Compassion: A Linguistics Resurrection
2011 June 5
See also the Charter for Compassion.
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Sniffing out the work of God in the world…
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One of my favorite TED talks!
Wonderful video. Let’s take a road trip to TED.
What a lovely antidote to all the “us versus them” emails and messages that seem to be making the rounds. Thanks, Mike.
What she is saying is nothing new. This is the modern version of Genesis 11. What she is proposing should NOT be confused with Christianity. Of course, her moralizing speech is no different than what is preached in the majority of churches every Sunday. This begs the question, though: If a secular humanist can preach the same things we are preaching and if she can preach it just as well, is there anything worth preaching that is distinctly Christian?
Compassion is the “path to enlightenment”?! Good grief. Nice idol there next to her, too. Poor woman.
jbazf(at)suddenlink(dot)net
Joey,
Your comment underscores my growing sense that there is a great need for thinking about our theology of pluralism–in particular when we see the fruits of the Spirit in places we never expected.
I do not know if this woman is poor. God knows. One thing I do know, there was a time I was blind, but now I see, and for me it was because of the ‘compassion’ of God in Christ. I will leave it up to the Spirit to determine the stories of others and how they come to know compassion. The Spirit goes where the Spirit goes. The Spirit animates all life. The Spirit gives gifts with reckless abandon.
The problem with idols is that they always make God less than God is. They hedge God in, and keep God tethered close by. In that respect there are far worse idols then those made out of stone or pottery.
Brotherly,
JP
Jesse,
Ms Tippett is to be pitied (what I meant by “poor woman”) because she and her friends are teaching another “gospel” and THAT is serious stuff. It’s serious, unless Paul knew that salvation was universal, in which case he was just kidding when he cursed to Hell those who were teaching another gospel. Or, maybe Paul really did mean what he said, but he didn’t know what he was talking about.
Should Christians be “compassionate? Of course we should! – scripture is full of examples of compassion. But compassion (and other virtues and moral uprightness) is not an end in itself or a “path to” anything. For the Christian, compassion is never separated from THE (one and only TRUE) Gospel of THE Lord Jesus Christ. We are compassionate and moral because we are bearers of THE Story – because we are shaped by THE Story.
It is true that virtues in non-believers is evidence of the work of God in their lives as well. But that is not to say that the Spirit is working in their lives IN THE SAME MANNER as the Spirit works in the life of the Church. The Spirit has been given to the Church in a unique way that he has not been given to non-believers.
joey
Joey,
I appreciate your passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Your reference to Galatians 1 is an interesting one. Apparently some were offended that the new Gentile Christians did not look Jewish enough. The ‘other gospel’ included provisions to rectify this. Some of the Gentile Christians were caving to this pressure, and seeking more than the original gospel. Paul will ask the Galatians, “Having received the Spirit, are you now ending in the flesh?”
There’s that Spirit again, going where no one ever imagined, landing upon people that didn’t fit the correct religious profile. I gave up trying to make the Spirit behave a long time ago. It is like trying to hold back the wind. All it does is mess up your hair.
Thanks for the good dialog Joey, and again I am thankful for your love of Christ.
Brotherly,
JP
Jesse,
I see that you are on or recently went to Guatemala with HIT. I, too, have gone to Guatemala with HIT (I’m an anesthesiologist). On the trip, there was a surgeon who was a non-believer (in Jesus as Lord). What he and I (and the rest of the group) were engaged in was compassion. The compassion he was demonstrating and the compassion I was demonstrating were NOT the same thing. His was NOT a “fruit of the Spirit.” As part of the Body of Christ, mine was. Our (believers’) compassion is a radically different kind of compassion because it is born out of the soil of our Story. Our compassion cannot be separated from God has done in and through and as Jesus and his life, death and resurrection. The writers of the NT are writing to believers and assume the Story as the substructure to all they say. When Paul wrote of the Fruits if the Spirit, Paul had Christians in mind and no one else.
Our Father is indeed pursuing all of his children relentlessly. In addition, all of the warm virtues present in non-Christians is the result of his work in them (call it the Spirit, if you like). But this is not same thing as the work of the Spirit in the Body, which cannot be separated from the Story.
This surgeon is a compassionate man. But, having rejected the Story of Jesus, he will die in his sin (SADLY!). “Compassion,” as Ms Tippet et al have construed it does not lead to Life (her “enlightenment”?). She and those who endorse her gospel, at the very least, are misleading those who hear her. The Church, and all that she represents, and as she has been enabled by the Father, is the world’s only hope.
joey
I wouldn’t have expected anyone to set forth the anti-compassion view here. But well played.
I guess otherwise I might have thought that a speech calling for compassion at a TED conference was a pretty good thing. But no — let’s sneak back into our churches and convince each other that the only compassion that really counts is our compassion.
Sometimes we wear ourselves out huddling with ourselves and slapping each other on the back.
There are other believers in Jesus (the name Krista Tippett comes to mind) who try to take the discussion into the marketplace.
Lan,
From what I wrote, you got that I was anti-compassion?! Perhaps you didn’t read all that I wrote. Oh well.
I have been the grateful beneficiary of compassion by non-Christians. Christians are to be compassionate! Of course, we are. Our being “nice people” is not the salvation of the World and is not the heart of what God has called us to do and be. We are the bearers of the Story. THAT is our calling.
joey