-The Methodist Service Book B8
"Past the seeker as he prayed
came the crippled and the beggar
and the beaten. And seeing them...
he cried, 'Great God, how is it
that a loving creator can see such things
...and yet do nothing about them?'...
God said,'I did do something.
I made you."
-Sufi Teaching
"In schools all over the world, little boys learn that their country is the greatest in the world, and the highest honour that could befall them would be to defend it heroically someday. The fact that empathy has traditionally been conditioned out of boys facilitates their obedience to leaders who order them to kill."
-Myriam Miedzian
Compassion...does it still matter? In a TV news broadcast last Sunday it was said "South Africa doesn't love!". Crime and disregard for others is rife. I would like to think that for all our grave faults, SA can still be a caring, compassionate nation. Though wanting in many respects we are an "Ubuntu Nation" at heart. Compassion can be more than just a principle enshrined in our Constitution to which we just give lip-service. It must take root in our hearts.
Photo Credit: http://imgur.com/NhC4m
There have been horrific times when the Church too has been abusive, hurtful, exclusive, and dismissive. Both Nation and Church can be awfully cold and callous at times. It continues to this day. Almost everyday I meet people who have been Nation or Church "wounded". Yet, for all our depravity, there is a stream of compassion that, given the will, can be counted for a river.
Some years ago I was invited to present a series of studies on the diverse religious expressions in our Durban North community. Martin Prozesky and Patrick Maxwell described KwaZulu-Natal as a veritable "World Religious Heritage Site". KZN is religiously speaking, quite unique. I delivered the series under the title, "Rivers of Compassion" - a title I borrowed from Bede Griffiths - mindful of the subject and the context . It was intended to be an appreciation of the various spiritualities in our community focusing on the universal need to care, to love, and be loved. Sadly the announcement provoked an outcry from some members of our community, notably Christians. It was most astonishing. There were letters to the local press and angry complaints to the minister. The negative response underscored just how deeply prejudiced we are. Very little compassion was spared in the objections, criticisms, and vitriol that followed.
I didn't need to justify myself. Here was a serious instance of group projection. Human nature is too readily inclined to see splinters in another's eye than to discern even a twinkle of divine grace. Casting our own inner "shadows" onto others isn't peculiar to Christians though. One need only read the deidicated religious groups on Usenet newsgroups to realise this. Scapegoating goes back a long way in human history. It is a universal malady. Jesus repeatedly challenged such narrow-minded bigotry. I had myself been deeply enriched by men and women of other faiths. I had been drawn to Christ through a Swami just as Chrysostom had been preveniently influenced by his “pagan” teacher, Libanius. Upon my conversion I was attracted to Methodism with its "theology of love". John Wesley once wrote something that was to mould my own spirituality:
"Above all, remembering that God is love, he [the Christian] is conformed to the same likeness. He is full of love to his neighbour, of universal love, not confined to one sect or party, not restrained to those who agree with him in opinions or in outward modes of worship, or to those who are allied to him by blood or recommended by nearness of place. Neither does he love those only that love him or that are endeared to him by intimacy or acquaintance. But his love resembles that of Him whose mercy is over all His works. It soars above all these scanty bounds, embracing neighbours and strangers, friends and enemies - yea, not only the good and gentle, but also the froward, the evil, and unthankful..... This is the plain, naked portraiture of a Christian."
-John Wesley, Letters, II, 376-80
"Universal Love" was what I sought and endeavoured to preach. Wesley spoke of an all encompassing, sacrificial love and concern for others. It was a vision I desired to instill in others. It was the inherent principle of Africans too known as ubuntu.
Some time after the "Rivers of Compassion" series I accidentally came across a booklet by Izak Labuschagne titled Ubuntu, the Constituitionally Legislated State Religion of the New South Africa (http://www.izak.co.za/UBUNTU.htm) that made a rather startling reference to me. Ubuntu is the African notion of humaneness but in this severe critique the author equates it with "secular humanism". Ubuntu is of course much more than that. Anyway, in the view of the author, syncretism in the Church was undermining the Christian Faith and playing into the hands of the so-called "New World Order". Quoting me, he wrote:
.... the Church has fallen for it hook line and sinker. Last year the Methodist Church in their [sic] rivers of compassion lecture by Rev Colin Garvie stated:-
"Join us on a journey of discovery and understanding as we sail some of the world's great rivers of compassion - the Yoga of the Gita - the Zen of Suzuki, the Sufism of Rumi and the Ubuntu of Kaunda - to the great ocean of Christian love. In this series of four sessions we will undertake a surprising voyage of spiritual enrichment as we explore the concept of Divine Love and Compassion found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Traditional African Religion. Not only will we gain a deeper appreciation of our neighbours religion but begin to experience the down to earth mystery of what Methodists refer to as "Perfect love".
