On February 19, 2004, the Fresno Ministerial Association organized an Interfaith Forum on Compassion and the Common Good(the FMA theme for that year).  Below, is a summary of the presentations by the religious leaders from each of the six traditions.

Hinduism emphasizes the concept of karuna, a Sanskrit word that means to show compassion toward others.  To show karuna is of high moral value.  It is the combination of compassion and a desire to do something for a person in pain.  In ancient times, the king and queen, who were called mother and father, were understood as obligated to care for all in the kingdom as one would care for ones family.  The expectation was that they would give to those in need.  This expectation was generalized to all who had wealth and to all who were in a position of leadership. 

In Buddhism, compassion and wisdom combined are important central.  Each facet of reality has his or her own Buddha.  As people realize this, they grow in their awareness of compassion and wisdom toward others’ pain and afflictions.  They are moved to eliminate the pain and afflictions of others; and to do that, they have to eliminate our own – and vice versa.  This is because as people become awakened, they realize that all are one.  One person’s pain is another person’s pain because all are one.  Buddha is compassion itself.

For Judaism, the deliverance from slavery in Egypt has profoundly shaped the orientation of the faith.  That experience and how it is actively remembered makes the welfare of those who are the least advantaged a central theme in Judaism:  “Remember for all generations that you were a slave, remember what this was like.  Use this experience to guide you in how you treat others who are the least advantaged.”  In addition, the Holiness Code includes rules to protect the poor and disadvantaged, those without money or power.  A key idea of holiness is that people should strive to imitate God and God’s aim at loving others; kedushah is the Hebrew word that means holiness and that connotes the idea that Jews and all people are to be like God in the treatment of others.  Leviticus 19:18 includes the earliest form of the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.  This love is not just about an attitude but ultimately it must be expressed in the actions God commands (mitzvoth). 

In Christianity, a central idea is that compassion is given to us by God as a gift of grace.  Furthermore, God calls us to be in community and asks us to extend our compassion toward all in the community.  Jesus sends us into the world to share the good news of God’s unconditional love and to share this love, this radical grace  with others.  As God’s grace comes to us, so it flows through us into the world.  This naturally leads to acts of compassion toward others.  A specific guide to this is found in Matthew 28, where Jesus expresses the idea that what is done (or not done) to the least among us is done to Jesus and through Jesus to God.

The Quo’ran, the sacred scripture for Islam, begins with the verse, “In the name of God, the most compassionate and the most merciful.”  All human beings start from the same mother and father, hence all are related.  The aim is peace for all.  Mohammed was sent as a messenger of compassion for all, from family to outsiders.  The Quo’ran says that God is pleased when we feed the hungry, tend the sick, cloth the naked.  In fact, the Angel will not descend to a city unless hungry persons are fed.  Believers are commanded to give to the poor.

In the Sikh religion, compassion is the cornerstone.  Compassion, in fact, is understood to be the root of all religion.  In Sikhism, all children are of one God.  Hence, one must care for all.  If one’s earnings are shared, God is pleased.  Sikhism started in the 1500s as a way of protecting against unjust rulers and other hostile religious forces, as a way, that is, of restoring a compassionate position toward all, the poor and powerless in particular.  When feast meals are prepared, the good is available to all, including those who are not Sikh.  The well-off are asked to donate 10% of their income for the common good.