Let me go off on a preachy tangent. I DID put it under the "religion" category, at least.

The parable of the good Samaritan is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It is also one of the most misquoted.

The Samaritan, in a historical context, belonged to a group of people hated and despised by the Jews (and who equally hated and despised the Jews as well). This would make most contemporary analogies comparing the Samaritan to fellow Christians inappropriate and missing the point. It's also important that Jesus quoted this parable to answer the question "who is my neighbor"? What he made clear through this parable is that often those we think are our neighbors (good contemporary analogies would be church leaders and politicians), often fail as neighbors where those who we don't perceive as neighbors often do a better job filling the bill. I'm going to make an analogy from personal experience.

When I was 18, I found myself broken down on a rural Kansas road. As I walked, I was passed by several folks, most of whom, statistically, at least, would be likely to claim to be Christian. Finally, I received a ride, and the folks bought me breakfast, but also arranged with a couple of college kids to ensure that I would get safely to my destination of Colorado Springs. They also gave me a little bit of money to get by. As I spoke with them, they mentioned they were Jehovah's Witnesses.

Now, I could take apart JW doctrine point by point from scripture if I so choose (don't ask me to do that in the replies; I have grown older and wiser, and decided that those kinds of debates are simply not my style). But that wasn't the point. These men had reacted to me in a very real and neighborly manner, and brought home the story of the Good Samaritan in a way that few others ever had. At that point, their doctrine didn't matter; it was their actions that mattered.

Respectfully submitted,

Gideon Macleish