Are you sure?
This bookmark will be removed from all folders and any saved notes will be permanently removed.
Eye on the world: A helping hand
In “A charity that gives food—and frees hostages” The Christian Science Monitor reports on an African aid organization that is proving that Africa is not just a recipient of aid, but is also able to give aid. “The organization’s humanitarian relief teams have appeared … at the site of dozens of disasters, famines, and military conflicts. They have provided emergency medical and logistical assistance in the early days of many of the past two decades’ worst natural and manmade crises, stretching from Haiti to Bosnia to Bangladesh.” Among other things, the African organization negotiates the release of hostages in other countries, on other continents: “Recently, the organization assisted in bringing home 23 South Africans lured into joining Islamic State in Syria, and now they are working on another hostage negotiation—this one in northern Mali. All of this places the group at a unique intersection in the humanitarian world. In a community of global nongovernmental organizations that often view Africa as the planet’s sad charity case, Gift of the Givers represents an inversion of conventional logic: an African aid group that takes care of its own—and helps bail out the rest of the world.” This organization is proving that every sector of the global society has utility to lift the whole of mankind.
Ideas on this subject:
From the Bible:
A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.
From the writings of Mary Baker Eddy:
Striving to be good, to do good, and to love our neighbor as ourself, man’s soul is safe; man emerges from mortality and receives his rights inalienable—the love of God and man.
— The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 200
A Christian Scientist is a humanitarian; he is benevolent, forgiving, long-suffering, and seeks to overcome evil with good.
— Church Manual, pp. 46–47
Related articles from The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel:
In “The good samaritan”: “Is it too much to ask that we may reflect divine Love; that we in our turn, out of our regenerated and grateful hearts, may give the same tender, practical help which we have received? It is not too much to ask; indeed, it is the only acceptable evidence of our redemption, of our part in the atonement, that at-one-ment with God which Christ Jesus exemplified and our Leader [Mary Baker Eddy] has made plain to us.” And “Oh, may we never look coldly on a fallen brother and, heedless of his unspoken cry for help, pass by on the other side, without offering in Christ’s name the cup of cold water,—that cleansing, purifying mental draft of right thinking, that spontaneous rejection of error’s claim to reality, that realization, whether silent or spoken, of God’s presence, power, and allness.”
In “Coming to humanity’s aid with spiritual sense”: “Because God is everywhere, the light of Christ that fills our thought as we pray reaches everywhere, embracing everyone. We can’t know when or how individuals will become receptive to spiritual truth. But the truth works patiently in human consciousness, often unseen. Truth uncovers evil thoughts and corrects them. It also brings to light God’s guidance and protection, for governments and individuals.” And “Every time we glimpse the reality of God and His creation, and experience physical or moral healing as a result, it’s because we have been utilizing spiritual sense. However modest our individual healings may seem in contrast to the challenges facing humanity today, we should never doubt our ability to use the understanding we have to pray for the welfare of our fellow world citizens.”
The articles above and others dealing with this subject can be found on JSH-Online.com or on CSMonitor.com.