Put good of whole before self
Moderated by Tom Sabulis
A local pastor writes about keeping the spirit of compassion alive in our public policies and laws.
Commenting is open below.
By Joanna Adams
One of the familiar Bible stories of the Christian tradition has to do with a man who was beaten within an inch of his life.
The poor fellow had been traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho when, according to Luke, he “fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him for dead.”
After being ignored by two passersby, a man from Samaria came along and had pity on the man in the ditch. He bandaged his wounds, carried him to an inn and paid for his lodging in advance.
Even then he was not through.
He said to the innkeeper, “Listen, if I haven’t given you enough money, I’ll come back and give you whatever more you spend.”
We are not told where the Good Samaritan went after he left.
Perhaps, he went on about his business, having done one very good deed and being done with the travails of the stranger.
Yet, I wonder.
Given the amount of compassion in his soul, isn’t it at least possible that when he left the inn, he headed back to Jerusalem, the place where public policies and priorities were set?
Would he have tried to get something done about the bandits on the Jericho Road?
Right now, our Georgia Legislature is busy setting significant public priorities and policies that will affect the well-being of millions of Georgians.
Is it not our responsibility as citizens to speak up on behalf of those among us who cannot speak for themselves, especially the most vulnerable among us — the children, the elderly, those who suffer from mental and physical disabilities, those who are daily beaten up by poverty?
Isn’t good policy nothing more or less than compassion gone public?
Yes, government can drive us crazy with its excess and its inefficiencies, but we can’t leave home and travel safely through life without it.
John Winthrop, a Puritan layman, spoke aboard the immigrant ship Arabella before it landed in the New World in 1630.
In his sermon, he outlined a vision that would eventually become the moral framework of a new nation.
He spoke of the need to put the good of the whole before the good of self.
He said that if those coming to the New World were unable to share their abundance with those in need, if they were unwilling to take their public responsibility more seriously than their private convenience, then the new society they were trying to create would be no better than the one they were trying to escape.
“We must be knit together in this work as one. … We must make each other’s condition our own,” he said.
Self and society: It’s the only way we’re going to make it another 383 years.
Joanna Adams is a retired Presbyterian minister in Atlanta. She writes for the Higher Ground Group at www.highergroundgroup.org.
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15 comments Add your comment
meno
March 16th, 2013
11:00 am
Interesting that in the God-fearing Bible Belt such basic biblical teachings as what the Rev. puts forth are so unsettling. Kind of like when the Bible was used to advance civil rights and end slavery down here. Using religion to rationalize your own self-centered mind-set and to remind yourself of how great you are never goes out of style.
Mary Elizabeth
March 16th, 2013
10:27 am
America has been on the wrong track, spiritually, for several decades, imo. There has been an over-emphasis on oneself, and the accruing of wealth for oneself, at the expense of the common good for all. Georgia’s legislators should refocus their efforts upon serving the common good for all in Georgia by improving and funding adequately public education. They should address poverty in Georgia forthrightly with effective anti-poverty programs. Upward mobility has reached a low point in our nation and in our state. The middle class is shrinking. America is in danger of becoming a plutocracy in which the few of wealth and power rule the masses economically – as was true in Great Britain when we left the mother country to form these colonies as “one nation, under God, indivisable, with freedom and justice for ALL.
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The perceptions of Alexis de Tocqueville, a French historian, who admired what America stood for, should be heeded today. After Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in the early 1800s, he wrote the following description of America’s spiritual condition:
“I sought for the greatness and genius of American in her fertile fields and boundless forests. It was not there. I sought for it in her free schools and her institutions of learning. It was not there. I sought for it in her matchless Constitution and Democratic Congress. It was not there. Not until I went to the churches of American and found them aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America. America is great because America is good. When America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
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From the writings of Robert C. Frederiksen, Florida State University, about Tocqueville:
“For Tocqueville Democracy was humanity’s ‘evolutionary destiny.’
Tocqueville described the United States as (a place where) ‘opportunity is widespread and the poor can, with luck and hard work, move up; wealth and poverty constitute possibly temporary situations, not permanent inequality.’
Tocqueville used the term ‘providential’ when describing the spread of democracy. Tocqueville wanted to convey a sense of predetermined historical and divine triumph.
Deviance, according to Tocqueville, was the result of social conditions. Those with less opportunity were more apt to commit crimes. He believed poverty and inequality contributed to deviance. . . . ”
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Chip
March 16th, 2013
9:23 am
Yes, forget individualism and freedom. Let’s all just serve the Collective. After all, what’s almost a quarter billion dead under such socialist thinking in the last century or so? If we just double down on collectivism and crush individual freedom… and joyously celebrate the failed and disproven philosophy of “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs”… we can achieve the liberal ideal of a tiny comfortable elite served by millions of helpless, yet somehow happy, slaves.
canwetalk
March 16th, 2013
8:37 am
Putting the good of the whole ahead of the individual, I like that. Sacrificing for the good of the community. Now as we have the last lenten service before Easter, I would like all of those reading to look at Islam and see how it can change our views of Christianity, will you do that? you will? good.
Now remember, worry not about looking for Jesus, he wants to meet you in fact, he is rushing towards you now. Imagine that.
I was in the Prechtree Prsebyterian Church on one of my visits to the area. Very nice, has the largest membership of any Presbyterian Church nation wide.
Easter, this year will have a special meaning, as the U.S. deploys its interceptor missels on the west coast to counter the threat from N Koreas continuing building towards nuclear arsenal. What is the best way to reach out as Christians, I do not have a clue, we could disarm and assume that N Korea shares our goals of a peaceful enterprising globe, what do you think?
Wilbur
March 16th, 2013
6:34 am
Rev. Adams makes an an unfortunate leap from Jesus story about helping your enemies to creating a massive bureaucracy to take ever more tax dollars to create a larger and larger government. Apparently without thought she plunges ahead in the name of compassion to trample on our rights and culture.
Moreover her vision of the welfare state does not work! Don’t judge Rev Adams policies by her intentions but by their results. Nearly fifty million Americans on welfare is not compassion, it’s a disaster
DeborahinAthens
March 16th, 2013
6:10 am
The chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Bernie
March 15th, 2013
7:50 pm
Ms. Adams I agree with your advice 100%. we as Individuals must do more. We must speak Out more than we do. We must DEMAND of our leaders that the Buliding Of a Football Stadium does not come before the insuring of the Healthcare for the millions of Children,Women,Seniors, Disabled, and Mentally Handicapped, All across The State Of Georgia this very MOMENT.
For any of US to allow this Abomination to occur , We are NO BETTER than the Misguided Leaders who Lead US!
As A People our Values and Principals are in a serious need of REFLECTION AND EVALUATION!
meno
March 15th, 2013
6:42 pm
The whole can be greater than the sum of the individuals.
An observer
March 15th, 2013
6:07 pm
The good of the whole often requires the injury of a few. Is that good?
An observer
March 15th, 2013
6:05 pm
What is the good of the whole other than the good of the self for a majority of people?