[The participants are John Lewis Selover and Robert McKinnon.]

McKinnon: Youth and many older people, too, are concerned about the extent of indifference to the major problems of our time. They feel, and rightfully so, that many people are so wrapped up in themselves that they are just not sufficiently interested in doing anything meaningful to meet mankind's needs. Should we ask today's youth, and others who are concerned, to tolerate the intolerable and leave things as they are?
Selover: It would be really unconscionable for us to allow ourselves to tolerate any intolerable condition. There is something we can do.
McKinnon: But what do we do about indifference itself? It seems to be everywhere one turns.
Selover: On the other hand, there are individuals who are challenging indifference—conservation groups, for example, dealing with indifference to pollution, other groups and individuals rousing interest in intelligent urban renewal and low-cost housing. So there are hopeful signs. Still, indifference persists. Indifference is really self-centeredness on our part, insensitivity to the needs and feelings of others, isn't it?
McKinnon: Yes, and we encounter attitudes of indifference at all levels of society. How do we confront the indifference of so many people who don't seem to care about removing the problems of hunger, poverty, and all the other social and moral ills of our times?
Selover: It boils down to the fact that a moral issue is involved, one we all must face up to. It's not enough to complain and be indignant.
McKinnon: Yes, very often these attitudes become substitutes for action.
Selover: Right. Action is needed. And it starts in our own heart. We might ask ourselves if we really care enough. Are we willing to see those people whom we complain about change? Christ Jesus made a very pertinent point, and with a touch of humor, I might add, when he said (Matt. 7:3), "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" All of us, however great our lack of caring or lack of love, have more work to do with ourselves. And the unselfish outreach, the intelligent love we need, is available to all.
McKinnon: It may be available, but I'm wondering what's going to spark greater caring on our part. There are many people who are aware of the needs of others and feel for them in a way, but they don't act.
Selover: The practical love and compassion needed are not self-impelled but God-impelled. In the Bible we read (I John 4:10, 16), "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us" and "God is love." God, who is divine Love, is the impetus behind the action to cope with and overcome indifference. Speaking of this divine Love, Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 454), "Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way."

The caring and the concern that God inspires and impels are intelligent and compassionate, as Jesus brought out in his story of the reaction of three men to a traveler who had been robbed. Two of them saw him, but if they felt any compassion for him, they certainly didn't act in his behalf. But the third, the Samaritan, really cared, and he acted. His love knew no racial limits or other bounds. It sets forth a beautiful example for us all.
McKinnon: This love you mention —this divine element—seems far removed from the ugly jumble of poverty, pollution, and indifference.
Selover: It really isn't, because the love, concern, and caring that are needed have their source in God. This is why we need to learn more about the Christlike view of God and man that overcomes indifference. There's nothing limited, self-centered, insulated, or isolated about the man of God's creating. The fact is that man is always needed, loved, cared for. This is everybody's true being.