Prioritized Ethics?
Thanks to Shane for this. Xenos is a church (made up of house churches) in Columbus. What do you guys think?
>>"Visitors to Xenos Bible studies are often amazed to see a group of people standing around outside the meeting smoking cigarettes. They may also hear occasional off-color language. Our guests from other churches notice a difference between their churches and Xenos in a number of these areas, and are confused. They wonder why Xenos members seem so committed and zealous in many areas, but loose in other areas.
We are not proud of this distinctive in Xenos, but we do realize it grows out of our teaching on prioritized Ethics . According to this approach to ethics, some areas of moral behavior are more important than others. Therefore, we should focus on the important areas rather than the unimportant. This is the opposite of the Pharisaic error Jesus called "straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel."
When we study what Scripture advances as important in the field of ethics, we find that Christ said loving God and others sacrificially is paramount. This means sins of omission (like failing to develop good relationships or failing to have ministry to others) would be a serious failing. But smoking cigarettes or saying a cuss word would be minor infractions. We think the traditional church pays way too much attention to minor infractions, while ignoring big sins like selfishness or materialism. We further find we can't just say we will hold the line in all areas. The result of a purist approach (or an UN-prioritized approach) is that people begin to comply in outwardly visible areas, but ignore the often more important areas involving omission. How sad it would be to see our people saying, "I don't cuss or smoke," and yet they fail to witness or disciple!
http://www.xenos.org/essays/ethic_a.htm (prioritized ethics)
http://www.xenos.org/aboutxenos/strange.htm#giving
posted by Dan Price @ 10:47 AM
5 Comments:
it's an interesting idea and one that i think is worthy of a look. i, being somewhat of a foul mouth myself, agree with the Xenos but wonder how do we objectively judge and decide what areas are more important. how do we, in taking on this task, avoid picking and choosing, as dan has talked about, to suit our own personal desires. one thing that is clear, as the "Xenonites" have pointed out, is that loving Christ and others is mandatory. what's interesting, is that this is such a fundamental idea to our faith that it amazes me that anyone could overlook it. yet, it's all around us. there are lots of people that try to live perfect lives but never develop that relational dynamic with God. an interesting question is what happens to the souls of those that live their lives as God would want but fail to truly love Jesus and befriend God? and on the other spectrum, would God deny admittance to heaven to those who truly love Him but haven't lived the best lives? it seems to me that the latter group has a better chance of living eternity with God. i think that the issue of prioritized ehtics, whether right or wrong, can serve as a starting point to evaluate the superficial ethics that seem to be dominating society today. perhaps then we won't have to see brothers and sisters say "'I don't cuss or smoke,' and yet they fail to witness or disciple!"
interesting comments about this article. The idea that American Christians think that if something is legal then it is ok, and that by legislation and laws we can make the rules of our society Christ-like...good thoughts.
I can see this church's morality as a response to the above.
About prioritized ethics, I won't get bogged down with distinctions between ethics, morals, etc. I think a Christian should act as guided by the spirit with consideration to the appropriateness of his or her actions.
'Appropriateness'...that may conjure similarities to prioritized ethics, but it is different in my mind. Appropriateness means that you are taking into consideration those around you and how they would react to you as a Christian doing something. It does not mean that you are hiding or being decietful, it is simply considering the audience around you witnessing your actions and acting in a way that would honor God.
Is it a sin to smoke outside a church? No. Is it a bad idea? Yes it is, in most situations. I would avoid it if I could, to avoid sending mixed messages, especially to young people.
I think these churchgoers have the right idea, freedom from a culture of oppressive Christianity. But, I think they are overintellectualizing in their persuit of that freedom. Teaching that one moral behavior is more important than others, I think, removes responsibility from the person and their actions. We are not prisoners of our situation, we have the ability and the responsibility to do the right thing in any given situation.
I do believe that our ethics must be adapted to a given situation, but morals should be more abstract and less fluid in the moment.
Go for it, I'm having fun reading!
quick little clarification: my first little paragraph about legalism and making laws that reflect what is Biblically sinful, I'm against that completely, but i thought the way you (travis) worded it was good.
about ethics/morality: i don't like talking about that kind of stuff with philosophy majors b/c inevitably there is a disagreement on what 'morals' and 'ethics' mean in the first place. I assume that at least a few people reading this are philosophy majors b/c, well, it's Dan's blog.
~justin
Travis has a degree in computers right? And I think Dan Hanna might be the only philosophy major who is reading this. But I can't say for sure.
dp
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