Christian ethics have been largely abandoned by the American church to its detriment, according to a leading liberal Baptist ethicist.
Dr. David P. Gushee was interviewed on the topic of Christian ethics and their necessity for Christian churches today in the most recent episode of The Future Christian Podcast by host Lauren Richmond, Jr. Gushee, who has a Ph.D from Union Theological Seminary, is Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University and is author and editor of more than 25 books, including Kingdom Ethics and Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust.
One of the dominant themes of the interview was the question of the place of ethics in Christian life. Richmond remarked that it appeared as if the question of ethics had almost entirely disappeared from the American Christian landscape. Gushee replied by highlighting the “shocking” amount of immorality in the American church. He pointed to swathes of American Christians who he asserted are setting aside their faith commitments in how they vote, or preach virtue in public but privately live in vice.
“You think about the headlines Jerry Falwell, Jr. made over the last couple of years and some of the lifestyle stuff that was revealed about him…his father would never have done anything like that,” Gushee stated.
With these incidents in mind, Gushee believes that Christian ethics have always mattered, and that they have both an individual and social impact.
“Any human community of any duration develops moral standards and rules and goals, and the Church has a 2,000 year tradition of doing that,” Gushee declared, going on to emphasize the individual impact that Christian ethics should have on the Christian life. “It has always been understood in historic Christianity that the Christian life has rigorous moral demands. It’s not just about believing. It’s not just about being saved. It’s about living godly lives.”
On the subject of American Evangelicalism, Gushee claims it has become both too individualistic and ignorant of the customs and doctrines of the historic Church. Gushee also points out that comments made by people like Billy Graham on economic and political issues were mostly “improv”, and as such many of their ideas are “cut off” from the larger Christian tradition. Gushee insists on looking to the “massive library of resources” of the Christian moral tradition.
“We are trying to figure out how we should live or what we should say, we don’t have to make it up as we go along,” Gushee insisted. By relying on this standard rather than a “me and my Bible” mentality, Gushee claims American Christians can correct errors in how they act within their churches and in the larger community.
One problematic tendency Gushee identifies is the ease with which Christians are swept up in ideologies and charismatic politicians.“We’re not supposed to be going with what the hot thing of the moment is,” Gushee declared, but rather remain steadfast in virtue and faith. This political problem Gushee speaks of is found on both the political Left and the Right. Though he believes Trumpism is not in accordance with historic Christian principles, Gushee also sees the Left’s distrust of Scripture and Tradition as problematic, and that Christian ethics can serve as a boundary line to keep ideas biblically sound.
Gushee listed key goals that Christian ethics should strive to achieve: honoring the sacredness of life, advancing justice, love, forgiveness, truth, and covenant. He stresses that with these goals one cannot just pursue them how they see fit. They must adhere to guardrails established by Christian morality, in contrast to a utilitarian mindset held by some American Evangelicals. Gushee believes that Christ came to “reclaim the world” for God, and that His true followers will live their lives in “the Kingdom Way”, that is, in accordance with Christ’s teachings.
“God is looking not just for believers, but for Kingdom people,” Gushee insisted, adding that sound morals help to build this Kingdom.
Gushee related these ethical goals to specific issues. On economics, he stresses the holistic aspect of a Christian economy: “The goal of economic life is, properly understood, to meet everyone’s needs,” and that people should have the opportunity to move beyond basic requirements to achieve success through hard work. He added that due to the ever growing human population, environmental health is connected to economic health as well.
“You might think of God’s creation as the context within which all human enterprises are situated,” Gushee proposed. In other words, human activities that cause ecological damage will also damage human affairs.
At the end of the interview, Gushee offered hope for the American churches. With “racialized” forms of Christianity in decline, he believes that churches are experiencing renewal, and that white Christians are realizing they “need to be in community intellectually and spiritually” with those of different cultural backgrounds, which he thinks will bring about a new spirit to the churches.
Comment by Tim D. on August 2, 2022 at 3:53 pm
The last paragraph is just… well, I don’t have any other words for it besides ‘pure delusion.’
Take this for example: “With “racialized” forms of Christianity in decline”
A fascinating statement, considering there is zero evidence that integrated churches are becoming a thing outside of the kumbaya “universalist” not-even-Christian “churches.” Those are more like social clubs for atheists than anything else. On the contrary, with the SBC rumblings, it seems likely that we’re seeing Christianity become more “racialized,” not less. If racialized refers to Churches being segregated by race, there has been little change in the last decade, if anything there has been backsliding.
Once a church is less than 50% White, all the remaining Whites flee. You see the same thing with “diverse” neighborhoods. To be blunt, there is no such thing. Much like you either have a neighborhood composed of one race, or on it’s way to being composed of one race, the same situation exists with churches. Either a church is black, White, Hispanic or it’s on it’s way to being black, White or Hispanic (or Asian, don’t want to leave anyone out!).
I would love to see the evidence that makes him think otherwise, but I suspect it’s rather nonexistent.
Comment by Radical Christian on August 2, 2022 at 8:10 pm
This is a fascinating article, and i appreciate reading it.
Sadly, a person with social and political views has been more or less branded a hypocrite. What he says about a great many subjects I agree with. However, to use Kantian shorthand, we disagree on the means to an end, what are means, and what are ends.
Being on the political center or left, as I understand him that the ‘kingdom people’ God is looking for are those who believe that power and authority should be concentrated in government actions to make proper change. I would argue that authoritarian “top down” action has failed everywhere and every time it is tried.
So let’s take everybody’s easy ethical issue, abortion. What are ‘Christ’s teachings’ on abortion? I dare say he is not ‘pro-life’ in any real sense of the word. But, based on my understanding of Scripture and the church over history, being pro-life is exactly what Christ would teach. Therefore in his view I am a radical that is not following what Christ would want done.
His statements on the environment are very interesting. But how does he square the circle withe that fact the largest polluters that destroyed the environment was the failed state of the Soviet Union and their satellite vassal states in the Warsaw Pact?
Further, how does he see the actions of the worst polluters in the world, the Chinese Communist Party, who are greatly harming the environment in order to further the goal for world domination at the expense of billions of people?
Do we oppose China? Do we pray for them? Do we oppose them? How do we oppose them, or how do we try to live with them even as they persecute our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Finally, he speaks of the economic world. I can agree with much of what he says in the article. but how does he define equality? Or how does he define ‘equity’? IMO, the words ‘to meet everybody’s needs’ is a tell that he wants to define those terms in a way that many others do not. Is he looking for equality of opportunity or equity as an outcome? How does he define the word ‘need’ across cultures?
Nice article, and I appreciate reading it.
Comment by Kenneth Brownell on August 6, 2022 at 6:11 am
I agree with much of what Dr. Gushee says. Unfortunately he has seriously compromised himself with his support of same sex marriage. Like those he critiques he has let his ethics be determined on that point by the culture rather than Scripture.
Comment by David Gingrich on August 6, 2022 at 7:11 am
Why don’t we just follow Jesus?