You are not going to believe it, but I was doing a search on one of my relatives Mark Koussas and you came up as a reference!

Anyway, I read your opening comments and I found them quite thought provoking, but must be brought to attention of all. I wish you well with the feedback you attain.

Now in saying that, in no way, shape or form am I saying that God would judge a poor person stealing bread like he’d judge a rich theif, hungry for more. All I’m saying is if we don’t apply the same principle to all people, our sight will not be clear. It just seems like a dangerous thing to do.

If the child in your arms that YOU nurtured and God gave you to look after is hungry, and you had no money what would you do…? Its not just poverty in terms of materialism Monika its poverty of the spirit, if all you can think about is getting your next piece of bread for your son or daughter, would you think twice about stealing? If there was NO OTHER way?

We will be judged much more harshly then they lets look at ourselves before judging .

I think if we were applying it for ourselves black and white yes, to apply black and white on others i don’t agree.

What are your thoughts?

I lived in an ideal world, where an ideal Christian knew the difference between right and wrong. In Egypt, what I found was that few drew a line. A whole lot of people lived within this blurry area… Where alot of wrong wasn’t really wrong… wrong was ok. I’m not talking about fathers with starving children; I’m talking about lying, cheating, stealing, and horrible horrible treatment of people in lower social classes by people who live a comfortable lifestyle. They do this because everyone else does it, and if they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t live a comfortable lifestyle. I can understand that they must do that to keep their head above water… But in an ideal world, an ideal Christian should do everything to fight evil, even if it leads them to poverty. Are we supposed to care about materialism? A father with starving children should have the faith that God will provide.. What’s the worst that poverty can do? Open up the gates of Paradise sooner?

Of course I speak as an outsider, of an ideal world that we may never see. It is however possible, the Book of Life tells us so. We can do all things through Christ - all that’s needed are prayers and faith. Why do we need grey when we have that?

Everything may not be Black and White in the sight of a merciful, righteous, fair and complete God. But to man, I believe that black and white are essential to living with Christ.

But having done a little research into the area of Ethics i must say I am much more forgiving and much slower to condemn than once I was. There always so many circumstances to take into account, so that very, very few issues are black and white in life. For example, would you condemn the poor theif who steals a loaf of bread to save the lives of his starving children?

Having been exposed to the blessing of the high ethical standard expected in western democracies, we have an advantage that many in this world do not. When we see a standard being accepted in Church that is ethically inferior to that accepted at the local RSL Club we clearly have a very, very big problem. We should never accept this. But neither, I think, should be condemn those in other countries whose ethical standards at Church are far superior to those of the society around them. And when they, over there, manage to maintain the same standards that we hold to over here, that is nothing short of heroic!

What do you think?

Fr Ant

I most definitely agree with you on your point.. but there is something that I’m struggling with. In my recent trip to Egypt, I have experienced a lot of these things first hand, and let’s just say, it wasn’t a happy trip. The corruption and impurity that existed in the country I called home was so unbearable, it brought me to tears.

At the beginning of my trip, right after I was shocked with the truth, I was foolish enough to think I could actually change something. I quickly got over that fantasy, and so instead, I tried to correct the paths of those closest to me, my family. That too was foolish. They don’t see that it’s wrong. The corruption they reside in is how they live, it’s how they grew up and it’s been tattooed into their personalities. How then, can they not do this inside their churches? It’s how they live! Just like we teach our kids please and thank you, they teach their kids ‘how to survive’. After I lost hope in trying to change the oppinions of my family members, two weeks into my two month ‘holiday’, I wished I was home and continued to until the day I arrived at the airport.

During this time, I talked to my family about coming and living in Australia. They always said the same thing, ‘we can’t leave our church’. They didn’t think our Australian Churches could compare. Jesus lives in our churches too, and so does the corruption I suppose, but on a MUCH MUCHHH smaller scale.

Okay, sorry about dragging on, this is my actual point. If this way of life is accepted outside of church, then it’s obviously going to exist in in Churches too. People aren’t going to switch their personalities on and off… In order for it not to reach our church communities, it shouldn’t be accepted outside of church, in Egypt or Australia, or any other country in the world. Right and Wrong shouldn’t change according to where you live.

Monika.