As Christians, we want to see the world be a better place. Jesus has taught us to love our neighbor and to be concerned for the least of these. The problem is that when we try to get involved, we do not know what to do. We find it harder than we supposed. This can lead us to give up, but then what of our obligation to love the world?
In my view, few Christians have thought about this issue with as much clarity as the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. I have learned much from him. What I have learned has enabled me to keep going in big and small ways with outreach to the communities of which I am a part. Here I want to summarize seven principles that continue to be sources of wisdom, challenge, and encouragement to me when social engagement gets hard. I will not quote Niebuhr here. You can see my summary of his views on Christian political engagement here. I am just writing these in my own words, but my thought owes much to him.
1. There is no limit to human anxiety, insecurities, and ambitions. One reason it is so tough to engage with people is because we are filled with anxiety. Anxiety is part of human life. It arises from the fact that we can see all sorts of problems that we can do little or nothing about. We are anxious about our survival, our life, our possessions, our money, our kids, our nation, our significance, and on and on.
And there is no point where this stops. No matter how much we succeed there are always new problems. We have anxiety that we will lose the things we have gained or not reach the next level. In America and the West, we have solved a lot of problems that were huge issues for our ancestors, but we have simply run into bigger problems. Anxiety explains why people accept even bad situations. They fear that if they change them, they will encounter something much worse. In engaging with society, we are dealing with anxious people.
2. Human pride is born out of anxiety. Why do people exalt themselves at the expense of others? Why do they act in selfish ways? It is in part because of their anxiety. They are worried about their survival and the survival of the things they enjoy, and they will fight for their position and prestige as much as if it were their very life. Why does a nation invade others? It is in part out of the anxiety over the prosperity, prestige, or survival of their own nation. Why do people amass goods and not worry about others? It is in part anxiety over their own position. Why does a parent think they can continually make their child happy? Some of it is anxiety about their child, but it is also pride in their own ability to solve every problem for someone else.
Pride born of anxiety is a factor in human life. We stubbornly cling to our own position and power and exalt ourselves, our things, our people, and our ideas above others, even at the expense of truth and justice. This deserves our condemnation, but it also calls for compassion because it is born out of an attempt to solve the basic problems of life, relationships, meaning, and security that we all deal with. This can take some of the edge off of the opposition of others because it is born in part out of trying to solve the same problems that we ourselves are trying to solve.
3. Religion is not a pure quest for God, and reason can be just as fanatic as religion. Religion and reason should mitigate our anxiety and humble our pride. However, religion can easily become a tool of our pride. Thinking on the absolute, we identify ourselves with the absolute. We borrow the sacredness of the holy and apply it to our own faulty and sinful ideas and actions. We use it to exalt ourselves at the expense of others. Even the idea of grace, which should humble us, can become a way of looking down on others who don’t get it and baptizing all our ideas because we “understand” God’s grace.
The rationalists have rightly recognized some of this religious hypocrisy. However, they have been unequipped to deal with their own hypocrisy and pride. The history of science shows that almost every new idea was ridiculed and that it took the virtual dying off the practitioners of a former paradigm in order to allow new ideas to come to the fore. Some of the greatest injustices of the last 200 years have been committed in the name of “science” and “scientific statecraft.” We must not look at religion or reason as a panacea for the basic problems of anxiety and pride.
4. Community can moderate these tendencies when free criticism is allowed. So, what does tend to moderate our pride and anxiety? The community can be an idolatrous force, but it can also be helpful in mitigating our pride and pretensions. An older brother may think he is really fast . . . until he competes at school and finds that there are many faster. Our ideas may appear amazing . . . until we share them with others.
It is the free criticism of the community that forces us to confront our own pretensions and correct our misplaced conceptions. We do this generally not out of a desire to learn the truth but out of a desire to avoid looking foolish in our pride or to lose our power, position, or prestige because our ideas are obviously flawed.
That is why democracy is such a helpful form for society. It is not because it is a brilliant system that works perfectly like a well oiled-machine. It is because it allows checks on power, competition, and open criticism.
5. Brotherly love challenges us much more than we think. Fallen man’s tendency is to think in terms of himself and his own. Brotherly love calls us out to think not only of our own interests but also of the interests of others. To do unto others as we would have them do unto us and love our neighbors as ourselves continually calls us out to society and out of ourselves.
When we think of our actions, brotherly love that is concerned with all people and all who are a part of our communities continually asks, what is best for the general good and not just for myself. The grace of God can push us out of ourselves and make us like our heavenly Father who has compassion on all and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
6. We must engage with hope but recognize how hard things will be. The grace of God should always give us hope that we can change situations. Even by changing ourselves, we change the situations of which we are a part. Society can become more loving and more just. The forms of society can better serve all those who are a part of it.
However, this will not be easy. It will often involve an exercise of power. To even the best of ideas, there will be entrenched opposition. The anxiety and pride of man is heavily invested in the old ways with all their good and all their bad. It will be difficult to bring about new ways of acting, but it can happen.
7. Progress is real, but every level of progress will have its imperfections. There can be real progress in history. Just as individuals can change, though it is difficult, so society can change, even though it is difficult. Marriages can change. Neighborhoods can change. Businesses can change. Schools can change. Progress is a real possibility.
Things can be better than they are, but they will always be lacking something. The next level of attainment will present its own problems and temptations. The kingdom of God will show its power in this life but it will not be fully manifested. That awaits the age to come.
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