Benedictine Balance and Social Ethics

In you we live and move and have our being

Some years ago, I was offering a presentation on parish development to clergy in the Diocese of Washington. I was telling them about how in my work with WomenRising (WR), a Jersey City social services agency, we had used the mental model of the polarity between change and stability. I didn’t get very far into the story before a young priest in the rear of the room spoke, “This is wrong. Christian faith is about change. Stability has no place in it.” Sadly my first thought was, “What seminary did he go to?” I didn’t say that out loud.

One of the remarkable things about the 15 years I consulted with WomenRising (WR) was how willing they were to incorporate listening processes into their work. That was where my story was going. How when faced with traumatic shifts in political power in their funding sources in Washington, they engaged in a process of listening to staff, board, and community and business groups. There had been an initial outburst of anger about the change – “we won’t change our approach!” But after a bit of yelling, the organization settled into a process of listening as it worked through how to maintain its mission and cope with the political changes in the larger society.

I’m a life professed Benedictine in the Order of the Ascension. The Promise we take is – “To seek the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, things and circumstances of life through stability, obedience and conversion of life.”  The Benedictine triangle was in my mind when I consulted with WR. In the internal dynamics of the Promise is the understanding that how you manage the polarity between stability and change (stability and conversion of life) was through obedience – you listen.

Progressives and Conservatives

“Arnold Kling, an economist, published a book a decade ago that offered a way to think about the core difference between progressives and conservatives. Progressives, Kling wrote, see the world as a struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed, and they try to help the oppressed. Conservatives see the world as a struggle between civilization and barbarism — between order and chaos — and they try to protect civilization.” From today’s NY Times by David Leonhardt “Chaos and Oppression.” Leonhardt wrote, “The debate over pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia and other universities has become an example. If you want to understand why university leaders are finding the situation so hard to resolve, Kling’s dichotomy is useful: The central question for colleges is whether to prioritize the preservation of order or the desire of students to denounce oppression. .... For the student protesters, the injustice in Gaza is so horrific that it takes precedence over almost anything else. .... For the protesters’ critics, the breakdown of order is the central problem — because a community that descends into chaos can’t function.”

In several universities attempts are being made to listen. It’s a difficult undertaking. In some cases student activists are saying that they won’t talk until the university takes action on their demands and in others that they won’t talk under the threat of having the police called in. At times university leaders experience themselves unable to find a way forward when faced with students that refuse to talk with them. Listening doesn’t come easily.

The Church

The church’s teaching over the years has been very both/and in nature. We pray for our nation and its leaders, and we act against oppression.

V.    Lord, keep this nation under your care;
R.    And guide us in the way of justice and truth.

One of the difficulties always present in the church is that the overwhelming majority of our parishioners are Sacramental and Christmas and Easter Christians.  When it comes to political and cultural matters they get a good bit of their “faith” from their politics. So we shift about from being the Republican Party at prayer to being the left of the Democratic Party at Mass. The Apostolic tradition of allowing your faith to influence your voting and civic life may even seem desirable to most parishioners but in the end the depth and solidity of practice wins out. We don’t know what we don’t know. Humility and listening is always appropriate.

My pew (yes, “my pew!) at St. Clement’s has me sitting beside an icon of Francis Perkins and looking above the pulpit at an icon of Martin Luther King. Both saints who engaged the task of allowing the faith to inform their politics (Yes, yes, I know that mentioning those two saints indicates my political leanings). My point is that as I see the two of them they each were concerned with the stability – change polarity. Perkins was part of state and federal governments for most of her life. Her work on social security brought significant change to America and her participation in government was in itself an example of what later Pope John XXIII would call for in Pacem In Terris “they must involve themselves in the work of these institutions, and strive to influence them effectively from within.” King’s influence was largely from outside the institutions, including frequent acts of non-violent civil disobedience. His commitment to stability is seen in his understanding that when he broke the law he would face consequences including imprisonment. "Any man who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community on the injustice of the law is at that moment expressing the very highest respect for the law."

In the parish

The temptation of some clergy is to pick a side and proclaim it. In our age, in the Episcopal Church, that’s most likely to take the form of expressing support for the student activists. But my hunch is that many clergy hesitate. Some because they fear the parishioners who will complain but most because within them is some expression of the Benedictine Promise. They hear the voices of the activist students and most of the Jewish students and non-activists. They hear the President’s concern about antisemitism and the university’s leaders who are often torn within  themselves about how to respond. And in their discipline of Eucharist, Office and reflection they hear the voice of God.

The parish priest has a decision to make. Do I serve what I see as the prophetic role of the church, or do I focus on the formation of the people of God for the sake of the world? Do I preach in direct support of the activists or maybe about a growing antisemitism or do I offer parishioners ways of informing their conscience and leave it to them to act upon their conscience? Do we give more weight to the voice of the church’s hierarchy (yes, that is you parish priest!) or to the affirmation that it is the baptized in their roles in government, the military and police, and in the universities who must inform and act upon their conscience?

A collect from today’s Morning Prayer

Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our
being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by
your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our
life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are
ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

This abides,

Robert

The Feast Of Saint Mark

The Faithful Pastors Icon also hangs at St. Clement’s, Seattle