A man on his way from Atlanta to Greenville was robbed and severely beaten at a rest area. The thieves even stole his clothes and left him for dead lying on the sidewalk and drove off in his car.
As it happened, a fundamentalist pastor happened by that way and saw the man but he thought there was a good chance the man was dead anyway and the pastor was on his way to go soulwinning so he really couldn’t spare the time. Instead, he carefully stepped around the guy making sure not to get his wingtip shoes bloody and hurried away — muttering about how if conservatives were in charge of the government this sort of crime wouldn’t happen nearly so much.
A few moments later, a fundamentalist deacon passed by the same way but he observed that the man was immodestly clad and wondered how it might affect a Baptist deacon’s testimony if someone saw him near the wounded man and assumed it was the appearance of evil. So he too carefully stepped around the wounded man, hiking up his khaki pant legs to avoid the gore and went on his way.
But then along came an atheist, lesbian Democrat who taught Women’s Studies at the local community college and drove a Prius. And she saw the man and took pity on his plight. She called him an ambulance and sat with the wounded man and held his bruised hand until the paramedics came. Then she followed him to the hospital and handed them her Visa card and said “Whatever he owes on his bills you can charge it to me. And if he needs anything here is my cell phone number just give me a call.”
Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?
Go and do likewise.
