A friend recently sent me a link to this blog post. In it, the author talks about the differance between justice and compassion – as he describes it, compassion is feeding the hungry, while justice is working to end the causes of hunger.
This sort of talk makes me uneasy.
Don’t get me wrong – I am all for working to end systemic problems. If you have the chance to make life better for those on the margins and you do not, I think you are wrong. On two days out of three, I would even call it sinful.
But I suspect the reason so many of us are attracted to high level solutions (ie. “working for justice”) has less to do with our desire to see a just world and more to do with us.
We have bought into the myth of our exceptionalism. We believe that all problems have solutions and, what is more, that those solutions can be discovered by us. In fact, I would go further than that – we believe that those solutions should be discovered and implemented by us. We view ourselves as the world’s problem solvers. We are the virtuous ones. We are the standard.
We have nothing to learn. Because we already know the answers.
Most faith based versions of compassion, such as a short term mission trip or an afternoon at the soup kitchen, are no better. They reinforce to us that we are the fortunate ones, that we are the standard and that we deserve to be the way we are. Short term service can, and often does, revolve around our issues of convenience and control.
My work is about moving beyond, to use, the author’s words, either compassion or justice and into relationship.
Relationship is not me centered, but relationship centered. Entering into relationship is messy and time consuming. Entering into relationship is humbling – because in a relationship we have to subliminate some of what we want in order for the relationship to work.
If the church were to focus on entering into relationship with the poor instead of merely having compassion for the poor or instead of working for justice for the poor, then the church could learn from the poor.
But first we would have to believe that they have something to teach us.
Our family has been involved in the compassionate side of the equation … feeding the hungry. I have been interested in and sometimes participated in the justice end of the equation … ending the causes of hunger. I think both are extremely important aspects of dealing with this major problem. That is where we cut our teeth and had personal growth. So in some ways, yes, you are correct in saying it was about us/me. I will only speak for myself here and say that growth was necessary to get me to a place where I could finally gain a real understanding about the third part of the equation … building relationships. Much of what I’ve learned about this relational aspect, I’ve learned from you and your approach to this issue. However, it seems to me that we need all the parts to equal a whole. I too wish the church would focus on the relational aspect and follow others who have gone before us, like Mother Theresa who lived among the poor and modeled the relational aspect beautifully. But we aren’t all capable of being Mother Theresa’s. So I am grateful for those who show compassion and feed the hungry and for those who care about justice and work tirelessly to do the work to end the causes of hunger. That gives some the time and ability to work on the messy and time consuming business of building relationships and learning from some beautiful people.
I hear you, Kathy. But I am reminded of what Dorothy Day said, when people would call her a saint because of her relational work with the poor: “Don’t call me a saint – I don’t want to be dismissed that easily”.
When we say “I am not Mother Theresa”, it can be easy to say “so instead, I will just send money”. And then we learn nothing.
You will never hear me say that we should not work for justice. But I think much charity (which I like better than the author’s use of the word compassion) is misplaced and an attempt to exercise power and control.
This is why I love the beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice”. I love the idea of doing justice out of our basic need to sustain life. I don’t get any praise for drinking water or eating food. It is natural and essential to my life. Doing justice should be no different. Great post, Hugh.
I understand your point Hugh and agree with it, but I think there is more. Let me try to explain my point in a different way. I was brought up in a certain faith denomination. In high school my boyfriend was from another denomination very different from mine and I liked his and did that for a while, until I didn’t like it any more. Throughout my life I tried others and none of them ever felt right. I’m not a part of any of them anymore and would never go back, but I do feel I learned something from being a part of each tradition, and along with other things, formed who I am today. It’s a part of the whole you can’t throw away or dismiss, so it means something, therefore it has value.
I too thought the word compassion missed the boat because compassion extends way beyond where the author stopped short. And you are right in saying that much of what we do is exercising our power and control over situations. But even in the relational aspect, don’t we still do that to some degree? If one decides that a certain day of the week is their day to be away from it all and have needed down time to reenergize and re-focus, and they don’t deal with anything else during that time that comes up, isn’t that a form of control? Or if one spends time with someone but sets boundaries (not debating here whether boundaries are needed, healthy, etc.), like not giving them money, etc., isn’t that a form of power and control?
I understand totally where you are coming from and it is a huge frustration for me too, but someone with much wisdom I know made me see we need all of it to work towards the common goal we all share … to end the causes of poverty and homelessness and to love people well. That person was you Hugh!