COMPASSION AND SECULARISM

Christian values are the pillars of Western civilization. Secular philosopher Jurgen Habermas admits:

·       “Christianity and nothing else is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilization. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source.”

When we examine the most advanced classical cultures, we find them short on compassion. Historian, Rodney Stark, wrote:

·       Classical philosophy regarded mercy and pity as pathological emotions—defects of character to be avoided by all rational men. Since mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it was contrary to justice.

In contrast, Christian thinking takes very different turn on the topic of compassion. The early third century theologian, Tertullian, commented:

·       We Christians have everything in common except our wives. It is our care of the helpless, our practice of lovingkindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. “Look,” they say, “how much they love one another.”

Similarly, Aristides of Athens commented:

·       If the brethren have among them a man in need and they have not abundant resources, they fast for a day or two so as to provide the needy man with the necessary food!”

Christian compassion was so evident that even the pagans took note. Lucian (190 AD) remarked:

·       The earnestness with which people of this religion help one another in their needs is incredible. They spare themselves nothing for this end.

In “How Christianity Conquered the World,” Alvin Schmidt wrote:

·       Emperor Julian [an opponent of Christianity] ordered the creation of hospices saying, ‘It would be shameful, when the Jews have no beggars, when the impious Galileans feed our own people along with their own, that ours should be seen to lack the help we owe them.’”

It was Christian compassion that had led Christians to stand against slavery, as Dinesh D’Souza had written:

·       Christians were the first group in history to start an anti-slavery movement. The movement started in late eighteenth century in Britain…In England, William Wilberforce spear-headed a campaign that began with almost no support and was driven entirely by his Christian convictions…Pressed by religious groups at home, England took the lead in repressing the slave trade abroad. (“What’s so Great about Christianity,” 73)

Today, the secular humanist argues that we do not need to be Christian in order to be compassionate. However, according to D’Souza, the example of the humanist Aristotle suggests that this might not be the case:

·       Aristotle, too, had a job for low men: slavery. Aristotle argued that with low men in servitude, superior men would have leisure to think and participate in governance of the community. Aristotle cherished the “great-souled man” who was proud, honorable, aristocratic, rich.

While acting compassionately can be rewarding, it later becomes wearisome and costly. Consequently, it is not enough to merely feel compassion. Instead, we also need a belief system that supports and requires compassion. It is easy to be compassionate with those who can repay us, but not otherwise, not for long.

Can secular humanism deliver compassion on a consistent basis? Perhaps the easiest way to demonstrate that it cannot is to segue to the related Christian value of equality, based on the belief that we are all created equally in the image of God. In fact, it is so exclusively a biblical revelation that Friedrich Nietzsche had observed that:

·       Another Christian concept, no less crazy: the concept of equality of souls before God. This concept furnishes the prototype of all theories of equal rights.” (“Will to Power”)

The concept of equality is not a “self-evident” truth as Jefferson had claimed.

·       When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” he claimed that this was a self-evident truth. But it is not evident at all. Indeed, most cultures throughout history, and even today, reject the proposition. (D’Souza, 70)

D’Souza is clearly right. If we look at our fellow man from a strictly non-biblical and materialistic perspective, we do not see equality. Instead we observe that some are healthy, while others are not; some are big and strong, while others are not; some are intelligent and highly educated; while others are not. Perhaps more importantly, some make positive contributions to society, while make negative.

Without this biblical revelation, there is no rational basis for equality, apart from the argument that equality is healthy to society – we profit from it. However, in the short-run, we do not. We profit more by showing compassion to those who will repay us. Besides, not every human will be seen as an equal candidate for our compassion.

In short, secularism cannot, for long, make use of Christian values without the Christian God and His Scriptures. Currently, we are living on borrowed capital. We still retain some of our Christian habits, which had once made the West great. However, without their rational underpinning in God, they are quickly eroding, along with the benefits we had once enjoyed.