wfn.org | Editorial: Love isn’t merely a handout to appease our consciences

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3023 Edition

>February 1~7, 2010

Editorial: Love isn’t merely a handout to appease our  consciences

>Translated by Lydia Ma

Love is one of the most extolled virtues of Christianity  regardless of time and space. Sadly, we

also see this virtue oversimplified or conveyed in a loveless  manner all around the world too in

the form of a “consumption item” or the latest  “trend”.

And so, we join the bandwagon of love. “Bandwagon  effect” can best be explained with the

following scenarios: Imagine a wagon coming to town and many  people jumping on to hitch a

ride somewhere. As the wagon moves forward more and more people  climb on, but the latter

don’t know what the fuss is all about, they merely don’t  want to be left out.

Imagine again that a department store is having a big clearance  sale. Many people see a

crowd lining up outside and they join the fray – without first  consulting friends or family about

where to find good deals or thinking about what they really need  to buy. They get in line

because they fear there will not be anything left on sale for  them, and not because they are

>planning to buy something.

When we allow “love” to become commercialized, the value  of “love” soon becomes equated

to tangible and countable commodities, like the amount of  donations we give. When love

becomes tantamount to cash we can easily give away to appease our  consciences, knowing

it’s another check we can tick off from our checklist of  annual things to do to make us feel

good, we have to wonder about the motives of donors in the  aftermath of a natural disaster.

In the same token, did people respond quickly to emergencies like  Typhoon Morakot or the

recent earthquake in Haiti because they needed to satisfy some  “love quota”? If love is

packaged like a handout instead of genuine concern, we might begin  to feel less interested

with every passing tragedy because we might believe we’ve  already done our share of “loving”

>this year.

According to one investigative report, Hsiaolin Village was buried  by deadly mudslides during

Typhoon Morakot because the amount of rainfall brought by the  typhoon was the highest in

recorded history, resulting in a huge landslide. The report  alleged mudslides had nothing to do

>with Tsengwen Reservoir Diversion Project.

When this report was publicized, Hsiaolin Reconstruction Committee  was outraged and

suspected a government cover-up aimed at restarting stalled  rechanneling project as soon as

possible. Hsiaolin survivors responded by hiring a panel of  experts themselves to get to the

bottom of the tragedy and uncover the real culprit that took away  more than 500 lives.

However, public response has been muted with regards to these  latest events, leading us to

wonder whether the people of Hsiaolin were merely temporary  recipients of society’s “love

>quota”.

The reason why Taiwan Church News has continuing coverage of the  lives of typhoon victims

and reconstruction efforts is to remind everyone that  victims’ sufferings don’t stop just because

media reports have decreased. In fact, the political,  environmental, and financial implications

of Typhoon Morakot haven’t gone away just because reporters  have left the scene and turned

>their attention to other stories.

Though media spotlight is often short-lived, victims’ lives  and sufferings aren’t. So, let’s

encourage one another to stay involved and allow Christ’s  love to shine through our motives

and actions, instead of treating people and things as merely  objects fulfilling our “love quota”.

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