A Spiritual Reflection
Published 11:59 am Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Compassion. In every major world religion – Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and more – the principle of compassion is central to every faith tradition. One has only to read their holy works to see that it is true. It is unfortunate, at the very least, that this central, foundational principle of compassion is being ignored in favor of ideological, partisan, and militaristic dogmas and ethics which run counter to the very heart of what people of faith say they believe.
By definition compassion, in every case, is the act of showing concern, pity, mercy, tolerance, and forgiveness to others who are different from us in appearance, culture, politics, race, belief, and ethos. It means we do nothing which is disrespectful, demeaning, or hurtful to the other person, no matter how much we may disagree with them.
The opposite of compassion is objectification wherein the other person is treated as a thing without regard to dignity, life, health, or general well-being. It is through objectification that human beings demonize and treat as un-human any other person or group on the basis of differences or disagreement.
At this point in history our political, religious, social, and cultural institutions and their leaders are deeply embroiled in practices of objectification of others rather than acting out of compassion. One has only to look at local, regional, national, and international news reports to see where objectification and demonization of “the other” has led to missile strikes and military actions in Israel and Gaza, the destruction of a Malaysian civilian airliner, the abduction and enslavement of hundreds of girls in Nigeria, the desire of some in our nation to simply turn innocent children away from our borders to suffer and die, the disregard of basic human medical and social needs through denial of physical and mental health care by our state legislatures, and, yes, even the use of images of political figures as targets at a local “patriotic” event.
Since we are a predominantly Christian culture in the foothills of western North Carolina our values – individually, communally, culturally, politically, and institutionally – are espoused to be those which follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, so let us look to our own house first.
In one singular statement Jesus Christ described the greatest of all the laws is that one is to love God completely and to love [show compassion to/for] others as if those persons are “like yourself.” He emphasizes this point in the Gospel according to Luke (10:25-37) in the story of the Good Samaritan, holding up the example of a man who encounters someone from a despised religious tradition who is in need and shows that person compassion. Jesus immediately follows that story with the unequivocal commandment that we are to “go and do likewise.”
As I see and hear the excuses being made for objectifying others in order to kill, debase, humiliate, deprive, or demean others based on human principles of sovereignty, political survival, free speech and expression, necessity, and economics I continue to be appalled at how little those who participate in such decisions and activities fail to comprehend the primary underlying concepts of faith which so many declare as being primary in their thinking and actions. As we can see, the ultimate manifestation of objectification is violence and death for everyone involved. Only through a mindset of compassion, lived out and acted out daily by everyone in every encounter with those with whom we may find ourselves in conflict, can we truly claim to be Christian, or even civil, and have any hope for peace.
Let those who are supposed to be our leaders take note of this, and may they all, in every place, provide examples of compassionate action rather than objectification of the other for purposes partisan and unholy.
~ Michael Doty