Tragedy and Compassion – two words that we don’t normally associate
together. How could compassion be tragic? While we likely have different
levels of bad news in mind when think of tragedy, we are all in
agreement that tragedy is bad and something ought to be done. Although I
think the TV news industry is working hard to widen the definition to
include hangnails.
Compassion is a bit more complicated. We tend to think of compassion
from the same perspective that we think of love – the unbiblical,
Greco-Roman emotional view. Americans view compassion today differently
than we did 250 years ago. We want to “relieve suffering” but don’t stop
to think about the proper way of doing this, or even if there is such a
thing. There are some issues – life threatening, for example – for
which rapid elimination of the threat is proper. But there are many life
issues that are the accumulation of bad decisions for which there is no
proper quick relief. We can look at G.W. Bush’s policy in the Middle
East, thinking the solution there was to quickly implant democratic
governments. People will not value the liberty a representative
government of laws brings until they realize their need of it. Small
children will not realize the value of math if mom tells them the
answers rather than teaches and asks diagnostic questions. Keep Reading >>>
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