{"id":77184,"date":"2019-08-18T19:52:55","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T01:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=77184"},"modified":"2019-08-18T19:52:55","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T01:52:55","slug":"is-compassion-a-significant-idea-in-latter-day-saint-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/is-compassion-a-significant-idea-in-latter-day-saint-thinking.html","title":{"rendered":"Is “compassion” a significant idea in Latter-day Saint thinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/a>
Snow Canyon State Park is just a few minutes from where I\u2019m currently sitting.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A quite unfriendly correpondent has challenged me. \u00a0Why, he \u2014 I presume it\u2019s a \u201che\u201d \u2014 demands, did my recently re-posted column on compassion<\/a> deliberately exclude my own faith? \u00a0Isn\u2019t it because I feel no obligation to be compassionate? \u00a0Isn\u2019t it because I\u2019m unrepentantly, indeed self-righteously, mean and vicious?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, no.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apparently, he missed or forgot about my recently published introduction to Volume 32 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCompassion as the Heart of the Gospel\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Abstract:<\/strong>\u00a0The Greek philosopher Aristotle, clearly one of the world\u2019s great geniuses, created the concept of the \u201cunmoved mover,\u201d which moves \u201cother things, but is, itself, unmoved by anything else.\u201d This label became the standard Jewish, Christian, and Muslim description of an impersonal God \u2014 a God without body, parts or passions \u2014 a concept that has, for nearly 20 centuries, dominated western theology, philosophy, and science. The problem for thinkers in these religious traditions is that the God depicted in the Bible and the Qur\u2019an is plainly personal. A careful review of the Bible and modern scripture reveals a \u201ccompassionate, feeling\u201d God. Numerous scriptures confirm that God, in fact, \u201cfeels more deeply than we can even begin to imagine.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The essay may, of course, be very poorly done \u2014 I have no illusions at all that my anonymous correspondent won\u2019t dislike<\/em> what I wrote \u2014 but it pretty clearly does suggest that compassion is an important idea in Latter-day Saint doctrine. \u00a0Or, anyway, that in my<\/em> mind it is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whew. \u00a0That\u2019s threatening. \u00a0Will I be obliged to give up what several of my critics maintain has been my career of mean-spirited hatefulness and seething rage? \u00a0Will I need to at least appear<\/em> to be a decent human being?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those two articles \u2014 both written by me \u2014 would seem to suggest such a conclusion. \u00a0(What was I thinking<\/em>? \u00a0Why would I have written<\/em> such self-incriminating pieces?)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fortunately, though, I\u2019ve just found an article in Christianity Today<\/em> that I can twist and distort and misread and abuse so as to justify my alleged personal preference, demonstrated over a long and nasty life, for viciousness, cruelty, and hurtfulness:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Niceness Weakens Our Witness:\u00a0I can\u2019t follow Christ and also succeed at being nice.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not really what the author is trying to say, of course. \u00a0But who cares?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from St. George, Utah<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 A quite unfriendly correpondent has challenged me. \u00a0Why, he \u2014 I presume it\u2019s a \u201che\u201d \u2014 demands, did my recently re-posted column on compassion deliberately exclude my own faith? \u00a0Isn\u2019t it because I feel no obligation to be compassionate? \u00a0Isn\u2019t it because I\u2019m unrepentantly, indeed self-righteously, mean and vicious? \u00a0 Well, no. \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs "compassion" a significant idea in Latter-day Saint thinking?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    A quite unfriendly correpondent has challenged me. \u00a0Why, he -- I presume it's a "he" -- demands, did my recently re-posted 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