It would be unnecessary to say that it is good to be good if it weren’t that we are living in such strange times. After all, the world has been so impacted by the message of Jesus that for many centuries we have not questioned the wisdom of his parable of the Good Samaritan.
Your neighbor is anyone who needs your help, and you should provide it.
Who is your neighbor and what is the right thing to do? This parable has provided a direct answer. Your neighbor is anyone who needs your help, and you should provide it, even if that person is not part of your in-group and it costs you something.
It has been a moral compass adopted by Christians, people of other faiths, and people of no faith. We know that if we are to live in a mature, safe and flourishing world we should heed its teaching. We are meant to look out for each other. It’s just the right thing to do.
We are seeing signs that we are in a post, post-Christian era.
But we no longer live in a world shaped by the assumptions of Christendom. This is a post-Christian era, and sadly we are seeing signs that we are in a post, post-Christian era.
No I am not trying to be a little too clever or to score semantic points. In a post-Christian era things may no longer be directly shaped by Christian values and assumptions, but they remain well remembered, and continue to have some influence on the moral discourse.
In a post-post Christian era they are at best a very distant memory, and in many ways we are back to a pre-Christian era. The revolutionary teaching of Jesus no longer challenging the rampant individualism, nationalism and corruption of our time. It’s a time when you can easily forget that it is good to be good.
What will it take for us to restore moral ambition again?
What will it take for us to restore moral ambition again? It’s worth thinking about.
Naturally you are entitled to ask if my assessment of the current global situation is valid. Without laboring the point, soak up the global news. Have a look at this Wikipedia map of ongoing global conflicts. Does this look like a planet where we are looking out for our neighbor?
And what about the collapse of international relief, the so-called “post-aid” era we are living in since the decimation of U.S.A.I.D. was quickly followed by one rich country after the next quietly cutting their aid budget. It was always only a matter of time until the effect of those cuts started to be seen.
Greed and selfishness has consequences.
The latest being the Ebola outbreak in central Africa which is likely to have been worsened by the aid cuts, as they have forced so many clinics to be closed. Greed and selfishness has consequences—and it is possible that a global plague could be one of them.
Or simply listen to public debate; be it political or other. Its sheer shrillness, and the desire to demonize any alternate view, is deeply disturbing.
As a grandfather I have to quietly inform my grandchildren that there are other ways to make a point, and that many public figures are simply not the role models we should pay attention to. They know that it is good to be good, but I have to pass on the reminder in a way that was not really necessary a generation ago.
Fortunately it is not all bad news. I have been heartened by the work of Fix the News, with its focus on solutions journalism, and its intentional choice to find and highlight good news stories around the world. And there are many of them.
It is right to aspire towards a virtuous world.
It is possible to make a constructive difference in the world. While Fix the News is not a faith-based organization they know that it is good to be good. And they remind us that it is right to aspire towards a virtuous world—a world where virtue is fashionable again.
True, the theologian in me wonders if this is possible without a transcendent reference point for our ethics. Or, to put it more simply, if this is possible without God. But I am glad for the seed that they plant, and the reminder that we don’t have to be passive in the face of hardening hearts, or highly selective definitions of who our neighbor is (and, of course, the Parable of the Good Samaritan was a rebuttal of nationalistic definitions of “neighbor”—see Luke 10:25-37).
One Christian response to dark times has been to light candles of dissent.
One Christian response to dark times has been to light candles of dissent—to be the good we long to see in the world. At our best we have done this faithfully and counter-culturally.
At our worst we have been mimics of the fears and prejudices of our time. Usually both responses have been present—popularism reshaping Christian faith to fit in with the social pressure of the age, while more prophetic voices hold close to the life, words and teaching of Jesus.
A prayer that can help make virtue fashionable again.
There are many resources from the history of Christianity in the world. From the vast array, there is a prayer I keep coming back to. Perhaps it is a prayer that can help make virtue fashionable again. It is the deeply challenging Prayer of St Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Why not pray it now? Don’t rush it. It speaks to so many contexts—situations where we find hatred, injury, doubt, despair, darkness, sadness. Ask simply, what does it mean to be and do good in each of these settings. Because it is good to be good, and to work to make virtue virtuous again.
Originally published by on Brian Harris' Blog. Republished with permission.
Dr Brian Harris, is based in Perth Australia. After decades of church pastoring and 17 years leading a theological college, he now directs the Avenir Leadership Institute, a future-focused consultancy which helps to shape the kinds of leaders the world needs. Brian is the author of seven books, the latest of which are: Why Christianity is Probably True (Paternoster, 2020) and Stirrers and Saints: Forming Spiritual Leaders of Skill, Depth and Character (Paternoster, 2024).
