They [robbers] stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. Luke 10:30-33
Compassion is a topic that has been rolling around in my head for several years. Rightly applied, itis a good thing. Wrongly applied it can lead to unintended results and even heresy. I have been given a big dose of compassion and its companion, encouragement. As such, I feel that I have a good command of this topic.
Compassion is part of empathy – feeling the needs of others and responding, just as the Samaritan did in the scripture while religious people walked by ignoring the needs of others.
In the early parts of Covid where there were lockdowns around the world, I discovered that some of my international friends from MentorLink were suffering and had needs. I felt led to send $200 to my friend Sam Sunder Singh in Chennai, India. It was just a gesture of kindness, but I was not prepared for his response.
He wrote me that he knew of 12 pastors that had no food. 1,000 rupees ($13) would pay for enough food for a pastor and his intergenerational family for 2 weeks. It took Sam 4 days to transfer funds out of his account because he only had 3 free transfers a day. He then wrote back to ask if he could use most of the rest of the money for some of his students who likewise had no food. I said yes of course, but it got me to thinking.
In large swaths of the developing world, it is a cash culture. When churches don’t meet, they don’t take up an offering and so pastors don’t get paid. There is no government safety net. I asked around to my other international contact in Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ukraine, and Philippines. All pastors had similar issues but never mentioned them to me.
That began my campaign with friends to supply some of their needs. Three years and some $150,000 later, we have helped those who had no other way to support themselves during tough times. I’ve often said that Christianity is a “team sport”. By that I mean that I didn’t have the ability to satisfy all of the needs out, but with friends who have compassion, we have accomplished a lot.
This is the good part of compassion. But like anything else, it is a two-edged sword, and it can have a downside. In his book titled The Tyranny of Compassion by Marvin Olasky, the author goes into great depth of how compassion when taken to an extreme can have unintended consequences.
He cites the example of the welfare state in the US which started in the late 1930’s under Franklin Delano Roosevelt with social security and was enhanced by President Johnson in the 1960’s by expanding welfare benefits without the requirement of any effort. Compassion led to dependency through government policy.
Work is a biblical principle starting in Genesis when God told Adam “By the sweat of your brow, so shall you eat.” It has been a bedrock principle of our civilization that we teach our children to be self-sufficient by learning to work and earn their own living. Like any principle, it can be ignored. Compassionate lawmakers eliminated the need to work and provided a welfare system that actually discourages work. Many could earn more by not working, resulting in lots of cultural issues that we are dealing with today.
Compassion has also enabled homelessness. Giving handouts to those on the street without a requirement on the other side to help themselves through rehabs if they have drug addiction, only leads to more homelessness.
A simple example of where compassion goes too far is a proposed bill in Oregon that permits homeless people to live in any public space, and if they are harassed, they can sue for $1,000. Mind you that a public space might be the sidewalk in front of your house, not just a sidewalk in front of your business.
One other illustration – totally different – is how compassion overrides scriptural teaching. I recently had an interaction with someone who argued that the LGBTQ+ opposition by Christians is wrong because as he says: “LGBTQ: Until someone has been close to someone in that category, they don’t get it. They may think they do, but they don’t.” He is not alone in his thinking by the way. What he in effect is saying is that it is good to be compassionate for the LGBTQ community while ignoring what the bible has to say about it.
What that basically says is that compassion overrides biblical teaching (read Romans 1:18-32). It’s a sin, just like adultery is a sin. But the bible also says to love one another. It does not say to love another’s sin. That thinking is where a number of churches are going astray in their theology of man, woman, and marriage.
The Church of England is facing this now as recently conservative Anglicans met in Rwanda to reaffirm that biblical views of man, woman and marriage. This is the same issue that led to a resurgence of American Anglicanism as an antidote to the Episcopal Church in the America.
The bottom line is that compassion can be a good thing and value, but it can also be misapplied leading to some consequences that weren’t foreseen. Studies of the next generation show that they are more open to LGBTQ issues, but the real task is to help them understand that there are biblical principles at work too.
MENTOR TAKEAWAY: Our next generation has exhibited a lot of compassion, but they need to realize that it has limits and can be applied wrongly.
FURTHER READING:
The Tyranny of Kindness – Dismantling the Welfare System to End Poverty in America – Funicielo.
Conservative Anglicans Reject Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury – Christianity Today
Compassionate Conservatism: What it is, what it does and how it can transform America – Olasky.
WORSHIP: Open the Eyes of My Heart – Baloche
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