On to chapter 4 in the series, "What Would Jesus Vote?" The idea that Jesus would vote for the greater good needs to be balanced with an even stronger concern that the individual be protected from the whims of the majority.
Here is the series so far:
1. Would Jesus Even Vote?
2.1 (He would vote) As a Kingdom Citizen
2.2 We're citizens in two kingdoms
3.1 (He would vote) for love of neighbor and enemy
3.2 (He would vote) for the greater good
3.3 Test Case: Health Care
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Without Hurting the Rest
1. In the previous chapter, I may have surprised you by taking a generally positive view of utilitarianism -- "the greatest good for the greatest number." After all, sometimes something is good for most people but, in the process, harms a few.
For example, let's say there is a hostage standoff. There are twenty hostages, and the person holding them hostage is using one of them as a human shield. A shooter is confident that, if he shoots through the person being used as a shield, he can get the bad guy, and the other nineteen will be saved. What do you do?
In general, ethicists -- especially a Christian ethicist -- would say you can't just kill an innocent person to save the other nineteen. You may have heard the saying, "The end doesn't justify the means." It's the sense that a good goal doesn't give you permission to do something bad to make it happen.
This is the big critique of the "greatest good" approach. It can lead you to justify bad things in the name of the greater good. Opinions differ on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. The conundrum is that, by bombing these two cities, the US likely saved more lives than would have died otherwise -- both Japanese and American. So does the killing of all the "innocent bystanders" in these cities justify it? (The next debate is whether children who happen to have been born in a nation at war at the wrong time are innocent or have a certain corporate guilt, but we'll leave that for some other day.)
But utilitarianism doesn't have to to wrong in order to bring about good. That is why we added the phrase, "without hurting the rest." A society that loved its neighbor on a societal level would set up laws and structures that bring about the greatest good for the greatest number without hurting the rest.
2. In other words, you set up boundaries to prevent the majority from overrunning or abusing the rest. Everyone's life has to count.
This is a place where the American system and Christianity strongly overlap. From a Christian standpoint, every human being is created in the image of God. That gives every human being a certain dignity even if they are a dirty rotten scoundrel. I won't take a position on the death penalty in chapter 7, but some Christians argue that the death penalty does not take seriously enough the value of a human life -- even if the person is a serial killer. The other side would say that what is important is for the person to be put to death humanely.
Many would argue that the US system -- and in fact those of other representational democracies -- have largely been set up on Judeo-Christian values. This claim is regardless of whether the founders were Christians or intended to do so. The idea is that these values were baked into their psyche as part of 1700s culture. The idea of a society that is most "loving" on a societal level is basically the idea of a society that fits best with the revealed nature of God as love. We will continue to pursue this theme in the remaining chapters.
How has the secular US managed to pull this off without establishing a federal religion (we'll talk about the "separation of church and state" later in the chapter)? We have largely come to the same end result by a different means. Wonderfully, it is possible to argue for the same overall goal of a loving society using language of "natural revelation" -- that is, using some of the very principles of nature that God has built into the world.
It actually makes a lot of sense. God created the world to work a certain way when it is working the way it was intended. You can argue for this structure to a large extent from nature as well as from the revelation of Scripture. You just have to start with the assumption that everyone's life counts. That's the Judeo-Christian assumption.
The founders of America used the concept of a "social contract" to set up the US.
Textbox: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity -- do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America."
There it is. We contract together to create a society that will bring all these blessings to everyone. They were building on the work of philosophers like John Locke to create a social contract. I agree not to kill you if you agree not to kill me. I agree not to steal your stuff if you agree not to steal mine. We'll bring about the greatest good for the greatest number collectively with this agreement.
... without hurting the rest. Thomas Jefferson was channeling John Locke when he wrote in the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
We are still working out the equal part. Jefferson owned slaves when he wrote this, so there is sometimes a gap between the idea of America and the reality. [1] In fact, I have a hunch that this gap stands at the heart of disagreements over when the Supreme Court is allegedly "making law" instead of what some call "strict constructionism" (where the Supreme Court is allegedly just sticking to the letter of the Constitution).
But the principle is clear enough. Every person should be equal in value and equal under the law. That sounds pretty Christian to me. It sounds like something Jesus would "vote" for.
3. The first ten amendments to the Constitution were the Bill of Rights. When the Constitution was being voted on by the states, states like North Carolina and Virginia refused to ratify it unless it had a Bill of Rights. Once this was agreed, the Constitution was ratified in 1789.
This was an important moment. The Articles of Confederation had not worked. From 1776 to 1781, the states worked on a system in which they remained more independent than together. The Constitution in effect said, we are now more of a union than separate states. The Civil War tested and reaffirmed this union, even though at the end of a gun.
Still, the United States would not have thrived as separate states the way it has thrived together. We would not likely be a world power otherwise, although perhaps a few states that border the ocean might be. It is doubtful any of those states would be the most powerful nation. We would probably be more like the EU.
What individual rights does the Bill of Rights protect? Here they are:
- freedom of religion
- freedom of speech
- freedom of the press
- freedom of assembly
- right to petition the government
- right to bear arms
- prohibits government from forcing you to house soldiers during peacetime
- prohibition of unreasonable search and seizure of your stuff
- right to due process before taking your life, liberty, or property
- prohibition of double jeopardy
- you don't have to testify against yourself
- the government has to compensate you if they take your stuff
- right to a fair trial
- right to be informed of charges against you
- right to confront your witnesses
- right to legal counsel
- right to a trial by jury
- prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment
- statement that this list may not be exhaustive
- delegation of powers to the states that aren't given to the federal government
That's a pretty good list! What is great about the list is that it sets down protections for the individual over and against the majority (or even an evil magistrate).
But would Jesus "vote" for it? Our journey continues...
[1] I always read Langston Hughes' poem, "Let America Be America Again" on July 4.
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