Slides: Christianity and Compassion

Christianity and Compassion by David Feddes

Crime of compassion

• Caught in the act and punished by death

• The crime: caring for deformed and crippled children who were supposed to die

• Clashed with Roman practices of aborting, abandoning, or drowning children with disabilities. Society was thought to be better off without the disabled. Rescuing the unfit made Christians enemies of society.

• Today’s new paganism screens and aborts unborn children with disabilities

Is compassion a natural impulse?

• Greek philosopher Plato: poor man no longer able to work should be left to die.

• Roman philosopher Plautus: “You do a beggar bad service by giving him food and drink; you lose what you give and prolong his life for more misery.” That is, you’re better off spending your money on yourself, and the poor person is better off dead.

• German philosopher Nietzsche: Christian compassion is “slave morality.”

Do all religions value compassion?

• Eastern religions: People suffer due to karma from bad behavior in previous lives. Let them go on suffering to pay the penalty, so that they can then be reincarnated in a better life.

• Hindu caste system: Upper classes are proud of good karma earned in previous lives. They think it’s bad to help or be with lower castes.

• Jesus: Denying compassion to others in this life can mean hell in the life to come.

King of compassion

• Millions today value compassion, not because it’s a natural impulse or valued by all religions, but due to Jesus’ impact.

• Seeing needy crowds, “he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matt 14:14). Helped blind  see, deaf hear, lame walk, fed hungry (Mark 8:1-8).

• Jesus told disciples “to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:2).

Christians unlike pagans

• Emperors and elites did favors only to win political points and gain allies. Patrons helped relatives, or clients with clout, who could return favors and build wealth.

• Jesus said to be kind not just to relatives or rich neighbors. Be generous to “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:12-14).

Alexandria epidemic 250 A.D.

• Pagans “thrust aside anyone who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends, and cast the sufferers out upon the public roads half dead, and left them unburied, and treated them with utter contempt when they died.”

• Many of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy.”

Grudging admiration

• Julian the Apostate said it was shameful that pagans could expect more help from Christians than from family members and fellow pagans.

• Lucian: “The earnestness with which the people of this religion help one another in their needs is incredible. They spare themselves nothing for this end. Their first lawgiver [Jesus] put it into their heads that they were all brethren.”

• If Christians lacked resources to help a hungry person, they would fast for a day or two, and help with what they had saved by not eating.

Sacrifice led to growth

• Did Christian risks and deaths cause decrease?

• No, they kept growing as a percentage of the population, and pagans kept shrinking.

• Though some Christians died, their loving provision of food, sanitation, and comfort saved many and reduced deaths by two thirds. Christian communities had far more survivors.

• Many surviving pagans owed their lives to Christians who helped them after pagan families and friends abandoned them. Many pagans then became Christians.

Compassion conquers

• Christianity grew amazingly, despite seeming to contradict self-interest: helping during epidemics, sharing with needy, rescuing babies, tithing, enduring persecution.

• Christians chose compassion and suffering with Jesus, rather than living without Jesus.

• Rome thought survival depended on cold cruelty. But the cruel culture collapsed, and “weak” Christianity kept spreading, eventually conquering the Empire.

• Compassion was a weapon, not a weakness.

Institutions of compassion

• Orphans (James 1:27): in persecution era, offerings for orphans, adopted many, had godparents at infant baptism to help children if parents died and also pray for them.

• Later established orphanages.

• Hospitals: In 325, Council of Nicea not only upheld the doctrine of the Trinity, but called for a hospital in every city with a cathedral.

• Hospitals provided lodging for traveling strangers, and care for sick people who needed to rest and recover.

Before and after

• Romans had some medical facilities for rich people and soldiers, but nothing for sick people in general. No orphanages or hospitals for poor or general public till Christians started them.

• Greeks and Romans were great builders of temples, arenas, and roads—but not hospitals.

• India: missionaries introduced hospitals and orphanages where Hindus long ignored needs

• Wherever Christianity spread, more institutions of compassion appeared.

Medical & relief agencies

• Nursing: started with monks and nuns funded by offerings. Reached new level with Florence Nightingale: “The kingdom of God is within, but we must also make it so without.”

• Henri Dunant, International Red Cross: “I am a disciple of Christ… and nothing more.”

• In 1887 evangelicals started Salvation Army.

• In 1887, Christians started Charity Organizations Society (United Way).

Helping the weak

• Alchoholics Anonymous and Twelve Step groups were rooted in Christian ideas.

• Campaigns for laws against child labor

• Ministries to help prisoners and families

• First to establish homes for elderly that could provide special medical care and help that was too much for families to provide.

Forgetting the origin

• Most charitable institutions have Christian roots.

• Committed Christians (or those only a generation or two removed) are far more generous than others.

• “Christian ideals have permeated society until non-Christians, who claim to live a ‘decent life’ without religion, have forgotten the origin of the very content and context of their ‘decency.’”

The least of these

• “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me… whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt 25:35-36).

• “a cup of water in my name” (Mark 9:41).

• Don’t separate compassion from the Name!