Is a radical preference for the poor a Judeao-Christian idea, or is it at the heart of any ethical system?

But although Christian teaching underlines the importance of this duty, and gives us insight into how and where we might do this, this duty is not just the preserve of Christians: in Piers Plowman, Langland complains that Christians are less charitable than Jews; my Muslim friends talk about the duty to help the poor and are always helping each other; in today’s Sydney Morning Herald (9.6.07) Peter Singer, who is, I believe, an atheist, argues that everyone in the rich world should donate 25% of their income to charities such as Oxfam (a practice he follows himself, and says so, believing that people follow by example); when my brother-in-law was dying a Buddhist group helped my sister to care for him.