cartesiandaemon asked recently when I became interested in the

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Which I thought was quite an interesting question, mostly because it never occurred to me that people might not be interested.

My first thought was 'well, I got interested in politics when I realised that was a thing I could study and it could be fun, and then it was' which isn't right. And I thought about how we didn't have a lot of money growing up, but honestly, as a child I always had enough to eat, a roof over my head and plenty of books, and thanks mostly to the generosity of others I went to beautiful places to learn beautiful things, so I never felt that I was that badly off.

Then I looked a bit further, and I really think this is a cradle-Catholic thing. I mean, I know there are cradle-Catholics who think differently than me, but in a church universal, that's bound to happen! And of course, other religions might have the same effect, and I'm not claiming that religious people have the monopoly on this kind of upbringing! But it does have an effect.

I'm talking about turning up and hearing '“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”'(Mark 12: 29-31), we hear 'Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.' (Romans 13:8).

We hear 'When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner:' (Leviticus 19: 9-10) and 'Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.' (Acts 4:32-34)


Now I know there are problems with taking bible verses out of context, and other people read and interpret differently - but when you start from a baby hearing 'God is love and anyone who lives in love, lives in God' (1 John 4:16), and see your church community turning that into feeding the hungry both literally and metaphorically, it's a pretty easy message to internalise and not a bad roadmap for life.

It's not just me, either: when Colin and I first got together, we were in church and sang this hymn, with which I was previously unfamiliar, and he leant over and said "This is what Christianity is about to me":
Will you let me be your servant,
Let me be as Christ to you?
Pray that I may have the grace to
Let me be your servant too.

Comments

[liv]

Ooh, this is really interesting, thank you for posting about it. Translating ideas about God's love into actually practically feeding the hungry is something I think Christianity is really good at, and it's very cool to hear how that fits for you personally.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't do much on a personal level. I mean, sure we throw a box of teabags* in the foodbank occasionally, but I don't do a lot of voluntary work or anything practical, rather than theoretical. But even that is worthwhile - talking about justice and peace, especially around children, I mean.


*the Cambridge one just appealed for teabags/instant coffee, it was in our newsletter.

[liv]

I think there's maybe a thing about a community, a religious institution, acting as a community? That is to say, that the reason the Church is more effective than just a bunch of friends who decide to get together and volunteer at the foodbank is because this kind of theoretical and spiritual stuff is going on in conjunction. (As well as creating beautiful things and a context that people want to belong to so that they continue to have the motivation to be doing the practical volunteering, so the music and the architecture and all the rest.) So when I say that Christianity is good at this I don't necessarily mean every individual Christian, I mean the whole context seems to be really well geared to nurture an exceptionally high proportion of kinds of people who do volunteer practically, if that makes sense?

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Yes, it really does. Sorry, I was just feeling randomly guilty, something else which Catholics are famous for. But I have plenty of gin so I'll be fine :)