A rich Samaritan came upon a poor family by the side of the road. Their home had been destroyed, and they could not afford a new one. They needed medical care and vaccinations and schooling for their children. For that matter, they also needed clean water and air and removal of the toxins in the land.
The Good Samaritan stopped to help. He tended to the family’s needs, brought them to safety and donated money for their care. He felt responsible for their well-being.
Jesus told his followers: Go and do likewise.
The Bad Samaritan did not do likewise.
The family was Puerto Rican, and he threw packages of paper towels at them. The family was Ukrainian, and he refused to help unless their leaders dug up dirt on his political rival. The family was displaced by fire in Los Angeles, and he refused to help unless their leaders followed his orders. The family was Gazan, and he threatened to expel them from their homeland so he could build upscale resorts.
“The family was Puerto Rican, and he threw packages of paper towels at them.”
The homeless have no right to turn every park and sidewalk into a place for them to squat, the Bad Samaritan proclaimed. Their whims were making wealthier people suffer.
The family was fleeing civil war in Syria, and he called them vicious snakes. The family was from Mexico, and he called them murderers and rapists. The family was Muslim, and he called them terrorists. The family was from a “shithole country,” and he demanded they be deported.
The Bad Samaritan gained and regained great power. The poor family remained by the side of the road.
The family relied on Head Start programs for their young children and Pell Grants for their older children, and the Bad Samaritan gutted the Department of Education that provided this support. The family needed health insurance, and the Bad Samaritan tried to overturn the Affordable Care Act that subsidized their coverage.
Casting his gaze across the planet, the Bad Samaritan saw millions of families in need, an even greater need than in his own wealthy country. He saw families who lacked malaria pills and polio vaccines, and he stopped contributing to the World Health Organization. He saw families struggling with rising seas, severe storms and other effects of climate change, and he rescinded his country’s commitments to the Paris Climate Accords.
He saw families in need of humanitarian aid and economic development, and he dissolved his country’s Agency for International Development. The Bad Samaritan announced such programs were antithetical to his values.
When a pandemic ravaged the world, the Bad Samaritan was asked whether he would lead his country in a moment of mourning. He responded by bragging about his compassion: “I don’t think anybody can feel any worse than I do about all of the death and destruction that’s so needless. Nobody.”
In his single greatest act of caring, the Bad Samaritan spent billions of taxpayer dollars on new vaccines that saved many millions of lives. Thereafter he reversed course. He rewarded opponents of the vaccines and nominated a man to lead the Health and Human Services Department who said no vaccine is safe and effective.
A preacher pleaded with the Bad Samaritan to have mercy. “Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land,” she told him, quoting Leviticus 19:33-34.
“A preacher pleaded with the Bad Samaritan to have mercy.”
The Bad Samaritan reflected into the night on the preacher’s words.
“Nasty. Ungracious. Boring and uninspiring,” he responded at last, before retiring to his luxurious bedroom. “She and her church owe the public an apology!”
A parable within the parable: In 1896, a preacher told of a homeless man, unemployed and deathly ill, sitting outside a church. He overheard a congregation singing about devotion to Jesus and wondered what would happen if they applied their devotion to serving the poor, as Jesus preached.
He interrupted a church service to speak. “Of course, I don’t expect you people can prevent everyone from dying of starvation, lack of proper nourishment and tenement air, but what does following Jesus mean? What would Jesus do?”
The phrase entered the hearts of many Christians. But not all.
Still, the Bad Samaritan wanted to be seen as a good Christian. He spoke to Christian leaders at a National Prayer Breakfast, where they were clothed in fine linen and dined sumptuously, while the poor family outside went hungry.
The Bad Samaritan quoted from the Galatians 6:9: “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up.”
“So, let’s bring religion back,” the Bad Samaritan concluded. “Let’s bring God back into our lives. Thank you all very much.”
The Christian leaders applauded enthusiastically. The poor family suffered. And Jesus wept.
Charles Kurzman studies religion and politics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Related articles:
Want to understand Critical Race Theory? Read the Good Samaritan story | Opinion by Susan Shaw and Regina McClinton
Where’s our Good Samaritan today? | Opinion by Rodney Kennedy
‘Who is my neighbor?’ | Opinion by Greg Garrett