Compassionate Love and Ebony Grace: Christian Altruism and People of Color

By Kortright Davis

Why is the Golden Rule so central in almost every culture and religion? What is it that drives human beings to do good to others? Are altruism, compassion, and forgiveness natural forms of human behavior, or do they have to be learned and practiced in the neural context of our primal instincts for survival and self-defense? These are some of the questions that lie behind the study of Compassionate Love amongst people of color. Davis explores the patterns and contours of “other-love,” which he defines as a selfless regard for the well-being of others. He also examines the basis for distinctive modes of compassionate behavior enriched by “ebony grace” — a theological attribution for people of African descent. This text focuses especially on the historical, cultural, and religious heritage that inspires and empowers such attitudes, in spite of constant encounters with systemic negation, social alienation, and unrelenting racism. How is it that Black families in the home, school, and church still support, sustain, and succeed in the practice of unyielding love-in-compassion? That is the magic and mystery within contemporary Black cultural norms and moral values. This text is a powerful attempt to contribute to the debate on Christian altruism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RowmanLittlefield
• Release date: Mar 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9780761856382

Kortright Davis

Kortright Davis is an Anglican priest who is also Professor of Theology at Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. He has served in many capacities throughout his ministry, having been trained at Codrington College in Barbados. He was born in Antigua, West Indies, and ordained for the Diocese of Antigua (now known as the Diocese of North Eastern Caribbean & Aruba). He was one of the founding executive members of the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC), and was the principal coordinator of its inaugural assembly in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1973. He holds degrees from the Universities of London, UWI, and Sussex, as well as honorary degrees from the General Theological Seminary, the Virginia Theological Seminary, and the University of the West Indies. He is a former member of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCICII), and the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission (IATDC). He is the author of several books, including the widely acclaimed "Emancipation Still Comin'." He is the Rector Emeritus of the Church of the Holy Comforter in the Diocese of Washington, where he served from1986 to 2013. He and his wife Joan reside in Kensington, Maryland, USA.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

There are obvious reasons why human beings choose to do good things, rather than to do otherwise. These reasons can range from the preeminence of the Golden Rule, (doing to others what we would wish them to do to us), to the search for feelings of satisfaction in just being good. The reasons may not always be associated with a genuine struggle to seek common ground, or to accomplish the common good. They may center around the common pursuit of what is generally called enlightened self-interest. In a highly materialistic and competitive society, the drive to look out for Number One is driven by an almost insatiable appetite to triumph over others, or to marginalize what might readily be called the competition.

Many years ago, I came across a very powerful observation in a nineteenth century Barbados newspaper that reflected on the oppressive conditions under which the teaming masses of the poor and Black under-classes were forced to live. This was mainly due to the greed and selfish insensitivities of the plantocracy in that society. The phrase went like this: Even a crushed worm will turn. In other words, the time would come when the oppressed masses would rise up and fight back, all because of the conditions of economic and social suppression which they had experienced at the hands of the rich and powerful. In other words, crushed worms had a way of not giving up the fight for life, but would wriggle, and wriggle, for as long as they could. Oppressed peoples were normally expected to do the same, fighting back, getting even, or getting over.

Such a prediction took a long time to materialize in the history of Barbados. Black Barbadians have nevertheless been well known for their deeply held religious beliefs and practices, and for their cultural patterns of compassion and kindness, especially towards the less fortunate. They continue to amaze others about their propensity to be kind and generally altruistic, even in spite of lingering vestiges of colonialism, racism, classism, and rigid stratifications relating to civic rights and social access. What is it, one has constantly asked, that impels people of ebony grace to be as compassionate as they are, in spite of a history of social pain, political suppression, and almost unrelenting hardships?

This was the question that occupied my attention for well over a decade, as I sought to understand not just the social legacy of Barbadian history, but the general patterns of genuine altruism and compassionate love amongst people of color. I chose to focus on African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans. Thus, after countless interviews and conversations with groups and individuals in Britain, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, the Caribbean, and several sectors of African American society, (all non-scientific, anecdotal, and very pedestrian), it was time to delve into the subject, in the context of what the experts had been suggesting. The problem was that, in the literature, there was virtually little attention being paid to the issues that affected people of color in this general debate. It seemed to me therefore that there was a need for special attention to the topic, as it related to people of color. That was the genesis of this study, which has taken several years to complete, in spite of its obvious limitations.

The study begins with a number of anecdotal illustrations of the range of meanings contained within what I have termed the ‘enigma of compassion.’ It is an enigma insofar as it is often overlaid with emotions and attitudes that are not that easy to decipher or explain. Yet compassion radiates its own brand of contagious responses that can yield much positive and fertile fruit from the garden of human heart.

