"The first and most basic task of the Christian Leader in the future will
be to lead his people out of the land of confusion into the land of hope.
He must first have the courage to be an explorer of the new territory in
himself and be willing to articulate his discoveries as a service to the
"inward generation." Not only an inward generation asking for articulation
but a fatherless generation looking for a new kind of authority and what
the nature of this authority will be? "Compassion" must become the core and
even the very nature of authority. When the Christian leader is a man of
God he can be so only insofar as he is able to make "the compassion of God
with man - which is visible in Jesus Christ - credible in his own world and
relationship with others." The compassionate man stands in the midst of his
people but does not get caught in the conformist forces of the peer group,
because through his compassion he is able to avoid the distance of pity as
well as the exclusiveness of sympathy. Compassion is born when we discover
in the center of our existence not only that God is God and man is man but
also that our neighbour is our brother in Christ. Through compassion it is
possible to recognize that the craving for love that men feel resides also
in our own hearts and that the cruelty that the world knows all too well
is also rooted in our own impulses. For a compassionate man nothing human
is alien: no joy and no sorrow.... compassion is authority because it does
not tolerate the pressures of the in-group, but breaks through the boundaries
of pride, prejudices, and our own limited impulses. Compassion resolves the
conflict of the fearful clique and sees in his brother the face of Christ.
Compassion is the authority that bonds and binds one another and provides
the possibility of man to to forgive his brother because forgiveness is only
real for him who has discovered the weakness of his friend in his own heart!
Our "Fatherless Generation" looks for leaders who are able to take away fear
and anxiety and give assurance that forgiveness is a possibility which
will free each one of us from our restrictive shame; restore hope for a future
in which" the lamb and the lion can sleep together."
"The first and most basic task of the Christian Leader in the future will
be to lead his people out of the land of confusion into the land of hope.
He must first have the courage to be an explorer of the new territory in
himself and be willing to articulate his discoveries as a service to the
"inward generation." Not only an inward generation asking for articulation
but a fatherless generation looking for a new kind of authority and what
the nature of this authority will be? "Compassion" must become the core and
even the very nature of authority. When the Christian leader is a man of
God he can be so only insofar as he is able to make "the compassion of God
with man - which is visible in Jesus Christ - credible in his own world and
relationship with others." The compassionate man stands in the midst of his
people but does not get caught in the conformist forces of the peer group,
because through his compassion he is able to avoid the distance of pity as
well as the exclusiveness of sympathy. Compassion is born when we discover
in the center of our existence not only that God is God and man is man but
also that our neighbour is our brother in Christ. Through compassion it is
possible to recognize that the craving for love that men feel resides also
in our own hearts and that the cruelty that the world knows all too well
is also rooted in our own impulses. For a compassionate man nothing human
is alien: no joy and no sorrow.... compassion is authority because it does
not tolerate the pressures of the in-group, but breaks through the boundaries
of pride, prejudices, and our own limited impulses. Compassion resolves the
conflict of the fearful clique and sees in his brother the face of Christ.
Compassion is the authority that bonds and binds one another and provides
the possibility of man to to forgive his brother because forgiveness is only
real for him who has discovered the weakness of his friend in his own heart!