Besides being a Confucian, I am also a Christian. One of our preachers, Dave Stevens, recently quoted Jon Johnson who said, "Many believers are 'rabbit hole' Christians. In the morning they pop out of their safe Christian homes, hold their breath at work, and scurry home to their families and then off to their Bible studies, and finally end the day praying for the unbelievers they safely avoided all day."
Dave commented on this, saying,
"Don't be fooled; it takes courage to shine like lights in a dark world."
Later Dave said,
"I believe that we should be in the world but not of the world. However, for whatever reason, many are not even in the world while they try to not be of the world."
Dave raised an excellent point that applies to all people who believe in the life of virtue and service. I mentioned in an earlier post that Confucians are engaged. Confucians and Christians alike share the need to be engaged in helping humanity and promoting the virtuous life, and we share the reluctance to become personally engaged.
The Great Learning opens this way, after Gardner,
"The Way of Great Learning lies in letting one’s inborn luminous virtue shine forth, in renewing the people, and in coming to rest in perfect goodness."
Yes, Confucians too are supposed to shine like lights in a dark world.
Some Christians have turned their back on humanity and withdrawn into monastic orders, and some Chinese suggested to Confucius that he withdraw from the troubled world. Here is the account of that meeting and Confucius' reply: that he needed to associate with people instead of birds and beasts because the Chinese state needed to change:
Analect 18.6, also known as
BOOK XVIII. WEI TSZE
CHAP. VI. (Legge's translation)
1. Ch'ang-tsu and Chieh-ni were at work in the field together, when Confucius passed by them, and sent Tsze-lu to inquire for the ford.
2. Ch'ang-tsu said, 'Who is he that holds the reins in the carriage there?' Tsze-lu told him, 'It is K'ung Ch'iu.' 'Is it not K'ung Ch'iu of Lu?' asked he. 'Yes,' was the reply, to which the other rejoined, 'He knows the ford.'
3. Tsze-lu then inquired of Chieh-ni, who said to him, 'Who are you, sir?' He answered, 'I am Chung Yu.' 'Are you not the disciple of K'ung Ch'iu of Lu?' asked the other. 'I am,' replied he, and then Chieh-ni said to him, 'Disorder, like a swelling flood,spreads over the whole empire, and who is he that will change its state for you? Than follow one who merely withdraws from this one and that one, had you not better follow those who have withdrawn from the world altogether?' With this he fell to covering up the seed, and proceeded with his work, without stopping.
4. Tsze-lu went and reported their remarks, when the Master observed with a sigh, 'It is impossible to associate with birds and beasts, as if they were the same with us. If I associate not with these people,-- with mankind,-- with whom shall I associate? If right principles prevailed through the empire, there would be no use for me to change its state.'
Virtuous people need to be engaged in helping humanity.
Robert Canright
