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Compassion That Kills: Is the Mainline a Dangerous Samaritan? |
| Section: MODERN THOUGHT / POINT/COUNTERPOINT: DOES COMPASSION HELP OR HINDER? |
| Author: Walter W. Benjamin |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 5/1/1995 |
| Size: 3,214 Words, 21,179 Characters |
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His neighbors protested in vain as the village became a slum and the panhandlers increased in numbers and intensity. But Law would not relent. Since he knew the laws of spiritual formation, he generalized this wisdom regarding the cure of poverty. Since his intentions were pure and in keeping with the Sermon on the Mount, he did not need to heed the consequences of his charity.
It would be well to ponder Law's experience. Compassion can be defined, according to William Bennett, former secretary of education, as "that virtue that takes seriously the reality of other persons, their inner lives, their emotions, as well as their external circumstances." The policies of our government and the stance of our mainline churches may be at fault in focusing too narrowly on external data regarding the marginalized. Overlooked is the effect of policies of amelioration on the character of the poor. Imprudent charity often injures, and thoughtless compassion compounds the pathology of tragic situations. Religious compassion may make churches dangerous Samaritans if their policies are not periodically subjected to prudential and empirical examination.
The following are eight principles of compassion:
THE WELFARE STATE CORRUPTS US ALL
Its benefits are too easy to obtain and too attractive to resist. By a multitude of rationalizations, we come to feel we are a special case and that the state owes us an entitlement. We can fit or invent a category--gender, age, race, background, environment, military service, physical condition, emotional limitation, sexual orientation--by which we claim certain benefits. Our political representatives are returned to office because of promises of how much they can do for us. Lost is the idealism of President Kennedy's appeal: "Ask not how much your country can do for you, but how much you can do for your country." The communal loyalty of the Roman virtue, civitas, pales in comparison to egoistic drive for entitlement.
Before I turned sixty-two, I waxed eloquently against the smorgasbord of goodies--everything from MacDonald's twenty-five-cent coffee t...
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...help the unfortunate. The lessons of the past few decades are clear. Good intentions are not enough: Aiming is not hitting; meaning well is not necessarily doing well. Churches need to relearn the biblical doctrine that poverty is not primarily a lack of money; it is a lack of something else. Only then can it help to firm up the moral and spiritual base that is so badly eroding in our nation.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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