Are you compassionate?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
By Megan Sweas
Comments (7)
Sure it's easy enough to say we all should follow the Golden Rule and be compassionate, but what does that mean and how do we do it?
This is the challenge of the Charter for Compassion, Karen Armstrong's recently launched initiative which aims "to restore compassion to the central place of religious life," as she told us recently in an interview (coming up in the January issue). Seems like an uncontroversial idea, right?
But Armstrong told us that she has received negative feedback, especially in England. It seems that some aren't so excited about compassionate language--as we can see so clearly online sometimes. "There are a lot of people who are quite happy to race out doing good, but don't mind slighting Muslims for example," she says. "That's the point of the double version of the Golden Rule."
The Golden Rule is not just "do onto others as you would have them do onto you" but also "don't do to others what you would not want them do to you" (the negative wording is from Confucius, the first to outline the rule).
The other challenge is that people don't know what compassion means. Armstrong and leaders from the worlds' religious traditions drafted their charter based on input from people online. "I found out from the website [that] a lot of people think it means feeling sorry for people instead of putting your experience with the other, to put yourself in the position of the other," she says.
Many of the activities surrounding the launch are focused on education as much as action.
Armstrong didn't have much confidence in getting bishop conferences involved in the launch. She sees this as a grassroots movement. I encourage you, therefore, to sign onto the charter but also to do something about.
Bring this conversation to your family, parish, school, and community. Can you get your pastor preach on compassion one Sunday? What compassionate action are you willing to take?
Less than a week after the charter launched, it has more than 15,000 affirmers. That's not enough for a global effort on such a universal value. As Catholics, I encourage you to help spread this movement-and compassion itself.
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I have found falling into
By John David (not verified) on Wednesday, November 18, 2009I have found falling into the trap of hating and not recognizing it as hate all too easy. In it's own way hating is can be very suductive, as it is engerizing and self-satisfying, but ultimately it is also cowardly.
I believe that I have witnessed many elaborate justifications to hate, even ways of calling it "holy". It is all to easy to disguise hatred with academic analysis and distinctions, to wrap it in cross and flag. Self-rightiousness is a very powerful tool of the devil to allows us not to see the hate that is in our own hearts, to project it on to some "other's. More often than not, it is just a projection of our own tensions, our own unwillingness to live with the doubts and uncertainity that faih demands (if you have certainity, there is no need to have faith).
Sadly, there is nothing of the above that I have not myself experienced. Actually, for that matter, there have been too many times when I have plunged into a willingness to allow hate to take over and cover it with all kinds of excuses (as I said, it certainly can be suductive).
I pray that I as well as others are willing to do the hard work of not falling into the trap of hating, of not loving our neighbor while finding ways of disguising what we, who profess to follow The Risen Jesus are asked to overcome.
Prayers for your journey
Response to Charter of Compassion
By Jerry (not verified) on Tuesday, November 17, 2009“to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity”
Psalm 97 informs us that those who love God hate evil. Hating Nazism, Communism and Islamism is good. In general, it is good to love the sinner and hate the sin. However, it detracts from our humanity if we do not hate Adolf Hitler or Kim Sung Il. We can let God take care of judging Hitler or Osama Bin Laden’s eternal fate while we work to kill him.
“to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures”
Under the principal of political correctness, Karen Armstrong is for inaccurate information about Islam. It’s great, for example, for U.S. Catholic to give a voice to moderate Muslims, but it is deceiving if it does not acknowledge that violence in Islam has a deep tradition going back to Mohammad beheading 600-900 Qurayza Jews.
Furthermore, the Bible embraces violence to stop evil within the framework of just war principles.
“We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion”
Truth and riteousness is the center of morality and religion. Compassion, at the state level, can cause more harm than good.
Jerry, thank-you for your
By John David (not verified) on Wednesday, November 18, 2009Jerry, thank-you for your post. Once again, we see things differently. I understand and am fine with that. Yet, I will just share with you one of my thoughts; That compassion is an intrinsic part of "Truth", it cannot be seperated. I wouldn't be so sure of being dismissive of it, or, for that matter, trapping it in a box. It is much bigger and much more fluid than that, as I believe "truth" is as well. Perhaps that is at the core of why we see so much differently.
May Christ's peace be with you, Jerry
Truth and Compassion
By Jerry (not verified) on Thursday, November 19, 2009I will certainly be in need of God's compassion so I'm all for it.
Society and individuals have a challenge to manage between setting standards and being compassionate. If compassion is the primary value, chaos will reign, which in the end is not very compassionate for society.
As America's greatest living philospher Thomas Sowell reminds us, "Mercy for the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/09/01/suicide_of_the_west?page=full&comments=true
I agree with the danger of
By John David (not verified) on Friday, November 20, 2009I agree with the danger of imbalance, as I have often said in my posts. But I would like to note that compassion is from the heart. Too often, there are subtle ways to deny this. When that happens it becomes a cold, academic, intellectual encounter and drains itself from the holyness that is compassion. And worst is that it is often not recognized as such. It is a challange, but they must remain seperate and, at the same time, be one and work together. Let's leave it to the Holy spirit to bridge that dicotomy.
Plenty of isms
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, November 17, 2009Jerry you forgot one Fascism. When corporations and governments are wedded together under the guise of patriotism
isms
By Jerry (not verified) on Thursday, November 19, 2009Thanks for your suggestion. I put in a form of facsism, Nazism, in the mix, but when the level of evil I was talking about was so evil that we are morally obliged to hunt down and kill someone, I wouldn't want to use as broad a term as fascism. I don't think we should hunt down and kill people who follow the "liberal fascism" propagated by H.G. Wells at Oxford..
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