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Christian Response to Evil & Suffering

  • Christians believe that Christians should follow the example of Jesus (who showed people that God wants to fight against Evil & Suffering) and pray for those who are suffering and give them practical help if possible.
  • Some Christians think that the result of evil is due to Humans taking advantage of their free will. Fault of humans, not God. MORAL EVIL.
  • Other Christians- this life is a test for after life. Good people= helping those who suffer and to fight against evil, souls will become good and go to heaven.
  • ALL Christians believe they must respond to Evil &Suffering by trying to help them or working for Christian aid, a nurse etc.
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Matter of Life and Death

Key Words

BENEVOLENT; belief that God is good and kind

OMNISCIENT; belief that God knows everything that has happened and that is going to happen.

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Christian attitudes on Wealth and Poverty

WEALTH:

  • New Testament- wealth can be very dangerous
  • easy to worship materalistic things instead of God
  • jesus said it was hard for the rich to get into heaven
  • St. Paul -> love of money leads to all kinds of evil
  • Church teachings -> Christians should only earn money in lawful and moral ways

POVERTY:

  • Wealth should be shared and used to help those less fortunate
  • Parable of Sheep and Goats: if we feed the hungry, clothe the naked etc we are actually helping Jesus
  • All Christians follow teachings of New Testament that state it is a Christian's duty to help others because everyone is our neighbour
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WORK OF ONE RELIGIOUS AGENCY TO RELIEVE WORLD POVE

CHRISTIAN AID

Aim: to provide help where it's needed the most

WHAT THEY DO:

  • raises funds in Britain through churches
  • provides long term aid to the poor e.g to provide health education and build houses
  • provides emergancy/short term aids to countries devastated by floods, earthquakes wars and more
  • campaigns to remove causes of poverty such as unfair trade
  • Educate people in Britain so that they know there is a need to raise funds in less developed countries.
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Christian attitudes to abortion

ROMAN CATHOLIC AND EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS ATTITUDE:

Abortion is wrong.

  • Christian teachings on the sactity of life
  • God created life in the mother and to prevent that life being born is murder and against God's will.
  • they believe life begins at conception
  • God banned murder in sixth commandment, all abortions should be banned

OTHER PROTESTANTS:

Disagree with abortion but think that in certain circumstances it is acceptable.

Lesser of two evils - when you are faced with a choice where whatever you choose will be wrong, but once choice will be less wrong.

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Christian Response to Divorce

They realise there would be too much suffering if abortion was banned.

  • they do not believe life begins at conception
  • they believe it's the duty of Christians to remove suffering
  • they believe that if the mother's life is at risk, the child is at risk, the child is likely to be born handicapped or it would cause a serious effect on others in the family then abortion is acceptable.
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Christian attitudes to Euthanasia

All Christians oppose to Euthnasia (Easy, gentle death) :

  • Life is sacred and should only be taken by God
  • 6th Commandment: Christians must not murder
  • Many sacraments in the Bible that say life and death must only belong to God
  • Doctors are supposed to save lives, not end them

However, diff views:

  • Most Xtians- accept thgat doctors should be allowed to give lots of pain killing drugs even if they know it's shortening the patients life
  • Some Christians do not agree with switching off life support machines but many believe this should be allowed when there are no signs of life
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Sex and marriage

Most Christians believe sex should only happen inside a marriage:

  • the bible teaches that pre marital sex is wrong
  • Catechism says sex before marriage is a sin

Libreal Protestants believe that sex before marriage is acceptable as long as the couple love eachother/ are in a long term relationship:

  • Jesus taught love is the most important thing
  • the Church has come to terms with modern attitudes of Cohabitation

ALL Christians believe adultery is wrong because it breaks the marriage vows and the seventh commandment

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Christian Response to Divorce

There are different attitudes to divorce

ROMAN CATHOLICS believe there can be no divorce because:

  • Jesus banned divorce
  • When people marry they make a covenant with God which cannot be broken without God's consent

CATHOLICS have annulments which decides the marriage never existed, but there can be no divorce and Catholics say that you are not allowed to remarry, as this is considered adultery.

