Kindness - A Lost Virtue?
The gospels record all sorts of sayings from Jesus that speak of kindness, compassion, and understanding. For example, he tells his disciples to “love your enemies”. He says that if someone strikes you, “turn the other cheek” as well as “return no one evil for evil”. Forgiveness is the center of the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the cross he even prays that God would forgive his persecutors for what they a doing.
I happened to watch some of the Ryder’s Cup in Bethpage on Long Island over the weekend. The British were leading the Americans, and I saw the American golfer Justin Thomas trying to settle down the American fans, who were being disruptive and shouting obscenities at the British golfers while Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were trying to putt.
His efforts were to no effect. The crowd kept on with hostile language and behavior. There were middle fingers, and the f-word was thrown at the British liberally. A beer can was thrown at McIlroy’s wife, narrowly missing her head.
I have mentioned this before, but I recall going to one of my daughters’ field hockey games a long time ago and being aghast by the language some of the girls and the parents were using on and off the field at the opponents. It was absolutely disgusting. I am not a stranger to foul language in locker rooms or on the street, but it seems that this type of behavior has become acceptable in “polite” society. Or maybe I could just say that we live in a not-so-nice society now.
It appears we have lost what the word kindness means. Instead, we are living in a time of hate speech and violence. I was taken aback when the crowd on January 6, 2020, was trying to overthrow our lawfully elected government and shouted, “Hang Pence”, our then-Vice President, for standing up for the rule of law. It was another marker that our society is becoming less civil, if not outright hostile, to one another.
Our society also has been marked by violence that is often incited by social media and videos with hateful, violent messages, including from our leaders. The most recent shootings - the Mormon church in Michigan, the North Caroline bar, the killing of Charlie Kirk at a university campus in Utah, to name but a few - all seem to be incited by generalized hatred and rage.
If we are interested as a nation to bring people together, we have to turn the temperature down and start using language that counteracts incendiary speech.
The New Testament is filled with instances where people are called to live out a life of hospitality: welcoming the stranger; being open to those who are different; loving the unlovable; caring for the marginalized, the less fortunate, and the hurting.
Jesus was the man for others, the one who reached out to the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the sinners. He calls you to live your life in a very generous way: Not withholding love, but giving it away. Not being angry, but turning negative energy into a positive response. Not doubling down on the nastiness of others but empowering people to work for healing and reconciliation.
MEH