Sunday 20 November 2011

What is welfare for?

Post by Ian

Eighteen Church of England bishops wrote to the Observer on Sunday 20th November encouraging the government to rethink their cap of £500 a week on benefits, to be brought in in the Welfare Reform bill.


I struggle with this. On the one hand, they have a point. People who have been receiving more than this, sometimes far more, will feel the pinch as the cap comes in. On the other, is it right that people can receive £26,000 a year tax-free in state benefits - especially in these hard times. This is equivalent to £34,765 before tax. There are a great many working people who do not earn this much and have to manage on what they earn. Why should anyone expect the "right" or "entitlement" to such a sum?








Tuesday 15 November 2011

Organ donation

Post by Graham

I am the proud owner of an organ donation card and have been for some time. Aren`t I good ! I feel quite smug about this and superior to those who, upon death, can`t yet bring themselves to bequeath vital parts of their body to those desperately in need of them. I also firmly believe we should adopt a system of opting out of the scheme, rather than opting into it, such as been suggested in Wales recently.

Yet my feeling of self-satisfaction has been recently shattered ! Just a few days ago I read of a kidney charity that has just been launched called `Give A Kidney-One`s Enough`. In the past four years, apparently, more than 80 people have donated a kidney to a person they have never met and probably never will. This surely is altruism of the highest order and I feel guilty that I personally lack the courage to do such a thing in my lifetime.

I don`t know how many of the donors (it was 88 at the last count) are Unitarians or practising Christians of some sort, but I am willing to bet that a good number of them, perhaps even a majority, are non-believers. How do we explain this ? Is this the working of the Divine (the Holy Spirit, if you like) within the heart of us mere mortals ? What makes a person prepared to sacrifice their own health for the benefit of others about whom nothing is known, and not just for the benefit of another member of their family ? Surely, if it is not God working through us, it is a testimony of the generosity of the human spirit and gives the lie to the belief that all is rotten in our society. Thank God for their altruism !