Compassion — A Standard We Must Embrace

There is no getting around it—we live in a time when compassion is not popular. Our fractured society rewards anger and spite, urging us to cut people off before working through differences. Social media feeds us outrage, dividing us from the common humanity we share.

But as people of faith, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard. Our love must extend not only to the oppressed but also to the oppressors. We must demand an end to injustice without forgetting that all people are inherently worthy of love. Nothing a person does can erase that worth. If we fight hatred with hatred, the cycle never ends.

Wendy Farley, in Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion, writes: “Compassion labors to make whole human beings out of broken ones.” As Unitarian Universalists, we are called to this labor. We must resist allowing righteous anger to become hatred. Instead, we keep compassion alive, remembering that even those we oppose are broken human beings who may yet be made whole through love and compassion.

Warmly, Bridget Laflin