I am of an age when the inescapable reality of one's mortality sinks in. It is inevitable: I accept it with equanimity. Friends and colleagues have died and my time will come. My belief is that death is the end, no after-life in heaven or hell. So, I do not order my life in order to secure a passport to heaven. I refuse to accept the blandishments of purveyors of the concepts of metaphysical theology, doctrine or creeds.
Instead, I seek to follow the teaching ascribed to Jesus encapsulated in the command to love your neighbour as yourself. Loving your neighbour is inclusive: no exceptions. It does not recognise boundaries. All fall within its remit. Furthermore it is not limited to supporting people at the point of need. It extends to seeking the sweeping away of the causes of oppression, exclusion, marginalisation and poverty. It is a demand for systemic change to achieve social justice.
Systemic change involves challenging those with the power to effect change: politicians, church leaders, business leaders. Such challenges are a threat to the established order and are likely to be opposed vigorously. It shifts the balance between the haves and have-nots. Any shift towards social justice requires extension of the concept of duty of care.
This will be the subject of later posts. Here is an example to be going on with, hopefully to whet your appetite. In the UK thousands of families live in destitution. Previous posts have referred to reports on this situation. The demand should be that families are lifted out of destitution and the way of achieving this is for the state to owe such families a duty of care to ensure their lot is improved. It would require legislation to impose a duty on government to achieve this objective. The extent of such a duty and its enforcement would be delineated by the legislation.
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