It has been wonderful to see the phenomenal response by the public in volunteering to relieve pressure on the National Health Service (NHS) in England. As I write this blog, 750,000 people have registered to support those most at risk from Covid-19.
Although such a response may have exceeded expectations, in some ways there was always going to be a willingness for people to get involved, even at risk to their own health. Why is that?
The reason is because Western culture has been uniquely shaped by the Bible.
Gospel of Compassion
Jesus brought a radical, new teaching about the good news of His kingdom. It involved loving one’s neighbour, even loving our enemies and the people we despise. His parable about the Good Samaritan (an ‘untouchable’ at that time) is part of the West’s DNA. This is illustrated by the fact that the platform powering the on-boarding and deployment of volunteers for the NHS is called ‘GoodSAM’.
Jesus was moved by compassion and reached out to the poor, the sick, the hungry, the weak and the social outcasts. He delivered the demonized and protected the vulnerable (e.g. prostitutes) from their oppressors. He then provided the ultimate example by laying down His own life because “God so loved the world”.
Christ’s first followers carried on this new ‘culture of care’ through their compassion and sacrificial acts of kindness, care for the young, poor, sick and needy (including orphaned and widowed), serving others at personal cost (which sometimes meant their own lives). This made such an impact throughout the Roman Empire which had built a culture of self-love and cruelty that killed for entertainment. Infanticide (baby killing) was condoned and had been practiced for centuries without remorse.
The Ancient Code
To the Romans and the ancient Greeks, life was cheap and expendable. The ancient code was ‘leave the ill to die’. During times of plague (like what we are experiencing now with the coronavirus), friends and relatives were just ignored and left to die.
However, Rome’s culture was rejected because Christ’s kingdom confronted its cruelties with the gospel of a compassionate God. Early church historian, Eusebius, stated that because of their compassion in the midst of the plague, the Christians’ “deeds were on everyone’s lips, and they glorified the God of the Christians.” 1
Distinctly Christian
The beginnings of this new culture of love and care was further developed during the Middle Ages with the establishment of Christian hospitals. Although the Romans treated slaves and gladiators (and occasionally soldiers), the introduction of the hospital as a voluntary charitable endeavour was a distinctly Christian institution. Monasteries cared for the sick and spread the idea of humility and service as the true means of greatness. In time this became imprinted on the Western consciousness.
As time went by, Christ followers continued to promote the new kingdom values of compassion and care for all. People like Florence Nightingale, who became the catalyst for medical nursing to be taken to a whole new level. Cicely Saunders who founded the modern-day hospice movement caring for the terminally ill. Lord Shaftesbury who fought for and succeeded in child labour reform. Such changes had a ripple effect across other Western nations. Missionaries also spread the gospel in practical ways in far-away lands through the setting up of hospitals, orphanages, and other charitable and benevolent provisions.
Why a Culture of Care is sometimes Absent
Sadly, there are still places in the world that have not fully embraced Christ’s culture of care. Some years ago our eldest daughter spent several months In India reaching out to street kids and volunteering in the Mother Teresa Home for the Dying & Destitute. It is noteworthy that the many volunteers that serve there do not come from India itself. Mother Teresa herself had to come as a missionary from outside India to demonstrate that the dying destitute on the streets were human beings. This is because while Indian people have as much natural empathy as anyone else, as Hindus they would generally view such charitable actions as interfering with a person’s ‘karma’. The sick and dying therefore need to be left to suffer so they can return in the next life in a ‘higher form’.
Given this worldview, many Hindus cannot understand why the West gives so much charity to serve the poor and destitute in their country. A belief in the doctrine of karma within Buddhism also prevents the development of a culture of care.
Permeated Society
In the West, secular ideology has taken over institutions such as the Red Cross (started by a Christian) and New Age groups champion the prevention of cruelty to animals (the RSPCA was started by William Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle). But it was Christians who started these and other charities (e.g. Salvation Army, Barnado’s, Samaritans).
Secular humanism seeks to rewrite history by promoting the idea that compassionate care originates within the goodness of a human heart, devoid of the image of God. The truth is that the compassionate seeds of God’s kingdom have so permeated the whole of Western society, that many people don’t know why they are kind and compassionate.
In an era where Christianity is often viewed in unfavourable terms, it is good to remind people, especially during a global health crisis, of the Christian roots of why we think and act the way we do. Why we value and celebrate compassionate care.
1 A few decades after Eusebius, the last pagan emperor, Julian the Apostate, acknowledged that Christian compassion was a major reason behind the transformation of the Christian faith from a small movement on the edge of the empire, to cultural ascendancy.
(Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash)