Christianity Hinduism and Poverty

Christianity 3 III. Hinduism 4 IV. Comparison and contrast between these two ethical approaches to poverty 5 V. Summary 6 VI. Conclusion 6 References 7 I. Christianity Christianity has many belief that make its subscribers feel that they have an obligation to help end poverty in the world. One such belief is the belief that a Christian has an obligation of being a good neighbor. The bible teaches Christians to take care of those around them. By this, the bible, means that a neighbor is anyone near you that is in need. It is wrong for instance, for a Christian to watch someone going hungry with no food to eat while they have excess food at their house. A much more concrete solution such as creating a job opportunity for this beggar will be a more acceptable solution towards ending poverty.

Otherwise, the act of just giving money to a beggar might be an act of trying to show how one is good at helping yet he is not helping at all (Nadkarni &2003). Christian teachings portray the idea that as in order to show that one actually loves God, there is importance in showing love to others especially those that require to be helped when in difficult situations, where poverty is one such situation. The teachings then explain that by giving out what one has in excess to those that have none, it will be counted as if one has given directly to God. God then explains in the Christian teaching that such acts would attract blessings form him. III. Hinduism The Hindu believe in a system where a person has an afterlife that is dependent on how the person lived their past lives.

For instance if a person does good things in this present life, then they will advance to a higher state of being that has less karma and will live a much better life in the afterlife. According to Hinduism, helping out those in need and the poor around you is one of your obligations if you desire to advance towards a higher state of being in the after life. This serves as a motivating factor that makes a number of people that are loyal to the Hindu religion to work hard towards helping those suffering in poverty to come out of it and live better lives (Nadkarni &2003). those who do not help the needy and the poor around them will face some form of punishment in the life that comes after one dies.

Although the forms of these punishments differ, it is clear that both of these religions believe in some form of punishment being offered to people who neglect the suffering of others in the society. The contracts between these two religions are basically on the means of achieving the ends. The ends of both these religions are actually similar. For instance in Christianity the punishment for not being good in the preset life is burning in hell, while for Hinduism, the punishment is having an afterlife that would be less good than it would be if one had lived their lives right in the present life. References Parboteeah, K. P. Paik, Y. Cullen, J. B.