by Moaz Nair
Among those non-Christians who visit the church throughout
the world are the impoverished women and children. Many of them are so
desperate that they would approach any organisation in sight that could help
them. One noble principle of Christianity is that they are charity oriented.
Anecdotal evidence and social research have revealed that most enlightened
Christians of today are not the judgemental or prejudicial type when it comes
to people of other faiths.
A priest’s flock, in the main, will not despise or
belittle other faiths and neither would they coerce others to convert to
Christianity. To all appearances, they help others with a pleasant disposition
and would just leave the rest for the people to decide what is apposite for
them when it comes to matters of faith.
It’s a discernible fact that every good and able Christian
would contribute at least 10 percent of his or her income to church
organisations. They have faith in the spiritual pillar or “karma” that one good
turn deserves another. Apparently, with so much financial wherewithal in hand
Christian organisations throughout the world are able to run homes for the old
and orphans, build hospitals, schools and universities, provide free education,
shelters and feed the poor without direct help from the government. It is with
their own sweat and initiative that they accomplish all this in the name of
faith.
There are many hospitals run by Christian organisations in
the US and Europe. There are Christian hospitals in these countries where the
underprivileged among all races, creed and religion are treated free if
patients do not have the means to pay. At times of catastrophe such as floods,
tsunami, earthquake or famine, Christian organisations would be the foremost to
offer their help to the victims. We have seen Christian doctors and social
workers who altruistically help the poor in Africa and victims in many
impecunious and war torn countries – including Muslim countries. Many are
attached to the United Nations serving far-flung and discomposed regions in the
absence of home comfort.
Some
revealing test cases
In Malaysia – just like in many other countries - there are
many poor Malays, Indians and Chinese. Social problems in the country have
affected almost all the ethnic groups. Besides poverty, divorce has become an
epidemic in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities. The sanctity of marriage is
no longer intact the way it used to be. In the last 10 years, 180,172 divorce
cases have been reported in the country among the Muslims alone. The divorce
rate among non-Muslims increased from 2 percent to 8 percent in the past 10
years since 2000 and is expected to reach a total of no less than 7,000
recorded cases.
In one social research it showed that in Malaysia, mothers
become single mostly due to their husband’s death, desertion or divorce. In
rural areas they often have five or more children. Trying to make ends meet,
some mothers are even lured into the sex trade. In other cases, unable to
afford childcare and often weighed down with an additional yoke of caring for extended
family members, an increasing number of single mothers are housebound and
forced to rely on trifling assistance from the government to put food on their
tables.
Financial independence is what single mothers are struggling
to achieve. These women have nigh on no savings. Being less educated, they
marry at a very young age and are always fully dependent on their husbands for
finances. Once they become single mothers, a heavy burden is placed on their
shoulders. Many divorced husbands do not pay for the children support. Turning
to welfare organisations or other aid agencies in the country is a tedious
process because of all the red tapes and bureaucracy involved.
When they fail to get help from people of their own race,
religion or close relatives they approach those who can help them irrespective
of who they are as long as they are able to put food on the tables for their
children. Social studies on deserted women have shown distressed mothers facing
cheerless challenges in life to make sure that their children do not go hungry.
S. Mariamah who lives in Mantin estate in Negeri Sembilan
lost her husband in an accident. Mariamah was left with 5 young children to
feed. Her parents died when she was 21 years old, one year after her marriage.
She had no savings whatsoever. All the children were still attending school
then and she had this ambition to see all her children be given the best
education. Having nobody to turn to she approached a church in town about 50
kms from her estate. The church’s flock gave her all the support. Mariamah was
given financial help to feed the children and they also made sure that her
children’s education was taken care of. Today all her children are grown up and
doing fine in life. Mariamah made sure that all her children keep on donating
to the church to help the unfortunate. None of Mariamah’ children converted to
Christianity. Neither did Mariamah. The church did not oblige them to do so.
But Mariamah and her children have changed a lot in life due to this touch of
humanity by the church.
Abandoned
but still kept the faith
In Port Dickson lived one Soon Kiat in a squatter area just
nearby the old TNB power station. The husband abandoned her after 15 years
living together. It was love marriage that did not end well. She was left with
6 children, with neither shelter nor savings. Soon had to do odd jobs to bring
up the children, pay the room rent and utilities and also educate the children.
She was earning about RM200 a month doing odd jobs and at the same time had to
take care of her 6 children. The whole family of 7 lived in a small single room
rented out to them by a kind but poor Chinese lady. When she was later
diagnosed of having breast cancer she lost all hopes in life. The Chinese
landlord stopped collecting rent from her and offered to help her children. It
was one good Christian Samaritan who actually helped the impoverished family
out. Soon Kiat started visiting a church nearby with the hope that her children
would be taken care of by the church when she is gone. With good grace she
managed to get help from the church’s flock. All six children even managed to
continue their studies. The children are all in business today and doing well
but they have not forgotten the church that helped them in times of difficulty.
The children often donate to the church to ensure that others who are ill-fated
would be able to lead a good life. Soon Kiat died in 1999 as a Buddhist. Those
who attended her funeral were mostly Christians.
There is another heart-rending story about a Chinese convert
in an east coast state. Out of love she went against her parents to become a
Muslim to marry a Muslim man. After giving birth to three children the husband
dumped her. She bore him 3 children – one boy and two girls. The husband did
not appear in their life after the divorce. The children were still young then.
She could not go back to her parents and feeling shattered and being uneducated
she had to do odd jobs. The boy who was in primary school then had to sell fish
at a local evening market to help put food on the table for the family. The
children fortunately were born intelligent. When she had financial difficulties
to make ends meet and educate her three children she was helped by some kind
teachers who sought financial support from the local church to make sure that
the children’s education was not interrupted and food was on the table for
them. Being Muslim it was too sensitive to bring them to the church but help
was channelled to the family through the teachers. The boy grew up to be a
professor in one of the local universities. The two other girls have become
teachers. None of them adopted Christianity as their religion. They are until
today devout Muslims.
Religion
comes from the heart
Unfortunately, most impoverished people in poor and developing
countries are women and children. Many of them, out of no choice, go to the
church to seek help. It is not that they are being lured into the church and
subsequently coerced to accept a new faith in life. In Egypt, for instance
there are no less than 200,000 destitute and single mothers. They drag along
their children with them and many can be conspicuously seen roaming the
streets. We see the same phenomenon in almost all poor countries – Muslim and
non-Muslim.
Let’s not be too quick to despise the Christians when they
are there to help these people. Not many people would want to sacrifice their
comfort and money to help the poor. Today, there are many armchair religious
figures earning fat salaries through the taxpayers sitting in air-conditioned
offices and are more interested in finding faults in others but fail to find
the root causes as to why the poor are seeking help from those who are willing
to help them. They must realise that not many religious rhetoricians would want
to soil their hands by going to the ground to help the needy.
Common sense should prevail and we should respect those who
are willing to render their hearts to make the poor happy. As they say,
religion comes from the heart and not through just rhetoric or speechifying on
the so many poignant and distressing social issues facing the poor that the
blinkered themselves refuse to unravel.
Source : MC
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EmpireMoney
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