Although none of us/you, the typical readers/contributors of/to this blog is Orthodox Christian (to my knowledge, but I can see Alex harboring an icon or two, what with his quiet, meditative ways), and we might not understand all of the images, the message resonates with me in a much deeper way than the standard "get saved" fare we are accustomed to in the American evangelical church.
This is a bit off the beaten path of our compassion discussion, but there are several crossover concepts. I shall refrain from saying any more and see instead where any discussion leads.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Empathy: The missing link to compassion
"If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along alot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view...until you climb into their skin and walk around in it." Atticus Finch To Kill A Mockingbird
I think that reading this story has opened my eyes to a whole new level of compassion. I'm not sure if anyone else loves this story as much as I do, but so many amazing things about life and Christ's overall message can be derived from its pages. I think it's important to discuss true empathy when considering compassion. One of the key ways to train a soldier to kill is to teach them to look at the enemy as an animal...to dehumanize them. I'm convinced that every prejudice, every apartheid, every war begins with the fundamental steps of turning the opposing party into something other than our "fellow man"...
When we view others as the overwhelming emotion that we mistakenly associate as them, the result is a new ability to tare them to shreds. Talk to any war veteran from any era and you'll understand my perspective. My Great-Grandfather was stationed in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese began their invasion... to him the Japanese became animals that could easily be disposed of... no longer humans with families, wives, children, parents; when talking to my Grandfather about Vietnam, he refers to the "enemy" as "zipper-heads"... I'm convinced that this technique our brain uses to dehumanize the opposition is a survival mechanism that kicks in only because we are incapable of rationally being able to deal with the horrible things that we do or have done to other humans.
As followers of The Way, we are commissioned to love all and show compassion, which I believe is rooted in empathy... we actually have to, as Jesus did, fully take on their perspective in a way that loves our neighbors as we love ourselves. Perfect life like examples that we have had from our history can be found in those of Mother Theresa and Gandhi. These folks didn't just talk about how the poor, widowed, and marginalized were being mistreated. They knew how they were being mistreated because they lived and walked with these folks daily. I think that what has plagued the Church for the past fifty years is that in keeping up with the American Dream, we have dehumanized the divorced, the abused, the addicted, the crass, the misdressed, and the down and out. What has happened in my opinion is a slow seeping of our love into the sewers before it can ever leave the door posts of the buildings. In many ways we have taken this lifestyle of loving on the marginalized that Jesus commanded and turned it into short term missions and "charity". We, the Church, not only don't know the struggle of our brothers and sisters in the pews next to us... but we no longer see those afflicted with poverty as humans... they are simply statistics... numbers that beg us of our extra cash, extra food, extra clothes, extra cars...and that's all we are willing to give: whatever is extra. True empathy, is the ability to give all we have to help our fellow sisters and brothers because upon truly seeing things from their perspective we have to. I think that compassion is just a beneficial by-product of empathy. The question that I feel is necessary to ask here is: How can we become a people of empathy? The major issues of the day plead for our empathy: the homosexual, the homeless, the starving, the aids victim, the teen who needs the abortion, the woman is treated as a second class citizen to her male counterparts... the list goes on and will continue too. How can we become a people of empathy?
I think that reading this story has opened my eyes to a whole new level of compassion. I'm not sure if anyone else loves this story as much as I do, but so many amazing things about life and Christ's overall message can be derived from its pages. I think it's important to discuss true empathy when considering compassion. One of the key ways to train a soldier to kill is to teach them to look at the enemy as an animal...to dehumanize them. I'm convinced that every prejudice, every apartheid, every war begins with the fundamental steps of turning the opposing party into something other than our "fellow man"...
When we view others as the overwhelming emotion that we mistakenly associate as them, the result is a new ability to tare them to shreds. Talk to any war veteran from any era and you'll understand my perspective. My Great-Grandfather was stationed in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese began their invasion... to him the Japanese became animals that could easily be disposed of... no longer humans with families, wives, children, parents; when talking to my Grandfather about Vietnam, he refers to the "enemy" as "zipper-heads"... I'm convinced that this technique our brain uses to dehumanize the opposition is a survival mechanism that kicks in only because we are incapable of rationally being able to deal with the horrible things that we do or have done to other humans.
As followers of The Way, we are commissioned to love all and show compassion, which I believe is rooted in empathy... we actually have to, as Jesus did, fully take on their perspective in a way that loves our neighbors as we love ourselves. Perfect life like examples that we have had from our history can be found in those of Mother Theresa and Gandhi. These folks didn't just talk about how the poor, widowed, and marginalized were being mistreated. They knew how they were being mistreated because they lived and walked with these folks daily. I think that what has plagued the Church for the past fifty years is that in keeping up with the American Dream, we have dehumanized the divorced, the abused, the addicted, the crass, the misdressed, and the down and out. What has happened in my opinion is a slow seeping of our love into the sewers before it can ever leave the door posts of the buildings. In many ways we have taken this lifestyle of loving on the marginalized that Jesus commanded and turned it into short term missions and "charity". We, the Church, not only don't know the struggle of our brothers and sisters in the pews next to us... but we no longer see those afflicted with poverty as humans... they are simply statistics... numbers that beg us of our extra cash, extra food, extra clothes, extra cars...and that's all we are willing to give: whatever is extra. True empathy, is the ability to give all we have to help our fellow sisters and brothers because upon truly seeing things from their perspective we have to. I think that compassion is just a beneficial by-product of empathy. The question that I feel is necessary to ask here is: How can we become a people of empathy? The major issues of the day plead for our empathy: the homosexual, the homeless, the starving, the aids victim, the teen who needs the abortion, the woman is treated as a second class citizen to her male counterparts... the list goes on and will continue too. How can we become a people of empathy?
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