Well said. Read the passage in tandem with that of the Good Samaritan for an even deeper understanding. Jesus told a crowd that the two greatest commandments were to love God and to love one's neighbor as oneself. He was then asked who is one's neighbor, and told the parable in response.
The first person to pass the wounded man was a rich merchant. Perhaps he was afraid it was a ruse to trick someone into stopping and fall victim to a robbery. He chose safety over charity.
The second person to pass was a Levite, a member of the priestly caste. He didn't touch the wounded man because he would have been made rituallistically unclean. He chose fastidiousness over charity.
The Samaritan was a member of the most reviled minority group in Israel. They were considered heretics, traitors to Israel. He was the true neighbor.
So, who is your neighbor? Everyone.
The roots of the morality in those gospels transcend and actually predate the gospels; the gospel-writers were nothing if not good "borrowers" of ideas. These moral precepts are what humans SHOULD be, without regard to religion. In other words, we don't need religious mummery to show that humans should be treating even the least among us with kindess and generosity. Religion doesn't guarantee that a rich person will be a kind one, no matter what church he or she publicly attends for political or personal purposes.
The point here is to BE good and DO good, not because your shaman urges you to do so, or that the flying spaghetti monster, allah, god, yahweh, or whatever sky fairy you believe somehow communicated it to you. Just DO good because it's the right and human thing to do.
DJ: you missed the point, much as teh fundimentalists who are obsesed wit hteh old testiment miss the point of that scripture...it dosn't state that were to love God and to love one's neighbor as oneself where the most improtant comandments...eh stated that they where the whole of teh law...every thign else is out the windw..that long litany of laws is wiped away, jsut remember these two simple things.....he basicly said be good to each other and that got him naild to a tree.
The golden rule and what not, what you do to the least of my children you do to me is a very clear statment.
it amazes me how "fundimentalist" christians don't understand the funimental core of christianity. How is it that pople that claim to literaly interperate the bible don't seem to have read it???
Thank you, Jesse. My conception of the Last Judgement is based on Matthew 25:31-46. [I actually think Hell is a "hospital" for sick souls--torture is sin, after all--so the suffering there is what the sick ones bring with them. However, humane, civilized rehabilitation is still rehabilitation and I want to avoid it. 
]
Did y'all notice that Jesus does not say ONE THING about whether or not you believed in Him or His Father in Heaven?
Did y'all notice that Jesus does not say ONE THING about what you and other consenting adults did with your genitals?
Apparently, His Heavenly Father's primary concern is how we treat other people.
As Brother Marvin might sing from Rock 'n' Roll Heaven, "Can I Get A Witness"? 
"it amazes me how "fundimentalist" christians don't understand the funimental core of christianity. How is it that pople that claim to literaly interperate the bible don't seem to have read it???"
moonglum
-They may (or may not) understand it.
They just don't want to do it.
The problem is that what we're doing is nothing more than band-aids, and the solution for global poverty requires quite a bit more.
The question is, how can we build a 1st (or even 2nd) world economy out of whole cloth in this global marketplace?
Education is good. But it's not enough. They need jobs. GOOD paying jobs. And by good paying, I don't mean "for there". No, I mean jobs that pay penny for penny what we make here. They need the disposable income to create spin-off jobs and service economies that can sustain themselves.
That's the answer. Everything else is a band-aid. But unfortunately that won't happen until we tell the "investment elite" to go shove off, that their whole system is broken, thank you very much, that THEY are the cause of inflation, so they'll just have to be happy with consistant, and not growing profits.
Karmakin: May I sugest looking into the works of bukminster fuller (bucky). he pointed out that if stoped enrichign the top 1% of the world (the pirates) we would have plenty for all..
Was a big fan of Steve's and visit your blog because of him.
Peace to you, Steve.
Was hoping to see something on the Jena, LA happening.
Steve was exceptional on the topic and am hoping someone can pick up where he left off.
I am very moved by the entire event.
I wish I had known, I would have attended with my 13 year old son.
jharp --
I'm sorry you are disappointed.
For getting absolutely all the news, we recommend you look at our Blogroll. The Huffington Post, Crooks & Liars, TPM, all three give very good real-time coverage of pretty much ALL the news of the day. I like Raw Story as well, but it focuses more on the political and doesn't pick up damn near everything like Huffington and the other two do.
We put up from 6-8 posts a day, typically, perhaps a bit less on weekends. We try and stay a bit more on the political side, but also go wherever our interests take us. We have a smart, really really sharp readership, so our posts can range from wickedly funny (we hope), to deep and intense, to food, sports, music and the personal interests of our bloggers.
What we hope people are reading us for is not just the news, but for our editorial judgement and take on the news we choose to follow. While I genuinely am sorry we didn't have the story you wanted to see, truly I am, we just aren't large enough to cover every story. We've written about Jena 6 before -- LM wrote the most brilliant article on racism I've read as an adult -- and possibly will again. Again, while I appreciate your trust in us and as a father of four teenagers, I fully know what it is to be disappointed about missing a historical event with your kid... but please -- make sure you read a range of sources to make certain you don't miss events which matter. We're not going to get them all, and there's no way we're going to be able to get the events which matter to everyone, ever. That simply isn't our beat.
Best wishes,
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