Another One I Wish I’d Written
But I know I couldn’t have done this one justice. The Rev. Donald Sensing writes most eloquently about Why compassion cannot be a basis for public policy. Money quote:
Individuals exercise compassion, defined by the Oxford dictionary as “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings and misfortunes of others.” Governments and social arrangements exercise justice. Justice is only accidentally compassionate because justice, to be justice, must balance the valid, competing needs of persons and groups within society. Justice attempts to answer, “What is right, what is fair?” Justice is enforced against the will of at least one of the contending parties. Hence, justice is at its foundation coercive.
The Merriam-Webster definition of the verb coerce:
1 : to restrain or dominate by force
2 : to compel to an act or choice
3 : to bring about by force or threat
As George Washington supposedly said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force!” And Rev. Sensing makes a very cogent argument why government should not be used as a source of compassion. As always, RTWT.