed, everyone embodies Jesus himself.
One school of thought is that we aren't supposed to murder people. That is a prohibition of an immoral act.
But we don't have affirmative responsibility to help someone else -- especially a stranger -- who is having deathly trouble.
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| Melania Trump's controversial jacket: "I really don't care. Do U?" |
John Coster studied Theology and Society at Regent College while continuing his career managing multimillion-dollar real estate development and construction projects in the tech sector. John is Christian. He has observed the way the public face of the Christian church in America has been hijacked by Christian Nationalism. He makes a distinction between Christian spirituality and "Christendom."
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| John Coster and family, receiving his M.A. in Theology |
John wanted to add an idea to his guest post, noting that compassion to strangers is not solely a New Testament idea. The Old Testament God may be noted for fire, brimstone, and mass death striking down entire peoples, but that there are examples of compassion there, too.
-- Leviticus 19:33-34 emphasizes loving the stranger as oneself, because the Israelites were also strangers in Egypt.
-- Deuteronomy 10:18-19 states that God loves and provides for the stranger, and commands the Israelites to do the same.
-- Exodus 22:21 explicitly prohibits mistreating or oppressing a stranger, referencing the time in Egypt.
Guest Post by John Coster
As a frequent commenter here, few will be surprised that I weigh in when you invoke a Christian theme (although I am a Three Dog Night fan too :)
I appreciate the title of today’s post, but in our post-Christian and pluralistic society, I’m not sure that Jesus’ core teachings resonate much -- even with people who claim to be Christian. Christian Nationalists (many of whom deny the label) are in reality, party to “Christendom” which is nothing more than the outward structures and laws that are supposedly designed to support Christian principles- but in themselves are empty of the life-transformation that Jesus promises to his followers. Think Constantine. Tragically much of historical Christendom has been antithetical to Jesus' teachings and I believe we are living in such a time again.
Jesus warned in Matthew 7:21-23, that those who claim to be his followers but don’t actually obey his commands, are in fact, ‘evildoers” who will be cast from his presence. It should cause MAGA-Christians pause.
These days you don’t need to be a Bible a scholar to figure out its main themes. So what are Jesus’ commands? Among the top instructions are caring for the marginalized and foreigner. This does not bode well for Christians who think they are “doing the Lord’s work” by supporting MAGA and these evil policies.
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18 comments:
I think the Christian nationalist movement has actually turned young people away from God, Christianity. Being a Christian became associated with being anti feminist, condemning homosexuality, and it seems like being cruel and stingy was a good way to be. Forward thinking people and being Christian were antithetical to each other. Trump as a chosen leader, when he is so obviously at least in my mind, corrupt and, can I write it- evil, speaks volumes as to whether it is truly Christianity or just in name only.
Jesus clearly urged a Christian duty to help the fallen Samaritan, or those starving in the Sudan. The error here yesterday—and reprised today—was in characterizing a failure to help as “murder”, as if akin to Hitler’s crimes.
The robbers were the cause of the peril the Samaritan averted. The US does not become the cause of Sudan deaths by passing by without helping. Did Hitler commit his mass murders by not blocking the gas chamber doors?
My religion is kindness: holding the door, paying for the person behind you in a drive-thru, offering your seat, or volunteering for a cause are ways to show love to strangers. No one is a stranger to God.
A 2022 Pew survey found thirty-nine percent of US adults believed “we are living in the end times,” as did sixty-three percent of evangelicals. Christian Nationalists I can live with. Evangelical Zionists not so much.
Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were charged with fraud, conspiracy and bribery stemming from an alleged scheme to rig individual pitches that led to gamblers winning hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors Sunday.
Ortiz was arrested Sunday morning in Boston and will appear in court Monday, according to prosecutors, and Clase is not in custody.
