Compassion a Virtue of All Religions

I think Karen Armstrong's endeavor, in which I have agreed to join her, is really important. Compassion is clearly central to all the world's great religions. Empathy- 'Remember what it is like'- 'you were slaves to Pharoaoh in Egypt'- is a constant theme of the Hebrew Bible.

Reminders of what it is to be poor, and how near we all are to poverty, litter all religious texts. But although it is central, it is not very motivating for quite a lot of people. Is that because we don't emphasize it enough? Perhaps. Or that we don't make it attractive? Certainly.

Compassion-feeling compassion, empathy and pity- is an important virtue, but not a sexy one. Its components do not bring out the heroic tendency in most cases, nor are they the hard virtues of stern judgment and law. They are not full of certainty- compassion often requires suspending judgment and thinking differently. And it is hard to codify compassion, if possible at all. But it is indeed central to all faiths- and should be central beyond faiths to the human condition. We often debate what differentiates us from the animal world. One aspect of difference is the value we place on not persecuting the runt of the litter, on having compassion for the different, the other, the unfortunate. We all too often behave as animals do at their worst (many animal groups do look after their weaker members in fact)- but in our hearts and minds we have a sense that we are different in this respect.

Karen Armstrong's call for a charter is one way of strengthening our awareness of the importance of compassion- I very much hope that she gets a strong response around the world, and that we can build a movement that might make a difference.

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Julia Neuberger

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Compassion a Virtue of All Religions