[NatCh]

Originally Posted by tompe

I think there are social pressure or similar things that makes people accept these kind of responsibility. But maybe I am wrong.

Sure there's some of that, but it's necessarily hard to quantify -- it's going to vary wildly from case to case, and be largely invisible.

Certainly, I've accepted the responsibility I'm talking about because of what I've been taught, but I made the choices to accept those teachings or not, and I didn't accept the responsibility itself until I'd accepted the teachings to the point that they changed the way I looked at and did things. "Grew up," if you like.

Originally Posted by tompe

In the US when you donate money do you keep it secret or do you tell a lot of people that you have donated money? In Sweden it is relatively common that people donate money to organisations like "Doctors withou a border" but usually that is not something they tell other people about.

I'd say that would depend a great deal on the person, for myself, I don't go around noising about the donations I make, nor any other type of service to others I might engage in. I can't think of anyone off-hand that does, actually.

Generally speaking that sort of thing would be considered bragging, and therefore self-aggrandizing, and in rather poor taste.

I knew that my mother did things for others and gave donations while I was growing up, so I had it modeled for me, but I'm pretty sure that most other folks had no idea. In fact, Jesus had something to say about that matter:

Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matt 6:1-4

Of course that last bit feeds right back into your comment about self-serving donations, and yeah, I expect a lot of folks do such things for the rewards they expect to get: it's a rather unconsidered response to that teaching, and others on the matter. However, a lot of folks do move and grow beyond that view to the point of doing "good things" because they're good, without regard for what they might get out of it. There are passages on that matter as well, but I'll refrain from dragging them out now, since they're somewhat beside the current point.

I guess my point is that even though it's pretty rare to get any real reward for doing good, at least in terms of the here and now (no good deed goes unpunished, after all!), folks still do good things anyway. Esoteric philosophies not withstanding, just dismissing that categorically seems a mite callous to me. The bit of Biblical philosophy that would seem to apply is the thing about knowing folks' hearts by the things they do.