Prosecutors at the Eastern District of New York, the Brooklyn-based United States Attorney's office that levied similar charges against NBA player Terry Rozier and multiple coaches in late October, said in the indictment that Clase arranged with a bettor as early as May 2023 to throw specific pitches for balls so the gambler could place prop bets and profit. Ortiz, prosecutors said, joined the scheme in June 2025, and between the two, gamblers won at least $450,000 wagering on their pitches, while Clase and Ortiz were given kickbacks for their participation.
Clase and Ortiz each could face up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy, 20 years for honest services wire fraud conspiracy, 20 years for money laundering conspiracy and five years for conspiracy to influence sporting events by bribery, according to prosecutors.
"The defendants deprived the Cleveland Guardians and Major League Baseball of their honest services," Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, said in a statement. "They defrauded the online betting platforms where the bets were placed. And they betrayed America's pastime. Integrity, honesty and fair play are part of the DNA of professional sports. When corruption infiltrates the sport, it brings disgrace not only to the participants but damages the public trust in an institution that is vital and dear to all of us."
The man who had been beaten by robbers was a Jew. The robbers didn't kill him, but the Jews who passed him by would have by failing to help. Fortunately, he was saved by a Samaritan whom the Jews regarded as enemies. As Peter said pointed out yesterday, the failure to act is an action.
Whether or not the failure to act as described is indeed an action, either way it certainly isn't murder.
Imprisoning someone and starving them to death is murder. Not helping someone whose circumstances you had nothing to do with isn’t murder.
The German army did not feed Soviet Army prisoners of war and about about 3 million starved to death. They failed to do an affirmative act. I would call it murder. A German guard who could--at negligible cost-- have opened the doors at a death camp and allowed prisoners to escape, is guilty of participating in the murder. An accomplice, and a murderer. Were I to come across a person being suffocated by a rope around his neck, but I could reach over and cut the rope, but instead decide I won't bother, and stop to watch him die -- yeah, I would call it murder. Failing to slow or stop a car I am driving to avoid hitting a toddler who walked into the street-- yeah, that is murder. I
Would it not be murder to drive one's car into a toddler who wandered into the street,-- rather than slow down or stop-- thinking that one preferred to get home earlier because a good TV show was on the air. The driver had the right of way, since the toddler was mid street, not in a crosswalk. MT, if there is really no affirmative duty of care morally, then the right thing to do is hit the child-- and only afterwards realize one has a legal duty to report a fatality, which means delay getting to the TV. Try that. Tell police you just did not want to stop, and explain that distinction between murder (bad) and your freedom to not be inconvenienced since you did not put the toddler in harms way., and you did not feel like braking. Explain how it wasn't murder. Explain how different you were from people who are immoral, like Hitler, who murdered people. You are just a driver exercising his right not to care. Try that defense.
As MT said, "Imprisoning someone and starving them to death is murder." An example would be what Israel has done to Gaza. Failing to help them when we can is also murder - that would be the U.S. not using our considerable influence to make them stop.
Lots of hypotheticals, with differing predicates and it would seem applications, at least where “murder” is concerned. I’m sure there are readers here capable of assessing them all definitively. I’ll just suggest e.g. that simply coming across a hanged person is quite distinct from operating a vehicle with the time to slow or stop before striking a toddler.
I suppose some of these examples would fall into Just War Theory, although starving prisoners would seem to violate the “right conduct in war” criteria. Some say St Augustine was one of the first to write about Just War Theory because some kind of coherent ethical framework was needed in a Christian world where war was inevitable.
Just remember, all religions are man-made.
So, if Israel and the US sent aid to Gaza, and that aid was stolen and stockpiled by Hamas and not distributed to Gazans, is Hamas guilty of murder?
There's no question that Hamas is guilty of murder, just nowhere near the same scale as Israel.
"Failing to help them when we can is also murder".
By that language, Hamas is responsible for every single post-10/7 Palestinian death. They didn't "help" by laying down arms and releasing the hostages; they didn't themselves "stop".
Low dudgeon-yes, agreed
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