In
Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker Palmer worries that American society is
losing the virtues, the basic qualities of character, esential to living as a
free society. The trainers at my community organizing training last week
expressed the same concern. Palmer and they both saw the decline of “civic
life” as the problem.
By “civic
life,” they mean the intermediate institutions that stand between the family
and the massive power of the market and government. Take for example the
influence of marketing and media on children and youth. Those are powerful
rivals to the authority of parents.
Since
1973, the influence of the market and government has grown by leaps and bounds
while the influence of civic institutions has declined. Civic institutions
include schools, service clubs, churches, and others – think of 4H, the Grange,
VFW, etc. Civic institutions buffer the family from all sorts of destructive economic
and social pressures. And they do something more: they are the context in which
we learn and cultivate the virtues essential to life in a free society.
This is
not a new or novel idea. Benjamin Franklin wrote in his essay “On The Necessitie
Of A Publique Religion” that a republic is possible only if churches instill
virtues in people that insure that most of us will behave well most of the time
without the watchful eye and heavy hand of a totalitarian state. From the
founding fathers through sociologists like Robert Bellah and theologians like
Stanley Hauerwas in our time, we have known that living together in freedom
requires capacities for empathy, restraint, compromise, etc. We learn those
virtues in civic institutions, most particularly, churches.
The
Epistles are first and foremost guides to how to be a community. They are full
of teachings about the virtues we have to master in order to be the Body of
Christ – which coincide with the qualities of character essential to life in a
free society. If the church is to do its job of forming saints and citizens, we
have to get intentional again about teaching people how to deal with each
other.
For
example, as I write this article, Congress is looking for a way to steer the
budget away from the fiscal cliff. Whether this needs doing is beyond debate.
Whether it is important is beyond debate. The only argument is over whether
failure to avoid the fiscal cliff will be a disaster or just really, really
bad. The only way to save the economy from this mishap is compromise. But among
the constituents of the Congress only 46% of one party and 53% of the other
support any kind of compromise. A substantial percentage of our population is
bullheaded to the extent of being self-destructive. We complain about Congress
but they merely reflect the populace. We get the government we deserve.
The
business of the church is not to teach political or economic ideologies, but it
is our job to teach wisdom, common sense, empathy, and forbearance that enable
people of good faith to bridge their differences.
I am
particularly impressed by Parker Palmer’s Five Habits of the Heart (derived
from Quaker Spirituality) that he says are necessary to democracy:
1. An understanding that we are all in this together
2. An appreciation of otherness
3. An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways
4. A sense of personal voice and agency
5. A capacity to create community
1. An understanding that we are all in this together
2. An appreciation of otherness
3. An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways
4. A sense of personal voice and agency
5. A capacity to create community
The
practices of story-telling and identifying our deep self interests (things we
want and need that go deeper than money, power, and prestige) and finding ways
to meet those needs for both sides – all part and parcel of community
organizing – are also crucial to being church and being a democracy.
One of
our priests just finished training in conflict resolution with the Lombard
Mennonite Peace Center. I have not had this experience yet. but from what I
have read and heard, it may be another rich source for helping us be the kind
of community Paul urged us to be in all his letter, especially 1st Corinthians.
Often church
folks do not behave toward one another with the kind of wisdom, patience, and
kindness one would expect of Christians. If we cannot behave virtuously in
church, what can we expect of human behavior in the rough and tumble world of
politics? I hope in the coming decade or so we will renew our efforts to teach
and practice relational skills, that we will grow stronger in the capacities we
need in order to be good citizens and good church people, and that we will
cultivate the strengths we need if we are going to get on with God’mission.