Sure. My understanding of "compassionate conservatism" is that it challenges communities to become morally engaged in the reclamation of their members, and challenges those who have had the odds stacked against them, or who have engaged in self- destructive behave, to strive to make something of themselves, and gain stature as contributing members of the community. Rather than bureaucratize and medicalize help, it makes it more personal and addresses character issues more forthrightly. Rather than marginalize churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples, it makes religious institutions central to the task of community renewal, along with other decentralized community initiatives.
Actually, the idea that the task of community renewal should have a moral and religious dimension is not novel. Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by Episcopalians, and expects one to call on a Higher Power, perform a moral inventory, and make amends where feasible. It is the most effective substance abuse program in the world.
Compassion, in any case,is not,on the conservative view, primarily aimed at suffering, but at that which demeans the human person. The idea that those who are drunk and live in squalor may be content with their lot does not, in this view, cut much ice. What is important is that they have lost the fullness of their humanity through their vice, and must be encouraged to reclaim their dignity as beings "made in the image of God", made "a little lower than the angels", and in some sense children of God. No one who should be left behind in the fundamental sense, if we can help it. But help should not infantilize, it should empower....... |