Chapter One attempts to look at some of these responses at the individual and collective levels, and to provide a lead into the variety of religious, theological, cultural, and historical linkages with those whom God has blessed with ebony grace. Ebony grace is a term which will be used throughout the study, as synonymous with people of color; but it is designed to bear witness to the unfailing belief that God is no despiser of Blackness. A central part of the enigma is to understand how a people who have been so systematically and historically marginalized and alienated could still be so compassionate and selfless in their dealings with others.

Chapter Two invites us into a summary discussion on the language of compassion, and on the wide array of appropriations to which the overall virtue of compassion is directed. These are called contours since the contexts in which compassion is used often suggest certain variations and nuances of meaning. To speak of the historical contours of compassion will in some way differ from the discussion on the social contours, or the political contours, or most certainly, the religious contours. When the President of the United States calls for a culture of compassionate conservatism, is it within the same range of appeal and meaning as when a Roman Catholic Cardinal, or a Baptist Mega-Pastor, calls for a greater witness of Christian compassion towards the least and the lost in our society? That is hardly likely to be the case.

Chapter Three provides a space for some limited discussion on the various approaches to altruism itself, as a basic dimension of compassion, and as an inescapable link with the ways in which the meaning of love is often understood. There is an extensive review of the work of the Russian-born sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, who was very prominent in his research and study of the Ways of Love, and whose progressive ideas and themes provided many of his contemporaries at Harvard University, and in the Boston area, with radically new ways of thinking. I was particularly intrigued by Sorokin’s works, not only because of my colleague’s (Dean Evans Crawford) fascination with him when he studied at Boston University, but also because of the constructive critique which Sorokin provided for the social, political, and moral attitudes in America after World War II.

Chapter Four seeks to engage the reader in a study of Love, by reviewing some of the relevant contemporary literature. There is an enormous range of studies, research, and scholarly approaches to this all-important topic. This is particularly obvious because of the fact that love is perhaps the most common virtue in all religions in the world. For Christians, it ranks as the only synonym for God, thereby giving it not only a divine status, but also an all-embracing appeal. The study then offers some discussion on Compassionate Love as it is understood by some prominent scholars in the field, and so leads us into a specific focus on compassionate love and ebony grace. There follows the suggestion that it is love-in-compassion that best distinguishes the spiritual heritage and historically cultural habits of people of color.

Chapter Five provides a review of some relevant and significant themes in the biblical and theological traditions within Judaism and Christianity. These not only serve to elucidate the meanings, measures, and mandates of love, but they also link them to our understanding of God’s salvation story as the story of God’s love in creation. The theological and religious underpinnings which run through the story of Israel, and the expectations of a covenant people, whose relationships with the Divine were often stretched to the limits of their own unfaithfulness, provide the background for an understanding of the supremacy of love that is fully proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The implications of the Christ Event for such themes as mission and ministry are thus rendered most relevant for the practical application of love-in-compassion among those whom God has blessed with ebony grace.

Chapter Six continues with the exploration of some of the cultural sub-streams through which people of color have been able to maintain their faith in God, their hope for a better life, and a positive attitude towards the well-being of community. This has mainly been possible through their use of spirituals in song, and sensualities in social feelings and moral forces. It is the suggestion of this study that the combined strength of ebony spirituality and ebony sensuality not only embodies the latent legacy of ebony love, but also sustains the patent efficacy of ebony grace.

Chapter Seven offers some theological reflections on some of the practical and religious implications, and moral imperatives of love-in-compassion, mainly with an eye towards the future. A major discussion on the meaning and measures of forgiveness will hopefully illustrate what compassionate love can provide for a better world, particularly in the world of faith-based communities. The linkage between the practice of forgiveness and the witness of compassionate love appears to me to be inseparable, and in spite of the fact that people of color are still confronted with systems and structures of negation, we are still driven to strive relentlessly to make full use of the spiritual gifts inherent in the life of ebony grace. We look to the mystical community, known as the Black Church, to stimulate and sustain those divinely endowed sources of faith, hope, and compassionate love, that will somehow find the new wine with which to fill the new wineskins of opportunity and challenge that, by God’s providential wisdom and transforming grace, have become available to us, at such a time as this.

