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Brown's 'good samaritan' politics

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William Crawley | 00:16 UK time, Monday, 28 September 2009

gordonb.jpgGordon Brown has, , invoked the values of the Good Samaritan -- this time in an effort to distinguish between Labour and Conservative responses to the recession. Labour, he said, was an expression of a commitment . This in the same week we discovered that Pope Benedict will make a state visit to Britain next year. And that juicy revelation was leaked to the press, according to Ruth Gledhill, by a Downing Street adviser. It was Ruth who broke the story of the pope's visit, and on this week's Sunday Sequence she was convinced that there would simply be no space in the itinerary for Northern Ireland -- an assessment now shared by David Willey, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's veteran Rome correspondent.

Gordon Brown isn't the only statesman to use religious language for political purposes. On this week's programme, we examined the role of faith in the life of two politicians -- one historical, the other contemporary. The Oxford historian Richard Carwardine explored the complex faith journey of Abraham Lincoln, whose bicentenary is being marked this year, and Klaus Larres from the University of Ulster traced religious footprints in the path to power of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, widely described as the most powerful woman in the world today. You can hear both those interviews, along with a debate about the whether the new prosecution guidelines for assisted suicide are a step towards legalised euthanasia, on this week's Everyday Ethics podcast.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 2.

    Brown's more the guys who mugged the traveller, then introduced the legislation requiring that Samaratins be licenced before attempting to administer first aid, arrested for using wine on the street and when he finally makes it to the inn discovers it's been closed because the owner madea a negative remark about the Prophet. Brown's Britain.

    And still people are talking as if the Pope might have visited northern Ireland if there'd been more time. No way, not if he were on a three week State Visit. The Irish Bishops would never allow it.

  • Comment number 3.

    Will, you naughty boy! The parable of the Good Samaritan is, as you very well know, not a *religious* story, but a secular humanist one - many would even say an *anti*religious one. The priest and levite walked on by, not because they were necessarily bad people, but because their "religion" was more important to them than humanist concerns. In the religious context of the time, assuming Jesus actually told that parable, his audience would have been affronted, and if he were to try the same thing nowadays, he would have probably been called an aggressive atheist.

    :-)

  • Comment number 4.


    Does anybody like Gordon Brown?


  • Comment number 5.

    This pre-mod business is stil very, very irritating and disruptive.

    GV

  • Comment number 6.

    The Irish Bishops would never allow it.

    Is the big man past it these days, or has he mellowed with age ?

  • Comment number 7.


    Helio

    "Will, you naughty boy!"

    I know H that you have said this on your church web site already, but I'm interested.

    What are your thoughts on the structure of the parable, the composition, the context, the cultural dimension, the theology, the Christology, the rhetorical devices. At what point in the story does the sting come, what is it, why, what are the assumptions of the listeners, what is the interpretation? Who answers the lawyer's question? How does the parable fit into the wider dialogue? What does the parable tell us about the lawyer, Jesus, the Samaritan, neighbours, me? You?

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