February 7, 2010
Translated by Lydia Ma

Love is one of the most extolled virtues of Christianity regardless of time and space. Sadly, we also see this virtue oversimplified or conveyed in a loveless manner all around the world too in the form of a "consumption item" or the latest "trend."

And so, we join the bandwagon of love. "Bandwagon effect" can best be explained with the following scenarios: Imagine a wagon coming to town and many people jumping on to hitch a ride somewhere. As the wagon moves forward more and more people climb on, but the latter don't know what the fuss is all about, they merely don't want to be left out.

Imagine again that a department store is having a big clearance sale. Many people see a crowd lining up outside and they join the fray – without first consulting friends or family about where to find good deals or thinking about what they really need to buy. They get in line because they fear there will not be anything left on sale for them, and not because they are planning to buy something.

When we allow "love" to become commercialized, the value of "love" soon becomes equated to tangible and countable commodities, like the amount of donations we give. When love becomes tantamount to cash we can easily give away to appease our consciences, knowing it's another check we can tick off from our checklist of annual things to do to make us feel good, we have to wonder about the motives of donors in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

In the same token, did people respond quickly to emergencies like Typhoon Morakot or the recent earthquake in Haiti because they needed to satisfy some "love quota"? If love is packaged like a handout instead of genuine concern, we might begin to feel less interested with every passing tragedy because we might believe we've already done our share of "loving" this year.

According to one investigative report, Hsiaolin Village was buried by deadly mudslides during Typhoon Morakot because the amount of rainfall brought by the typhoon was the highest in recorded history, resulting in a huge landslide. The report alleged mudslides had nothing to do with Tsengwen Reservoir Diversion Project.

When this report was publicized, Hsiaolin Reconstruction Committee was outraged and suspected a government cover-up aimed at restarting stalled rechanneling project as soon as possible. Hsiaolin survivors responded by hiring a panel of experts themselves to get to the bottom of the tragedy and uncover the real culprit that took away more than 500 lives.

However, public response has been muted with regards to these latest events, leading us to wonder whether the people of Hsiaolin were merely temporary recipients of society's "love quota."

The reason why Taiwan Church News has continuing coverage of the lives of typhoon victims and reconstruction efforts is to remind everyone that victims' sufferings don't stop just because media reports have decreased. In fact, the political, environmental, and financial implications of Typhoon Morakot haven't gone away just because reporters have left the scene and turned their attention to other stories.

Though media spotlight is often short-lived, victims' lives and sufferings aren't. So, let's encourage one another to stay involved and allow Christ's love to shine through our motives and actions, instead of treating people and things as merely objects fulfilling our "love quota."

Taiwan Church News