Being Kind is Good

Click here for interesting article about kindness among a generation reared to believe that we humans are nothing but wild animals in a competition for survival. Especially among conservatives, kindness has gotten a bad rep because of what is (rightly, I think) perceived as mealy-mouthed duplicity by relativists who use "kindness" to rationalize every sort of immorality under the sun.

But that's not what kindness is. Kindness does not equal "nice". Kindness is about being gentle and considerate, even when one must do something unpleasant or painful. Just as a nurse can be gentle while giving an injection, a parent can be kind while teaching discipline, and a priest or governor can be kind while laying down the law. St. Paul tells us that love is "patient and kind," (1 Cor 13:4). It is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22), he writes, by which we commend ourselves as servants of God (2 Cor 6:6). God has been kind to us by showering us with grace (Eph 2:7), and that we are to do likewise for each other as Christians (Eph 4:32; Col 3:12). Likewise, he writes that we should be kind to all (2 Tim 2:24).


The "progressive" totalitarians think it is "kind" to coerce families into this health-care package or that, to foist gay marriage onto communities that are nauseated by the thought, and so on. It is notable, though, how unkind government and large corporations are to deal with, even when they are "doing it for our own good."

Telling somebody "no" might be the right and loving thing to do in a situation, but that is a hard love to accept. Kindness is perhaps the attitude that permeates and points out the loving motivation of actions which otherwise might not be so obvious. Kindness manifests affection. Who doesn't like to receive a little random act of kindness, or an extra thoughtfulness from someone we 'know' loves us? Who hasn't had an easier time accepting a hard truth because it came to us from one whom we knew to love us? We damage the effectiveness of loving actions when they are poisoned by harshness or insensitivity, and perfect our loving actions by doing them kindly.

We in the Church should always strive to increase our love and make it more evident by bathing it in manifest kindness.