I was one of an esteemed company:
Africa Enterprise did a newsletter in August 1995 sporting the title "UBUNTU - AE style" in which they laud Ubuntu as an important "Bridge Building Encounter".
Rallying Dr Edward Cain the author continued...
Have you read Dr. Ed Cain's 'Signposts on the SACC, the Rustenburg Declaration, TEASA, Media Spotlight's Vol. 14 on the 'Parliament of the World's religions'? Have you taken a good look at SABC's Koinonia program and how that pushes interfaith? Have you listened to Religion on the line on radio? How easily we are brainwashed through gradualism.
In the estimation of many the SACC, Rustenburg Declaration, etc could hardly be thought of as a wishy-washy compromise of the Gospel. On the contrary. We were apparently guilty not only of syncretism, humanism, but also gradualism. What had become of the compassion, I wondered? What astonished me more however was that the author and I had so much in common and yet we were worlds apart! We...
- both were descendants of Wakkerstroom Afrikaner families
- both attended the same school in Potchefstroom
- both had been Methodists
- both testified to be "born again" disciples of Jesus
- both had been Local (Lay) Preachers
- both had been called into the Ministry
- both...
How could we both, with so much in common, end up on the opposite ends of the faith spectrum? That is something for the psychologists and theologians to puzzle over. How was it that we had such diverse approaches to such critical issues? I really didn't know. My objective was simply to follow Christ as my Redeemer and live compassionately in harmony with my neighbours. That was God's distinct calling on my life.
I can't speak for my brother but two recent publications re-assured me in my understanding of God's will humanity. Of course my critics will immediately dismiss both the authors and titles as provocatively liberal, syncretistic, and even anti-christian. For myself, I could only be true to what God had laid upon my heart to proclaim, which, in the words of Gerald Jampolsky was simply to “teach only love
”. This was consistent with my Wesleyan Theology and my call to discipleship.The first book is Karen Armstrong's Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life
. The second comes from the 14th Dalai Lama, Towards the True Kinship of Faiths
. Both books are about tolerance and compassion written by two highly respected authorities. Despite the misgivings of my detractors I have no hesitation in commending both these references to all who care for and love their neighbour and indeed, even their enemy. Without undermining or demeaning any person's spiritual tradition these and other authors point us to what Wesley described as the "love [that] resembles that of Him whose mercy is over all His works."Early in my own Christian walk, spurred by the idealism of youth and the injunctions of Christ we used to sing at our Wesley Guilds the popular hymn...
When I needed a neighbour
Were you there, were you there?
When I needed a neighbour
Were you there?
And the creed and the colour
And the name won't matter
Were you there?
http://www.namethathymn.com/hymn-lyrics-detective-forum/index.php?a=vtopic&t=1145
Call it what you will...brainwashing, indoctrination, political or religious hysteria, the thin edge of the wedge, New age, or New Order, for me compassion is the summum bonum of the Christian faith. Compassion transcends our petty divisions. May we constantly give effect to our liturgical prayers and "serve our fellows in wisdom, honesty and compassion." None are exempt from this service of love. It is an imperative from the Lord himself. "The creed and the colour and the name" doesn't matter on the Jericho Road! In the words of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, "A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." (Tutu, Desmond, No Future Without Forgiveness
. ISBN 0-385-49690-7.)oOo
"Indeed, when the dust of this crisis finally settles, the most iconic image of the protests may be that of the Christians who formed a human chain around Muslim protesters in Tahrir Square, so that they could safely perform their Friday prayers. That image of Christians protecting Muslims at prayer calls to mind a similar event that took place last year, after the bombing of Saints Church in Alexandria [when....] thousands of Egyptian Muslims gathered at Coptic Churches across the country, forming human chains of protection around their Christian countrymen as they observed Christmas Eve mass."
-Read more in "Christians and Muslims, We Are All Egyptians"
by Dr. Reza Asla on the God's Politics blog: http://ow.ly/3RSYZ
Please visit:
The Charter for Compassion http://charterforcompassion.org/
©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za
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