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"In the absence of faith, we govern by tenderness, and tenderness leads to the gas chamber." So said the late American novelist Flannery O'Connor years ago in her introduction to a book called A Memoir of Mary Ann. Miss O'Connor, a devout Catholic, did not write the book, but was asked to write the introduction by a group of nuns who assembled the book about an exceptional child named Mary Ann who was seriously ill. But what a remarkable and mysterious quote. What did she mean? I suspect if Miss O'Connor were writing in today's parlance she would have used the word "compassion" instead of "tenderness." All sorts of things are done these days in the name of "compassion." If one attempts to suggest a reference to objective standards of right and wrong one risks, in today's society, being branded as "uncompassionate." The late American novelist Walker Percy, who also happened to be a devout Catholic, discussed this quotation in an interview in the July/August 1989 issue of Crisis magazine. He speaks there of what he refers to as the "Christian scandal" in the eyes of the modern world: the emphasis on individual human life.
Approximate Word count = 698
Approximate Pages = 2.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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