Why an Act of Kindness is an Act of Patriotism

Chaos was the rule in China. I lived there for two years. Getting on a bus wasn’t simple. When the bus’s door opened, a near-riot followed. Everybody tried to board at once, pushing and shoving and struggling to get in ahead of each other.

Church was the same. Sometimes I went to the Chinese Protestant church. When the service ended, everybody left the church like they were getting on a bus. I saw a frail woman roughly treated in the rush to leave.

America is different, and there are probably many reasons for that. But one reason is a simple regard for strangers.

We are a nation of people who (mostly) show courtesy to one another. We let another car merge in front of us in traffic. We tell somebody if they have dropped something. We stop to render aid when someone is in trouble. At least, we dial 9-1-1.

My experience in the world tells me it isn’t so everywhere. In some countries, the rule is that you watch out for yourself and your clan; to blazes with everybody else.

Even though people like Christopher Hitchens argue that religion is a malignant force in the world, I see America as a place where people look out for each other exactly in the degree that Judeo-Christianity has a solid influence. Maybe it sometimes gets downed out in the competing narratives of contemporary fiction and current cinema, but the Bible still informs our conduct. The tale of the good Samaritan is one we admire, even if we don’t always follow it. Almost every child knows the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". And somewhere in our consciousness we find the amazing and sometimes-impossible-seeming demand to "Love your enemies".

We must never forget to cherish those sentiments.

This is true because we live in a complex society. 300 million people more-or-less thrive together. When I try to comprehend this number and reflect on all of these strangers taking care of their daily business and somehow successfully contributing to a country that works, I am amazed. And I know it wouldn’t be possible without a fundamental decency, a core cooperation.

In a country like China, control exists by brute force. Executions are common. One Chinese university I taught at was near a prison and a medical school. The prison fed the medical school a steady stream of cadavers. The medical students learned on these cadavers, but the value to the medical students of each cadaver was reduced by the severe brain trauma from a bullet that had entered the rear of the skull.

I think of China and I think of America, and I fret when I see evidence of everyday indifference to the well-being of others. I worry when I see a loss of courtesy and respect. I dread divisions among us. At stake, ultimately, is a society that works together.

These words are on the United States Seal: "E pluribus unum." It means, "Out of many, one." These words must not become, "E pluribus pluribus." If they do, America is diminished.

Even the Chinese know the desirability of Christian values. I was alone in a sleeper car on a train in China. A beautiful young Chinese woman walked in. She had a ticket to share the sleeper car with me. When she saw me, a young foreigner, her face showed disgust, and she jetted up to her upper bunk across from my lower bunk and proceeded to ignore me. This reaction wasn’t universal, but it wasn’t uncommon. I chose not to be bothered by it, and I calmly opened my Bible and read, sitting on the edge of my bunk.

At some point she must have peered over the edge of her bunk and recognized that I was reading a Bible by the distinctive two-column printing of the pages. I infer this because suddenly she was eager to know me. She broadly hinted that she would welcome a later meet-up. (It never happened; I soon left China.) The point is that she, a non-Christian, added value to me because I was a Christian.

The world wants what we have. The world knows that it’s good. We must not let it slip away.

So if we love our country, we must love our neighbor. We must love not just the ones that are easy to love, but the ones that are different from us – different in race, different in religion, and different in ideology. We must sacrifice our readiness to condemn for the sake of cohesion.

Each of us can influence our neighbor by example. That’s why an act of kindness is an act of patriotism.