compassion and solidarity

Back at the beginning of Lent, I thought I should write about my take on Christian ethics. So, briefly, here goes:

It seems to me that at the heart of thinking about what we should do, are two core values: compassion and solidarity.

Compassion is a sort of prerequisite for the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you); you have to imagine yourself in someone else's situation before you can imagine what you would want if you were in their situation. That's part of loving your neighbor as yourself, and compassion is certainly something that Jesus modeled in life (and perhaps even in death).

Solidarity is another piece of loving the neighbor as the self. Compassion could stop short of action (although I do think that often it does compel us to action). But solidarity requires us to act in the best interests of the other... and, I think, to let them define what that means. Of course, "compassion fatigue" (I think people were talking about this after Katrina) is a problem. We have too much information connected to too small a sense of agency, and the world's problems sure do get overwhelming. I think "solidarity fatigue" might be a problem as well.