October 29, 2012
Civility – Fruit of the Spirit
Our newspaper has started a new weekly Church and Community column and
the current topic was public vision and conversation. The author of the article
wrote that Christians should be the ones to lead the way to restoring the
virtue of civility. I was a little taken back when he said, “It is generally agreed that our public
officials are doing a poor job of modeling civility.” What I find disturbing is that almost all of
our elected officials are people of faith who are active in their church and
their beliefs are evidenced in the performance of their duties. Although he may
be oblivious, the author’s accusation against public officials is really an
accusation against his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I think we need
to be reminded that people who are in public office do not turn off the Spirit
within them when they get elected, and then turn the Spirit back on once they
have completed their term of service.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I don’t know. I’m inclined to agree with the author. Not that we see a lot of brawling, or even fisticuffs amongst our politicians. We don’t, as we shouldn’t. In fact, if you look around the world at some of what can be seen in other political halls, our guys are very hospitable towards one another once elected (but before elected they're not so much.) Yet, it would be nice to say such hospitality is civility, especially since Christianity is a bit stirred into the mix.
-----But civility requires a special ingredient in addition to being polite. Civility requires courtesy. Now, courtesy is about showing consideration of another. This is where the topic gets deep. Another is an interesting concept. You are another. How do you want courtesy shown to you? Do you want the opportunity to live as an adult making reasonable decisions about available options? Do you want to determine what things mean to you? And when there is as much doubt as there is certainty (global warming, for instance) do you want the honor of abiding by your own opinion? Or would you rather be treated like a child having no ability to make decisions, being told what everything around you means, having all aspects of your life narrowly determined and defined for your belief and following? Granted, there are some matters of life which must be narrowly defined for us all to follow, e.g. thou shalt not murder. Yet the most of life is less clear, like Paul said, we see dimly as through a mirror. Then what other person has any more right than do you in forming an opinion about an unclear issue? Courtesy gives way to the rights of other opinions when reality is not definitive while holding to the narrow definitions when reality is crystal clear. So courtesy is interlocked with integrity.
-----I do not see this behavior in our politicians. I see a bunch of schoolyard brats bickering and arguing for their own constituents’ desires regardless of either the clarity or fog of reality. If these folks were truly civil like civility really is, they would all have processed the complete set of clear facts concerning a situation and would proceed on opinion only from there. But when you have one side of a debate arguing no more than that a woman has the right to make her own choices about her reproductive health and the other side arguing just that a human being is killed by every abortion, then there is no complete mind arguing that a woman has a right regarding her own body and every human being has the right to legally protected life. Only the mind dealing with the full set of facts is being courteous to all involved and will likely suggest a civil solution.
-----I simply do not see this in our politicians, Christian or atheist. I do not believe the most of our politicians are civil. They represent what gets them re-elected, not what is right to the best of their reasoning upon the full set of facts and circumstances.
-----Of course, I don’t mean that as a blanket statement. I know there are a few of both atheist and Christian politicians alike who do consider every thought thinkable while examining every fact they can find before deciding an issue. So I give this shoutout to them, although they are unfortunately a microscopic minority.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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