• It is appalling that people can put their careers above service
I may very well be an agnostic bordering on atheism, but that doesn’t mean that when it comes to Christianity, I can’t pull up Bible stories and quotes to suit my purposes whenever I feel like it.
The biblical story that has been haunting me recently is the one about the so-called “good” Samaritan.
By the way, as far as I can determine, the only thing wrong with the Samaritans was that they were half Jewish and half Gentile, which in the eyes of the purists made them bad. But perhaps that’s a story for another day.
This week, I was told of a situation where a woman who was crossing a busy road got hit by a motorcyclist.
The woman ended up dying because the emergency services could not get to the accident on time.
However, in the traffic jam that built up, at least two private paramedic squads were seen looking on but offering no assistance, just like the Jewish priest and the Levite who passed the man saved by the Samaritan.
According to my informant they might have been afraid of being sued if something went wrong. But surely, you save life first and worry about whatever consequences later.
A fellow I know who works for a private fire service told me: A first aider can act under the "good Samaritan act", which shields him/her from liability in the process of trying to save a life. However, a paramedic who is much more qualified and knowledgeable cannot do the same and is liable for his actions.
It was this unfortunate situation that saw a person who might have been saved die without help, even though it was right there.
I have been left wondering how as a people we arrived at a place where helping another person could lose you your career and your income. I am simply appalled.
Meanwhile, speaking of finding the biblical quote for every occasion, I guess in a way, I am just like those who claim to be true believers.
For instance, if I need to justify drinking alcohol, then Nazarene’s first miracle at that wedding he attended with his mother comes to mind.
Surely if he was against alcohol use, he would have chided his mother for asking him to change water into wine, and the wedding reception or evening party might have had to wind up there and then.
Then of course, there’s the New Testament’s Mr Nyet, perhaps better known by the name St Paul, although he was born Saul in a place called Tarsus, which is now part of modern Turkey.
I call him Mr Nyet, which is Russian for Mr No, because like the long-serving Soviet policy maestro Andrei Gromyko, whose knee-jerk response to any Western idea was always “Nyet”, Paul seemed to be against most things that others thought were fun or harmless.
Encyclopaedia Brittanica said: “For Paul, everything not immediately useful for salvation is worthless; what is worthless is not on the side of the good; therefore, it is allied with the bad.”
Interestingly, though, when it came to wine, Timothy quoted Paul as saying: "Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities"
For me, if Paul and the man whose teachings he spread say alcohol is okay, then who are those who follow them to disagree? Yet you’ll find pious Christians who disagree.
Speaking of pious Christians, many Kenyan politicians like to quote the Bible, especially around election time, when they want to woo the various Christian denominations to vote for them.
But as a meme I saw on social media recently pointed out: “They have quoted all the Bible verses, except the one where Zacchaeus returned all that he had stolen from the poor.”
For those who want to check out Zacchaeus’s story, you will find it in the book written by the patron saint of artists, doctors and surgeons, Luke. Clearly, my youthful leanings towards Catholicism and my interest in the stories of the saints have finally come in handy.