Originally written September 4, 2011.
OOC: This was given by Arialynn during the August 28th, 2011 Sunday Service. My log missed part of the beginning, so I rewrote it from memory. The rest is taken verbatim from the sermon. To those who would like to see the sermon in full with the /says and /emotes of its attendees, let me know and I'll clip the screenshots.
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Thanks to all who came to the sermon last week, and continue to attend the service weekly. I always find it fun, as the speaker or the listener.
The Three Virtues have been a common topic during these services, and with reason. They are the core teachings of the Light: Respect, Tenacity, Compassion. When I spoke here first some weeks ago, I spoke of Respect. Others have returned to the Virtues, and spoke of Tenacity.
Today, the Virtue is Compassion.
Compassion is a word often treated with a scoff, or skepticism. Outside the Virtues, it has a meaning that many consider weak. However, within the Three Virtues itself, Compassion is more than charity: it is the recognition of a fellow creature, and not judging or interfering with their path beyond what is needed.
Too much Compassion in this manner can harm. It can keep a soldier from properly learning to wield a sword, if the teacher coddles him or her too much. Too little compassion leads to suffering by those who need said soldier to step in on their behalf.
Today's discussion of Compassion is connected to how it is dealt: its measurer, decider is judgment.
Judgment is a word that by some parts of its definition, can be considered opposite of compassion. However, it is its beginning. It is the measuring and final verdict of one's own sins.
However, there is a cruelty placed upon many by the quick judgment of few. And thus here is the core of today's sermon: is it just to judge an individual on the sum of their own deeds, or the full deeds of their race?
Is every gnome responsible for the fall of Gnomeregan? Is every kal'dorei responsible for opening Azeroth to the Burning Legion?
Is every human present here responsible for the orc internment camps, following the Second War?
If you judge each member of a race by this standard, then be consistent, and apply each sin of your race to yourself.
If you consider yourself the exception to this judgment, then perhaps you are not operating under a righteous assumption. To make yourself or a choice selection of peers the only exception is to deny the truth.
Each of us is the product of our own race. Each of us bear our own personal sins. Let us judge one another on our own set of sins.
To assign the same sin on each member of a race is to never move forward. We can begin an argument here, now – about the kal'dorei and the Burning Legion, the humans and dishonorable tactics, gnomes and dangerous inventions.
Or we can cease that circle, and judge a man for the deeds and sins he commits in his lifetime. That is the weight he or she should bear, and that is one less way history will repeat itself.
I have tread carefully in each race I have mentioned, but I will no longer: if you see an orc and only the blood of Mannoroth, you commit the same error in judgment. Likewise with goblins and greed, or trolls with headhunting.
I say this, because war is often started when one army judges the other on sins of their races. These are wars that will never end, and by its end, has no remaining meaning.
Those that fight those wars are descendents of these sins, not the ones who committed them. What then, is the reason for those sons and daughters to go to war, other than hate?
I did not cite all the races. Do not hold all tauren accountable for their tribe's darkness, the Grimtotem. The sin'dorei for Kael'thas.
And finally, each Forsaken for the Death Camps and plague in Hillsbrad. Judge, charge and take sword and shield to the guilty party, then be done with it.
The room has fallen silent. We know of the war in Hillsbrad. I am not silent on the matter, to those who wish to visit this sermon with me personally, know that I will be an ear.
I say again: judge each individual on the sum of their deeds. Know that for every individual you do not grant this respect, there are those who likewise harshly judge you.
And if you are slain in such a battle, your enemy will stand over your body and declare a vengeance you did not know, had no part in, reconciled. That is the war you seek and achieve when you see only race.
My sermon serves more as a warning, but I see dark times for the Alliance, as it continues down this path.
The sermon is now over. To those who wish to revisit, accuse or discuss: the time is now. The way is open.
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