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For love or moneyJust recently it was announced that there will be twenty-nine new hospitals or hospital extensions built in the UK over the next few years, because patients are increasingly unhappy about receiving care in shoddy surroundings. At the same time it was reported that the hospitals in El Salvador are overwhelmed due to the numbers of injured from two recent earthquakes. Doctors do not have the space, instruments or drugs to treat those in need. Of course we all feel we deserve better treatment in the UK, but is the global economy becoming so skewed that we will continue to develop even better conditions while the poor continue to struggle - or in some cases to die? This is a part of the background for our Lent Group study this year. The title is For love or money. It is a series of five studies produced by Christian Aid, and if you join a group you will be challenged by Bible studies, and you may have to fill barns with what you think is most important in life, to examine the content of your wallet or purse and to join in an auction to decide what in life you value most. Among the quotations you may read are:- Greed is good. Roll the words around your tongue…..Greed is back in
fashion. They love me in Japan. But unfortunately I don’t want their love.
I want their money. Power has passed out of the hands of countries into the all-encompassing
power of money. Money rules the world…..We may now even question whether
America rules the dollar or the dollar rules America. We hope to be joining with our friends in the other churches of Churches Together in Herne Hill for these meetings. There will therefore be an opportunity to get to know other local Christians better, as well as to deepen our own understanding of the world we live in and to develop our faith. Those of us who heard Michael Taylor on February 18th will have had a good introduction to the Lent Groups. On February 24th Christian Aid launched its new fair trade campaign. Trade is often weighted on the side of the wealthy. A recent scandal has been the efforts of the giant pharmaceutical companies to prevent the sale of cheaper drugs produced in India to the poor countries of Africa, especially to treat people with HIV/AIDS. Of course a good health service is important to us, but it is no less important to the people of El Salvador, facing the earthquake tragedies or the peoples of Africa, facing the devastation wreaked by the HIV virus. Deciding whether to live For Love or Money, and seeking to equalise an unjust world, is our greatest contemporary Gospel challenge. David Haslam |
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