Chapter One

THE ENIGMA OF COMPASSION

It was an amazing story of pain and compassion, an outstanding demonstration of the price of forgiveness in the context of deep and courageous faith. In the midst of her grief and loss, this young woman from Texas virtually shocked the country by her own personal reaction to the tragedy. While it was generally expected that she and the rest of her family would be devastatingly anguished, and adamant in their call for vengeance, this was not the case. Quite naturally, she was distraught by the sudden and horrible loss of her father. Yet, she made it abundantly clear, on several occasions, and in the course of several interviews, that she held no hatred in her heart for the three young white men who had murdered her father in this shocking and brutal way. She asserted that her religious beliefs and her outlook on life did not permit her to harbor any feelings of hatred against the perpetrators of this horrible crime against her own father. While she did not actually suggest that she was ready and willing to forgive them, she claimed that her duty to renounce hatred towards even the most heinous enemies was paramount in her life. Such was the enigma of compassion obviously embodied in this young African-American woman from a little town in Texas.

Did she adopt this attitude in order to cope with the trauma of this painful experience within her own self? Or, did she profess this deeply religious response in order to draw attention to the quality of faith by which she had always lived? Or, did she decide to choose a life-style of passive response over against an option of active revenge? Or, was she reflecting the quality of her upbringing, reflecting her father’s (and mother’s) encouragement to seek to overcome evil with good, no matter the extent of the evil? Perhaps we will never know the answer to any of these questions; but it is sufficient to say that her response to this tragedy so close to her own life, made an indelible impression on the memories of those who followed the unfolding of this most unfortunate and horrific saga. Even in the face of the most dehumanizing of circumstances, she demonstrated that it was still possible to overcome evil with good, and hatred with love, and human brutality with transforming spirituality. What was the energy, the virtue, the life-force, the spirit, that generated and sustained such a human response? Was it forgiveness? Was it compassion? Was it the Holy Spirit? Was it the force of her black humanity in the face of white inhumanity? What was it? What was the tragic story?

It was a tragedy that shocked the whole nation. It brought back so many memories of brutality and social pain. It virtually signaled a return to the bad old days; or, at the very least, it was a stark demonstration that those days had not really disappeared. In an age when America was trying to show to the world that the national sin of racism was slowly but surely being renounced, this terrible tragedy exposed a colossal and tragic truth about where America really stood on the issue. In an age when the doctrine of white supremacy was officially being repudiated and suppressed, there came this demonic event that restored the doctrine to its place of national and historic prominence. In an age when the national shame was shifting more to the corridors of corporate greed and the culture of moral laxity and laissez-faire ethics, this episode returned the national conscience to the agony of being black in America. It happened in a small town in Texas, a State that had distinguished itself by its appetite for capital punishment. This was an episode of murder by lynching, totally unprovoked, meted out to a man whose only crime consisted of the fact that he was black, born of ebony grace. But his attackers were non-black. They were white.

As the story goes, in 1998 this black man, James Byrd, aged 49, was walking home late one night along a lonely road in a small town, called Jasper, in Texas. He had not been causing any disturbance to anyone as he wended his way back to his humble abode. He was not known to be a fugitive from justice in any way. He was not wanted for any criminal matter before the judicial system. He was not listed as a public nuisance, nor was he behaving like one that night. He was just an ordinary man, an American citizen, with all the rights and freedoms supposedly guaranteed under the Constitution. He was supposed to have been enjoying his freedom of movement as a right, without being molested by others who also enjoyed a similar freedom. But in a climate in which some enjoyed the inalienable right to be free, others were still struggling to enjoy that right. This man, wending his way on this lonely road, still struggled for the right to return home in peace. But that was not to be.

Three young men, who were alleged to have been associated with a white supremacist movement, and to have seized Mr. Byrd, chained him to the back of a pickup truck, and dragged his body along the road for about two miles. Eventually his head was severed, and his torso was horribly mutilated. Death came to James Byrd by a most ignominious route, a death which neither he nor any other person could have deserved. The horror of that story permeated the whole country, and millions of Americans hung their heads in shame and disbelief, refusing to believe that at the end of the twentieth century, and in the most powerful and divinely blessed country on Earth, such a tragedy of modern-day lynching could still be perpetrated among us. Whites were horrified, blacks were incensed. Some called for justice, others called for vengeance, and for the full weight of the law to take its course. In the end John King was sentenced to death by a Texas jury in February 1999, Lawrence Brewer was sentenced to death in September 1999 for his part in the horrible murder, and Shawn Berry got a life sentence on October 18, 1999.¹

Similar episodes of radical forgiveness and extraordinary compassion had been cropping up on the national newscasts. In that same month (October), the popular television program 20/20 on the ABC Network carried the report of a woman who had been deliberately injected with the HIV and Hepatitis C virus by her lover. It turned out that her lover was eventually sentenced to a term of fifty years in prison for this despicable crime. Ordinarily, anyone facing the prospect of a diseased future, deliberately inflicted on her by someone who had been so close to her, should have been totally crushed in body, mind, and spirit; but she was not. The afflicted woman confidently affirmed that she had no room in her heart for hatred towards the man who had done this to her. On the contrary, she said, she had already forgiven him.

