Rev. Danny Fisher

I’m a great admirer of Karen Armstrong and her work, which I think helps us understand such a tremendous lot about religion in the modern world. (In particular, I think The Battle for God should be added to the short list of books that can help us save the world.) She’s an absolutely indispensable, important voice in the world today.

That said, I’m not quite sure yet what I think about her proposal for a Charter for Compassion. There’s a lot of conversation about it at the Washington Post/Newsweek venture On Faith right now. Obviously, I’m pro-compassion. I’m also stuck, though, on a couple of the same things that Susan Jacoby talks about in her reaction to it:

1. It seems to me that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and similar charters kind of already function that way. (Though it’s definitely an open question whether or not these are actually being followed/enforced.)
   
2. I do believe that the major world religions have all placed significant emphasis on compassion. At the same time, though, I recognize that not all religious persons/communities/lineages understand compassion the same way. (Some might argue that it’s “compassionate” to, say, do violence, deny rights to their fellows, and so on.)

But those are just initial thoughts and reactions of mine. I’m not pro or anti the charter at the moment–just thinking about it. What do you think? Please share your thoughts. I really want to talk about this.