are torn on whether or not to help them at all. there are many arguments for and against helping the homeless and those less fortunate than us...and there is always someone less fortunate. for me, the answers to the question whether or not we should help is very simple. here are some of them.
The Bible
Luke 14:12-14 ESV / 113 helpful votesHe said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 ESV / 63 helpful votes“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
The Quran
Food and the needy
Have you seen him who belies the rewards and punishments of the Hereafter? He it is who drives away the orphan and does not urge giving away the food of the poor. (107:1 - 3)
Give to the near of kin his due, and also to the needy and the wayfarers. Do not squander your wealth wastefully; for those who squander wastefully are Satan's brothers, and Satan is ever ungrateful to his Lord. (17:26 - 27)
Clothing
Ibn Abbas related that the Prophet said: Any Muslim who gives a Muslim a garment to wear will be in Allah's safekeeping as long as a shred of it remains on him. (Ahmad, Tirmidhi)
Buddhism
Thus, from the not giving of property to the needy, poverty became widespread, from the growth of poverty, the taking of what was not given increased, from the increase of theft, the use of weapons increased, from the increased use of weapons, the taking of life increased . . . (Digha-Nikaya iii 65)
in modern terms, when the state neglects its responsibility to maintain a minimum of what we call distributive justice. Social breakdown cannot be separated from broader questions about the benevolence of the social order. The solution to poverty-induced crime is not to punish severely but to enable people to provide for their basic needs.
Hinduism
the Artha Shastras, one of the Hindu scriptures written in 300 BCE by a wise man called Kautilya, gives advice for householders. It says that they should always be generous and hospitable to guests, and no guest should ever be turned away without food. Tradition says that a place at the table should always be left for atithi (the unexpected guest).
One may amass wealth with hundreds of hands but one should also distribute it with thousands of hands. If someone keeps all that he accumulates for himself and does not give it to others the hoarded wealth will eventually prove to be the cause of ruin.
to their food, to a smile....they give. they give instinctively and expect nothing in return. i think we are all born with the universal instinct to help our fellow man, but somewhere along the way we are taught or we acquire the propensity to not help or we become conditional or suspicious in our charity.
you see, all 12 major religions of the world tell us that we should be compassionate and help the poor. poverty, hunger and homelessness truly has no religion, but helping them is the true religion of the world. baha'l, buddhism, christianity, confucianism, hinduism, islam jainism, judaism, shinto, sikhism, taoism and zoroastrianism all say it is correct and an obligation to do so and all of these religions teach that if you do not help the poor, the hungry and the homeless then are not truly practicing your religion.
you see, i believe in god. but whatever you perceive god to be and whatever religion you practice, this is one of the basic principles that it is built on. it is also where our humanity begins and our moral compass gets its calibration.
see you around town