“. . . Do to others what you would have them do to you. . .” Matt. 7:12 (NIV)
Compassion is the ability to understand others’ suffering and a desire to alleviate that suffering. It is a central belief in many religions and a value that is shared across the human race. “In Latin, ‘compati’ means ‘suffer with.’ Compassion means someone else’s heartbreak becomes your heartbreak. Another’s suffering becomes your suffering.”[1]
“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
Jesus’s life and teachings emphasized the importance of compassion for the Christian. He emphasized that compassion is necessary for salvation—to receive everlasting life we must love first God and then our neighbors. The story of the Good Samaritan explains what that actually means.
Research has found that compassion develops in early childhood and can be seen in children between one and two years old. As children age, they become more sensitive to the needs of others, although as they move into adolescence, they tend to extend their compassion mostly to their closest companions. As they mature into adults they expand their circle of compassion even further.
Researchers have also found that compassion corresponds to religious faith. One study showed that religious people are 40% more likely to donate to charities than non-religious people.
The ValueGenesis Project is a research effort that is designed to help the Seventh-day Adventist Church understand and evaluate the current state of Adventist youth in the North American Division. The project has been in place for more than thirty years and the fourth iteration, Valuegenesis 4 (VG4), was launched in October 2021.[2]
The results of the project show that Seventh-day Adventists scored higher on compassion than non-SDA Protestants, Catholics, and non-religious people. On a five-point scale, Adventists scored 3.64; that is 72.8% of the maximum possible score. Non-SDA Protestants scored 3.58, or 71.6%; Catholics scored 3.61, or 72.2%; and non-religious people scored 3.38, or 67.6% of the maximum possible.
Among the Seventh-day Adventist participants, the study broke down participants by gender, ethnicity, and region. Females scored higher than the average Adventist, at 3.72, and males lower, at 3.52. Those who declined to state their gender scored the lowest at 3.43.
Asians scored slightly higher at 3.63 than Black, Hispanic, White, and multi-ethnic groups, who all scored at 3.61. Native American Adventists scored lowest at 3.41.
In terms of region, the Northeast scored highest with a score of 3.64, followed closely by the South at 3.63, and the West at 3.61. The Midwest scored 3.59, and Canada, 3.53. Guam scored lowest with 3.48. Overall, the gaps in all categories were slight enough to suggest that compassion rates are similar across all the youth of the North American Division.
The data support the idea that religious youth have higher levels of compassion than their non-religious counterparts, and that Seventh-day Adventist youth display even greater compassion than those of other denominations. Among Adventist youth, compassion is shown to be widespread, and differences among gender, ethnicity, and location are minimal. All in all, the results of the study confirm and emphasize the fact that compassion is a crucial component to Adventist young people’s faith.
You can access the full report here.
Created in collaboration with the Institute of Church Ministry.
Published by ASTR on 12/17/2024.
[1] Compassion International. 2024. “What the Bible Says About Compassion.” https://www.compassion.com/poverty/what-does-the-bible-say-about-compassion.htm.
[2] Vy Cao and Chang-ho Ji. 2023. “ValueGenesis IV Report: Compassion.” https://faithinstitution.org/3-compassion/.