Other Christians (PROTESTANT, ORTHODOX) dissaprove but believe that if a marriage goes wrong and there is no chance of it functioning, then divorce is acceptable. They believe this because:

  • God is always prepared to forgive sins if people are determined to live a new life
  • St. Matthew- Jesus allows divorce for adultery
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Christianity and Attitudes to Family Life

ALL Christians believe children should be brought up in a family with a mother and father. The New Testament and Christian Church read that:

  • parents should love their children and provide them with food,clothes, everday needs
  • parents should set their children a good Christian example aned encourage their children to go to church and be baptised and confirmed
  • children should obey and respect their parents
  • children should look after their parents if they can no longer look after themselves

The Family is important to Christians because

  • The Bible has many references to the importance of family life
  • Christian marriage services refer to founding a family and bringing children up in a Christian environment as a major purpose of marriage
  • Christians believe that the family was created by God to keep society together
  • Christians see the family as thge basis of society.
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Matter of Life and Death

ALL Christians belief that there is life after death. TWO Christian beliefs about life after death.

Ressurection of the Body- after the death the body stays in the grave until end of the world when raised.

Why they believe:

  • Jesus rose from the dead
  • Part of the Christain creeds
  • St. Paul teaching

Immortality of the Soul- idea that the soul lives on after the death of the body.

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Christian attitudes on Wealth and Poverty

Why they believe:

  • Communion of Saints teaches that living and dead Christians can communicate with eachother
  • Near death experiences show immortality of the soul
  • Jesus: "the criminal on the cross will be in paradise straight after death"

Beliving in life and death gives Christians' lives purpose and meaning.

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CAUSES OF WORLD POVERTY

CAUSES OF WORLD POVERTY

  • NATURAL DISASTERS- Most LEDCs are in areas where there are these. Eg floods, earthquakes.
  • WARS- causes corruption
  • DEBT- have to borrow money from banks owned by developed countries and pay large amounts of interest to the bank which they could have spent on developement.
  • DISEASES AND ILL HEALTH- Lack of pharmicutical facilities and diseases that spread quickly
  • OVERPOPULATION
  • LACK OF EDUCATION- Which means major unemployment

All these factors prevent the countries from developing.

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Christian Attitudes to the role of men and women

TRADITIONAL ATTITUDE( HELD BY MANY EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS

Men should be the head of the family. Women should not speak in church or be ministers or preists. Why?

  • St Paul's statements in the Bible--> women not being allowed to speak in church and having to submit to their husbands. The bible is the unalterable word of God.

LIBERAL ATTITUDE

Men and women should have equal roles in life; including religion. Many protestant Churches allow women as ministers and preists. Why?

  • St. Paul said that male and female are one person in Christ
  • Jesus treated women as equals and had women followers like Martha and Mary
  • Jesus' women followers => only ones to stay with him for his crucifixion...Mary Magdelane saw him rise from the dead
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CATHOLIC ATTITUDE

Men and women equal roles and equal rights. Men and women have an equal status in the eyes of God. Catholics believe only men can become priests because:

  • Jesus only chose men to be his successors
  • Jesus was a man and the preist represents him in Mass.
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Christianity and Racial Harmony

Christianity teaches all forms of Racism= Wrong. Christians should work to bring about Racial Harmony. Why?

  • Jesus treated people of different races equally
  • St Peter had a vision of God telling him God has no favourites among the races
  • Good Samaritan- Races who hate eachother should love eachother as neighbours

Churches condemn any racism and have ministers and priests of all races.

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Christianity and Multi-Faith Britain

ALL Christian Churches believe in religious freedom- everyone should have the right to follow w/e religion they want.

People should not be discriminated against because of their regilion. 3 Diff attitudes to other religions:

1. Some people believe people can come to God through different religions but only Christianity has the full truth and only Christians can be certain they go to heaven.

  • Bible says that salvation comes through believing in Jesus
  • The full truth of God can only be seen in his son, Jesus

2. Other Christians believe Christianity is the only way to come to God and that all other religions are wrong.

In John 14:6, Jesus said that he was the only way to God.

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3. Some Christians believe all religions are ewual and that there are just different ways of finding God, so each person should follow the religion they feel at home with.

  • They do not regard the Bible as the word of God
  • God is a 'force like gravity' that can be discovered by humans in different ways.
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