>The present post is a continuation of the discussion I began in my post, The Sanctity of Marriage. If you have not read my first post, I strongly recommend that you read that post first before you read this one. There you will find the basic information to understand the content of this post.

In my first post, I introduced Joseph Fletcher’s book, a book that caused much discussion when it was published because of the premise of the book and because the book was illustrated with many fascinating stories and anecdotes. Fletcher’s book, Situation Ethics (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1966), elicited much debate because Fletcher was advocating a new form of morality, a morality based on individual responsibility in which a situation decided whether an action was right or wrong.

The basic presupposition of Fletcher’s new morality was that a moral decision made in love and designed to help another person, is not wrong even if that decision violates law codes and rules of behavior.

In my previous post I presented the first story, a story dealing with the sanctity of marriage. In this post I am presenting the second story. I welcome your comments and reactions. At the end of the story, I will give the guidelines for your response. Before I tell you the story, I want to introduce what the Bible says about the right of private property.

The Theological Principle

The eighth commandment says: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). The eighth commandment commands every Israelite, and indeed every person, to respect the property of another person. The whole Bible, and not the eighth commandment only, affirms the right of private property. This means that no person has the right to take someone else’s property.

The taking of someone else’s private property by force is a violation of this command. I remember when someone broke into my house many years ago. Gone were a stereo, a television, and many other valuable items. When I came home and discovered that I had been robbed, it felt like a personal violation of my right to keep what was lawfully mine.

The Story

One day a man was walking by the park (let us call this man “The Good Samaritan”) when he saw an elderly woman sleeping on a park bench. He looked at her and realized that she was cold and hungry. He was so touched by the situation of that poor woman that he felt compelled to help her.

So, he went home, got his gun and decided to get some money to help that poor woman. As he went through the streets of his city, he meets you coming out of a bank. You had gone to the bank to cash your paycheck. You had worked hard to earn your money with which you would help your family and pay your bills.

On your way out of the bank, the Good Samaritan accosts you and takes some (not all) of your money by force to help the poor hungry woman. The Good Samaritan comes to where the poor woman was, and with your money, he buys her some food, and with the rest of your money, he buys her some clothes.

When the Good Samaritan told one of his friends what he had done, the friend told him what he had done was wrong. So, the Good Samaritan goes out, polls 100 people and 95% of them said he was right. The Good Samaritan goes back to his friend and told him that 95% of the people believed what he had done was right. The friend says that the sample was too small to be conclusive. So, the Good Samaritan pools one million people and this time 90% of the people agree with him.

The Question

Is it proper for a Good Samaritan to take your money by force to help a stranger?

The Comments

I welcome your comments. The rules for commenting on this post are the same as in the previous post. If you want to comment on this post, I am going to ask you to abide by the following guidelines:

1. Your comment must only address the question I raised and the issue presented by the story.

2. Be brief and to the point. Do not preach a sermon.

3. No personal attacks will be allowed. Respect the comments of other readers.

4. If you are going to react to a comment by a reader, respond with respect and dignity.

5. Any comment that does not abide by these guidelines will be deleted.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Eighth Commandment, Good Samaritan, Joseph Fletcher, Situation Ethics, Stealing

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