Consequentialism & the Church's Moral Witness
Part II: Human Decency & Christian Charity Are Not Sufficient
Moral Analysis: More than Human Decency & Christian Charity
Human decency from all and Christian charity from followers of Christ is what we can expect from each other. And when I think about their practical, pastoral response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there is much to admire in the Church's response, and this includes ROCOR's response.
It is however one thing to condemn the consequences of a war and another to condemn the war as such. To understand this, let's think about our thirsty, hungry neighbor.
To offer a bottle of water and a sandwich is a good thing. Depending on circumstances it can even be a heroic act.
When, however, we go on to condemn the social reality that some are without food and water, we are making a different kind of moral argument. Now we are entering into a conversation that requires that we understand the circumstances that contribute to our neighbor being in need. Is she hungry because of an immoral public policy or one that is simply short-sighted? Is she hungry because of limited charitable resources or because of her own self-neglect? And why are there not enough resources or what led to her not properly caring for herself?
Again, to offer the person a bottle of water and a sandwich doesn't require us to understand the larger picture any more than a father needs to understand geology or physiology to give his children “bread rather than a stone” (see Matthew 7:9-11).
What often trips up our moral analysis of public policy is limiting ourselves to the kind of thinking that helps us navigate moral problems in our family, our parish, or our diocese. In these situations, it isn't necessary (or even always helpful as my parishioners can attest in my case) for us to engage the broader circumstances that are the legitimate concern of the politician, the diplomat, or the economist.
When I visit someone in the hospital they are rarely if ever interested in the Church's theological anthropology as it applies to illness, contemporary health care, and the aliment that landed them in a hospital bed. What they want, what they need, and have a right to expect from me as their priest, is a kind word and a prayer, anointing, confession, and Holy Communion.
Again, much of our moral analysis is of a kind more appropriate to the individual or family or maybe a small, relatively monolithic community like the parish or diocese. This isn’t to say such analysis has no place in public policy discussions. But this kind of analysis is inappropriate and often harmful when it is the primary lens through which we look at a complex situation such as war or, for that matter, abortion or same-sex marriage.
At most, nations in conflict with each other are only like arguing siblings. Anything we do based on our understanding of family life is only applicable analogically not directly. This means that Russia and Ukraine are like brothers born from the same mother. Any moral analysis that fails to take this into account will misunderstand the conflict.
And those suffering as a consequence of war? What do they need from us?
Like those thinking about having an abortion or a couple in a same-sex marriage, need our charity and understanding; at the very least, they need us to be decent. To this end, the kind of discussion appropriate for the classroom or a public policy think tank is at best unhelpful and can even be harmful when ministering to those in need.
At the same time, it can profit our face-to-face conversation to have had the more theoretical conversation. Theory can guide us, give us inspiration for what we might do, and (more helpfully) what we must not do if we are to be respectful of human dignity and faithful to the Church’s moral tradition.
And so, with that, I want to look at a statement about the morality of Russia's invasion of Ukraine made priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate. The value of this statement is that while it discusses the consequences of Russia’s invasion, it also holds more closely to the objective standards of Orthodox Social Teaching.
To be continued…