{"id":220,"date":"2009-07-22T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T13:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html"},"modified":"2009-07-22T13:32:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-22T13:32:00","slug":"compassion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html","title":{"rendered":"Compassion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was reminded, in reading Martin Lloyd Williams\u2019 new book, <span style=\"font-style:italic\">Beauty and Brokennes<\/span>s, of the distinction between pity and compassion. Williams completes his book with a meditation upon compassion. It\u2019s a buzzword of sorts these days, a word that can make me roll my eyes, even. I sometimes think it is used as a way to bypass responsibility, to overlook behavior that is hurtful to others or self-destructive. But Williams identifies this attitude as fatalism. He quotes Henri Nouwen: \u201cWe are always tempted with fatalism\u2026When we say, \u2018that man never had a loving father or mother, you shouldn\u2019t be surprised that he ended up in prison,\u2019 we speak as fatalists\u2026\u201d So compassion is something more than dismissing another person\u2019s failings or explaining them away.<\/p>\n<p>Williams also clarifies his point when he says, \u201cnot all acts of kindness are necessarily acts of compassion. There are many disabled people, for example, who feel that they have been reduced to being somebody else\u2019s project\u2026\u201d In this statement, he is making a distinction between compassion and pity. Pity, like fatalism, is a distancing mechanism. It turns the person who is in need into an object. It is a way of protecting ourselves from engaging and entering into the pain of another person. In Williams\u2019 words, \u201ccompassion is the unlikely blending of gentleness and tough, persevering directness.\u201d It is neither fatalism nor pity. It is com-passion, to suffer with. It\u2019s a hard road. A road of beauty, and brokenness, and blessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was reminded, in reading Martin Lloyd Williams\u2019 new book, Beauty and Brokenness, of the distinction between pity and compassion. Williams completes his book with a meditation upon compassion. It\u2019s a buzzword of sorts these days, a word that can make me roll my eyes, even. I sometimes think it is used as a way&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Compassion - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Compassion - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was reminded, in reading Martin Lloyd Williams\u2019 new book, Beauty and Brokenness, of the distinction between pity and compassion. Williams completes his book with a meditation upon compassion. It\u2019s a buzzword of sorts these days, a word that can make me roll my eyes, even. I sometimes think it is used as a way&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-22T13:32:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Compassion - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Compassion - Thin Places","og_description":"I was reminded, in reading Martin Lloyd Williams\u2019 new book, Beauty and Brokenness, of the distinction between pity and compassion. Williams completes his book with a meditation upon compassion. It\u2019s a buzzword of sorts these days, a word that can make me roll my eyes, even. I sometimes think it is used as a way&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2009-07-22T13:32:00+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html","name":"Compassion - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-07-22T13:32:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-22T13:32:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/07\/compassion.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Compassion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}