Teaching social ethics in the parish
Complexity, not slogans, and the messiness of concrete responsibility
The first task
Get people confused. You want them thinking through the ethical issues, not simply applying their political leanings or emotional reactions onto the situation. All of us are called to both act upon our conscience and to inform our conscience. Taking on that holy work requires us to set aside cheap ways of responding to ethical and moral issues. It requires us to set aside our bumper sticker solutions and the narratives we’ve memorized because they align with our existing political leaning.
So, if we want people to think through the issue of abortion we might begin with two short articles taking different positions from a Christian perspective. Then go around the room and have each person briefly share something from the first article that they can appreciate or sympathize with. Then do the same with the second article. You get the idea. Begin the process by helping people to open their minds and hearts and engage one another with respect.
Clergy humility
Taking the above stance requires clergy and educators to prioritize the informed conscience of parishioners over a desire to get them to take the same position as the rector. We might pray for the traditional virtues of humility, self-control, and wisdom and the emotional intelligence behaviors of emotional self-awareness and developing others through coaching, guiding and mentoring. It doesn't mean not having opinions or hiding what you believe. It does mean placing that behind the task of cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit in giving them “an inquiring and discerning heart.”
To take one very practical application, in choosing articles about abortion, a humble stance requires you to pick articles that reasonably and fairly represent the positions. The job is not to pick one reasonable article that fits your views and one article that’s poorly argued or representative of the most extreme fringe that “fits” a counter view. If an article causes you to squirm a bit about your own beliefs, that’s probably a good sign.
Faith and Politics
The political scientist and Pepperdine University professor Jason Blakely recently released a book titled Lost in Ideology: Interpreting Modern Political Life. Part of his point is that the word “ideology” is often used as an insult or a way of claiming others (it’s almost always others!) are narrow- or closed-minded. Instead, he encourages us to think about ideology as a map, a way of orienting ourselves in a complex society. He also points out that, regardless of our ideological leanings, different ideologies shape the world we live in—including our local and national political processes, governmental structures, and basic assumptions about community values—so being aware of them and how they affect us and those around us is part of the challenge in political (and ethical) decision-making.
In a June 16 interview by Aaron Ross Powell in TheUnPopulist[i], Blakely responds to the frequent, often dismissive, claim that ideology is “like a religion.” He notes that, “Religions are not only older but also much broader than modern ideology and can be combined and fused with all the major ideological traditions in all sorts of ways. This can be difficult to see because sometimes a religion gets swallowed up by an ideological tradition such that it appears that the only way to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew is to support politics x, y, or z. But, of course, each of these three Abrahamic faiths have been through many more eras and political configurations than what is on offer on the current ideological menu.”
In teaching social ethics in the parish, we want to encourage both a sense that our faith is deeper and broader than our politics, as well as an openness to teasing out the different assumptions and values that inform our conscience and that inform our political stances.
“They do not want the war to end before Hamas is defeated in Gaza.”
The New York Times ran an article on June 15, As War Drags On, Gazans More Willing to Speak Out Against Hamas. It describes how some Palestinians in Gaza oppose Hamas, including some to the extent that, as much as they hate what Israel has done, now that it is happening, they want Hamas removed from power. “One Gaza resident who in recent months fled to Egypt with her family said that she hears regularly from friends and family that they do not want the war to end before Hamas is defeated in Gaza. She said Hamas had prioritized its own aims over the well-being of the Palestinians they purport to defend and represent. ‘They could have surrendered a long time ago and saved us from all this suffering,’ said the woman, who asked not to be named for fear of possible retribution if her criticism were made public.”
We doubt that most Palestinians in Gaza feel that way. But there is a legitimate moral claim in the position, as well as one in the more common call for a long-term ceasefire that would leave Hamas in power in Gaza. Both point to the truth that difficult moral decision-making involves real costs to real human beings. It’s not about wishful thinking or the Utopia most of us can imagine.
We’d guess that with a brief search you could also find, for example, Jewish Israelis taking the two positions. Now that might make for an interesting class in social ethics.
Broader issues of national security
Of course, as for the Israelis, for American leaders and citizens the ethical issues of that war are broader than just the binary question of ceasefire/remove Hamas.
We see that in the invitation of the congressional leadership to Prime Minister Netanyahu. The following is from a May 31 New York Times article, Congressional Leaders, Divided Over War, Invite Netanyahu to Deliver Joint Address. “‘The existential challenges we face, including the growing partnership between Iran, Russia and China, threaten the security, peace and prosperity of our countries and of free people around the world,’ the four leaders wrote in the letter. ‘To build on our enduring relationship and to highlight America’s solidarity with Israel, we invite you to share the Israeli government’s vision for defending democracy, combating terror and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region.”
This bipartisan statement expands the moral considerations to include the larger struggle of democracies against totalitarian regimes, the long-term possibilities of peace and prosperity, and the decades-long relationship between the two nations. None of that means that a parishioner might not continue to say that the death toll is too high even taking such matters into consideration. And there may be those who have an isolationist stance that says America shouldn’t get involved in these disputes at all. Still others might claim that the United States is too corrupt and racist to do much good in the world. And a number will continue to believe that the US should support Israel in its efforts. A conversation that opens up such matters will require a firm hand on the group’s process[ii] to allow all to be heard, as well as ways of helping members to be open to other perspectives.
Finally, in our teaching it’s important to keep in mind that our parishioners are at a mix of stages in spiritual maturity. The Apostolic Christian and the tentative and immature will come to the conversation with very different experiences, understandings and practices. That reality points to the same need as mentioned above — educators need to carefully design the educational process to allow for expression of both varied viewpoints and a sincere pressing into deeper levels of truth and love. [iii]
This abides,
Sister Michelle & Brother Robert
The Eve of the Feast of Bernard Mizeki, Catechist and Martyr in Africa
[i] The interview was adapted from an earlier conversation on Aaron Ross Powell’s Reimagining Liberty podcast.
[ii] Process is always important. And it’s generally much more effective to influence group behavior by designing and controlling a structured process than to try to control people through force of will or begging them to behave. For some ideas on this, see A few structures and processes to facilitate listening in the Resources section of the Order of the Ascension website. For more in-depth information, see our book Nothing So Contagious as Holiness: Developmental Initiatives for Increased Parish Vitality Grounded in Spiritual Practice. It has educational designs and design considerations, including Chapter 9 that touches briefly on Christian formation and social ethics.
[iii] For more on the various stages of faith and practice see Chapter 4 of Fill All Things and Chapter 3 of A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery
The icon of Blessed Bernard Mizeki is from The Anglo Catholics