So is "compassioin" now a code word for "religion"?

[housewolf]

I never thought so until tonight, watching CNN's so-called "Compassion Forum" which is all about trying to draw out the candidates on their religious beliefs.

If "compassion" now equates to "religion", that concerns me A LOT! Because while SOME religions practice and teach compassion NOT ALL DO and compassion is a universal human trait, not something to be constricted to the realm of religion.

How can we re-claim the word "Compassion"? It's DOES NOT BELONG to religion!

[Olney Blue]

1. One can certainly be compassionate without being religious.

[Skittles]

2. didn't you get the memo, housewolf?

if we all don't believe in the great invisible being, we'd all be running amok with no sense of compassion or decency? This shit has been taught by churches for a long, LONG time now.

[C_U_L8R]

3. only certain flavors of Christianity

and yes it is a litmus test.... unfortunately.

That said.. Obama is doing a fantastic job

[Fox Mulder]

4. I agree.

A person can be compassionate without being religious.

Like me.

[Triana]

5. from what I'm reading I guess so..

...Pffffft!

Glad I'm not watching this BS. :wtf:

This "compassion forum" sounds like a ruse - a thin pretense to put religious bullshit on and to make politicans pander to it in public.

Disgusting.

[AlCzervik]

6. it's pretty gross isn't it? on the internet no one can hear you scream which is a good thing

because when the whole creationism question came up i was screaming.

[G_j]

7. Didn't Bush already

take a huge dump on the word 'compassion"

[Warpy]

8. Why not? They've stolen all other positive terms

although they rarely display them.

[UTUSN]

9. Is what *I'm* asking --- WTF is this "compassion" shit?!1 They/media keep kissing Shrub's ass!1

Not that they "investigated" how much "compassion" was IN his fucking ASS!1

[krabigirl]

10. I only think of Buddhism when I hear that word. Sorry.

[nichomachus]

11. Christian compassion at work

Oddly enough, the inquisitors were doing this out of love for the people they tortured and killed. Seriously. They were convinced that these people were going to hell, where they would burn forever. So, the idea was that burning them on earth would give them a foretaste of hell and cause them to repent at the moment of death, so they could go to heaven.

They really believed this.

[iamthebandfanman]

12. the whole thing made me uneasy

i dont like this putting faith in the forfront of an important issue.

i understand that to people faith is important, but i dont think it needs to be discussed. thats a personal matter.

[dorkulon]

13. I was wondering the same thing.

If they have to use code words for religion, they should at least stick to "faith" and "values", because those have been corrupted to the point that we recognize them as code. Compassion? Now I can't be compassionate because I'm not religious? Ridiculous. And why are they so embarrassed? Why not just call it what it was, a "Religion Forum?"

[orleans]

14. i glanced at it (tv was on) during the rerun within the past hour

heard obama talking about his mom not going to church but being spiritual.

i realized it WAS a religious q&a

thought: fuck that. kept on going.

[windoe]

15. Separation of Church and State

This is what I want to hear from a US presidential candidate. Freedom of Religion, freedom to believe whatever you want. Why have these ideals gone away, as if they never existed at all??? If the compassionate forum invited all religions, agnostics and philosophers, I would have been impressed.