God, a Chinese two-year-old and the autumn revolution

The fall colours are in riotous glory in Vermont where I am visiting my daughter. Tourists come from far and wide to admire and photograph the changing of the seasons here. Amazing how, while it represents the season of death, the loss of green, life-giving chlorophyll from the leaves of the trees, and portend the season of snow and hunting, it is the most breathtakingly beautiful time of the year.

This is also the season of harvest. Again, a celebration of ending the lives of the plants that the farmers cared for all summer. Death is necessary for us to be able to sustain ourselves. Death can even be beautiful. Just today, I read a poignant story about a couple, married for 78 years, who died holding hands. Though the husband expired before his wife, the fact that she held his hand sustained both their heart monitors until she finally perished an hour later.

Something in me pities the autumnal struggle of the trees, the necessary end to the cornstalks, and the yellowing of the wheat. It reminds me of that very Protestant precept that "in the midst of life, we are in death."

I falsely believed that perhaps my empathy was due to the fact that leaves and grains are innocent creatures, incapable of harming us. Yet, while watching the news this week, and seeing the demise of a hateful dictator, I couldn't help but feel pity for that confused old man staring, disbelieving at the blood on his hands.

I could say it was poetic that a man with so much figurative blood on his hands should die with literal blood staining his fingers. I have heard all week from those who claim that his passage proves that God is just, I think this is true, but I also think that are very human capacity to feel mercy for a monster like Muammar Gaddafi reflects my belief that God is also merciful, and by mirroring His mercy, we uplift our own humanity.

I am often forced to argue about religion in general, about those many claims that religion has wrought far too much hatred violence and abuse. Again, that may be true on the ambitious scale of nations and religious politics. Many politicians with big plans seek to justify their ambitions in God's name.

But on a person by person scale, I think that we're better off in those countries and maintain a strong core of faith. Religious tradition, maintained in mosques, synagogues and churches, and within countless hearths and homes, make people more aware of their moral obligations, give them a sense of empathy. It is what makes Bangladeshis and Americans closer than either of us will ever be to the Chinese.

This week, disturbing videos from Foshan, China demonstrated how profound indifference can be. This week, a two-year-old girl was struck by a car in a busy marketplace. The driver never stopped. A few minutes later, a second vehicle ran over the child. The video shows people passing, watching, but never helping as the little girl lay bleeding to death.

Religion teaches us that we have a shared sense of responsibility as God's children, and we are all brothers and sisters. No sense of state-sponsored solidarity has ever been able to summon the same sense of morality. American consumers would do well to keep this in mind when commercing with China versus Bangladesh. The political upheavals in Bangladesh are the by-product of a free society, based on a system of plurality that is not at odds with individual freedom. The downside of any system that recognises free will and individual responsibility is constant struggle, strikes, and political disagreement, the likes of which would never happen in China.

However disorganised this makes Bangladesh, it makes them preferable as trading partners. Americans must ask themselves, if the average Chinese act so callously toward their most vulnerable citizens, how could we expect them to care about product safety?

The Chinese do not have a sense of being safeguarded by a Higher Source, and therefore do not feel obligated to that source. They don't seem to feel the type of guilt you or I would suffer if we knowingly released a life-threatening product in the marketplace. What religion teaches us as individuals is that the ends do not justify the means, and if we have the courage to act morally, God will smile upon us.

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A bullet through the head of Qaddafi made things less complicated for the people of Libya. No one mourned his passing. Earlier, a drone attack on an American al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki made things easier for the Obama administration, and drew praise from Obama supporters and opponents alike.

Meanwhile, one lone American voice, Texas Congressman and perpetual presidential candidate Ron Paul condemned the Obama administration for killing an American citizen without giving him a trial. Whether or not we agree with Paul's position, one has to agree that it is the position most consistent with the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, and the bravest, most inconvenient moral stance a politician can take.

China is not without its individuals of conscience. Eventually, a trash-scavenging woman came to the aid of the dying child and called for help. In the video, it is clear that she is appalled by the indifference of her fellow citizens.

China is now in a soul-searching mode. Meanwhile, several years ago, we were treated to video of one dog risking his life in Chile to pull a second dog from the highway, where it had been hit by a car. The sense of common decency sometimes requires us to be more than cowards. Sometimes, God requires us to step off the curb and take a risk for the sake of our common "humanity", a quality that can extend to all of God's creatures.

As the leaves change, and as the cold days come here, we rely upon the industry and warmth of others for our survival, our companionship, and our cultural identity. This is also true when political systems change. If the qualities of mercy and compassion temper the need for self-preservation and revenge, then 7 billion people may not be too many for the earth to sustain.

If we release ourselves from our source, the empathy that our personal religion inculcates, then we are already morally dead. If this is the case, then our billions of lives, colourful as they may be, are meaningless. We will only survive until the cold winds come and carry us away, to be buried in well-deserved oblivion when the first snows begin to fall.

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Frank Domenico Cipriani writes a weekly column in the Riverside Signal called "You Think What You Think And I'll Think What I Know." He is also the founder and CEO of The Gatherer Institute — a not-for-profit public charity dedicated to promoting respect for the promoting respect for the environment and empowering individuals to become self-taught and self-sufficient. His most recent book, "Learning Little Hawk's Way of Storytelling", teaches the native art of oral tradition storytelling.