The Politics of Compassion

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The spiritual practice of compassion is one I struggle with frequently. It is a wonderful ideal to aspire to and it works really well in my head, but when I bump up against issues in the real world - the compassionate thing to do, think or say becomes a little cloudier. Recently I found myself struggling in particular with the issue of Obama inviting Rick Warren to be part of the inauguration, and beyond that, how anyone who faces prejudice can practice compassion.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the inauguration was the be-all and end-all of anything related to gay rights. And Obama himself has never even come out in support of gay marriage so he should not be seen as a savior. But the issues around this incident just happened to be a touchstone for a discussion on compassion.

I think the part that set off the debate in my head was Obama’s reasoning for inviting Warren – that he wanted to create an inclusive dialog that contains varied opinions even if they are different than his own. On the surface this seemed to be part of his compassionate persona. While I was instinctively outraged, I found myself struggling with the idea that my reaction was evidence of my own lack of compassion.

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