What is there in the human condition that could adequately account for this response to the almost certain threat of death, completely unwarranted and undeserved? What is it that provides human beings with the will to resist the temptation of fighting fire with fire? Is it related to the need for self-preservation in one form or another? Or, is it due to the fact that human beings are, generally speaking, prone to be sympathetic to the horrors of pain, no matter whose pain is involved? Is there in us a natural tendency to be compassionate, to suffer with others in some way, over and above considerations of desert or the demands of common justice? A few episodes from our recent history might well help us in setting out the contours for an answer to such questions.

The Challenge of Compassion: Condone? Condemn? Conserve?

The year 1998 had witnessed a most challenging period for the testing of the moral fabric of America. During the month of August, President Bill Clinton finally admitted that he had had an inappropriate relationship with a young lady. He claimed that it really amounted to a lapse of judgment on his part; but that he was taking complete responsibility for his actions. He acknowledged the embarrassment that he faced as a result of his own conduct and his deep regrets for his initial approach to dealing with the crisis. Quite naturally, the whole country was preoccupied with the personal, social, political, moral, and cultural ramifications of this crisis. How was the country to deal with the matter? To what supreme moral authority should the country make its appeal? Who was to determine the most appropriate and efficacious resolution of such a moral and political dilemma? Could a country forgive a president for such a lapse in personal and moral judgment? How does a country forgive anyway? The president of the country enjoys the constitutional prerogative to grant pardons. But who in the country has the moral prerogative to pardon the president?

Virtually every sector of American society had weighed in on the issue. The political directorate exercised itself with loud deliberation and intensive alacrity. The legal system tried every angle to explore the most effective and appropriate modes of justice. The religious establishment waxed eloquent and definitive in offering guidelines for the social discourse. For example, the then Dean of Washington National Cathedral, Dr. Nathan Baxter, an African American, delivered a sermon on August 23, 1998 entitled: Fig Leaves, Politics and Christian Faith. In the course of his address Dean Baxter offered this reflection:

All of this has allowed many of us to hope that the continuing haunts of personal immorality were no more than distorted shadows cast by political detractors. We may yet have legitimate suspicions about the political motivations of these endless investigations. However, we can no longer deny that the haunting shadows we have dreaded are indeed much more the sad reflections of a soul we would love, than the projections of a partisan body politic that would assault it.²

The Dean went on to suggest that although there was the injunction from Jesus in the Gospel that we should not judge others, this he said, was not judging, but simply the acknowledgement of a painful truth. He said: I still believe Mr. Clinton loves his country and his family and his God; and I know God loves him. But our desire to keep sin private or ignore immorality is a judgment upon all of us. Unless we acknowledge moral failing ‘without excuse’ the soul of our nation will not heal.³ Dr. Baxter was at this point taking issue with the suggestion in President Clinton’s speech to the nation earlier that week, in which he asserted that even presidents had private lives, and that the time had come to put an end to prying into private lives and get on with our national life. Baxter’s position on this issue offered the following thought:

We must all ask, how much responsibility do we bear for a climate that seems to tolerate moral irresponsibility in every sector of our society, including religion? A climate regularly revealed in the polls that allows a moral contract to be private and not communal because the economy is good. What has happened to a nation more concerned about its wallet than its soul?⁴

It was truly a time of great searching of heart and soul. The whole country was challenged by considerations of the merits and demerits, the wisdom and responsibility, the ethics and ethos, of compassion and forgiveness. President Clinton was said to have been in constant touch with spiritual advisors and personal counselors who helped him to deal with the personal, moral, and spiritual issues with which he was so forcefully and painfully confronted. But how did this affect his own family? What did they say to themselves? How did they attempt to cope with such a major crisis that was both painfully private and politically public at the same time?

We are now in a much better position to understand how they tried to cope with the situation since both Clinton and his wife, Hillary, have published auto-biographies in which they provided ample insights about what was going on in their lives together, and individually. However, as they reflected on their experiences during this time of crisis, we are drawn into a world of human emotions and deep reflections that point inexorably to the convergence of regret, repentance, disappointment, intrigue, and compassion all at the same point.

In her book Living History (2003), Hillary Rodham Clinton shared with us what the entire crisis meant to her and her family from a number of different angles, not least of which was the survival of her marriage. She spoke of the crisis as devastating, shocking and hurtful. She wrote: I could not figure out what to do, but I knew I had to find a calm place in my heart and mind to sort out my feelings.⁵ Tensions, she said, had run deep between them as a result of her being told of the crisis by her husband, so much so that she did