For Christ’s Sake, Where’s the Compassion?

Some might call it irony, others hypocrisy. An overwhelming majority of Americans claim Christianity as their religion, yet America is the only so-called civilized, industrial nation that practices vengeance with such gusto.

I was reminded of this fact earlier this week as NBC’s Ann Curry interviewed Ingrid Bettencourt, the Colombian politician who’d been captive for six years by Colombian leftist guerrillas called the FARC. She and a number of others were rescued by helicopter in a spectacular game of deception, ordered by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez.

Now picture on the canvas of your mind being restrained against your will deep in the dense darkness of Colombia’s jungles; imagine being chained for weeks on end to unrelenting trees, and forced to subsist in the most primitive conditions, exposed to the elements. As a woman, perhaps, you’re threatened with rape, or maybe even violated by foul-smelling, unsanitary rebels who treat you like the animals they are.

In spite of these atrocities, and so much more, the 1992 presidential candidate retained her dignity, her values. When Ann Curry asked if she was angry, if she wanted revenge, Bettencourt responded with poise.

She said, paraphrasing here, “When I looked down from the helicopter, I said I will not take this experience with me. I have compassion for the people who did these unspeakable things. Compassion and forgiveness are very important to me; they make me more human.”

This mind-blowing display of divine humanity was aired to an American audience bent on the death penalty—an eye for an eye penchant—despite their proclaimed allegiance to the Christian Christ whose top edict is to forgive.

Such humanity isn’t an aberration among foreigners. Both America’s state neighbors, Mexico to the south and Canada to the north, not only abhor the death penalty but consider the “lock ‘em up, throw away the key” mentality equally inhumane.

Across the globe, in Uganda, Africa, nearly two million victims of a horrible, twenty-year conflict forge ahead in a “forgiveness” campaign. This noble effort is aimed at the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army, a terror-laden rebel group that utilizes heinous tactics such as maiming and disfiguring civilians, and forcing children to be soldiers and sex slaves.

It takes a uniquely groomed heart and maturity to forgive, divine qualities Americans apparently haven’t yet grasped.

Still, I have faith that one day my country will be a compassionate nation; a nation that forgives its poor, pardons deserving prisoners, and recognizes the wealth and worth of every human being.

Unfortunately, today is just not that day.

Sources:
Ann Curry, NBC, The Today Show, July 11, 2008

Okeowo, Alexis, “Uganda’s Rebels on ‘Forgiveness’ Tour, Christian Science Monitor, November 9, 2008, p. 7

The World Almanac and Book of FACTS: 2005 (World Almanac Education Group Inc., New York, NY, 2005): p. 765