Ethics in the Wake of Christianity
Rip Cronk
Chapter 6
Ethics in America in the Wake of Christianity
Although America professes a belief in God and claims allegiance to the Christian ethic, we no longer discover the world through a religious perspective. Religious symbols no longer inspire ontological truths that give meaning to life. When Western society turned from the transformative experiences of Catholicism to the ideological rationalizations of Calvinism for confirmation of its religious values, it set the stage for an onslaught of exploitive ethical postures in the name of Christian morality. Society promotes political policies have little resemblance to the moral code of Christianity. The fascist and reactionary slant of the moral majority, and more recently the agenda of the faith-based culture war, are prime examples. The pulpit has been used to sway the public to take positions diametrically opposed to the intent of Christianity.
How does the individual find truth or meaning in life, or make intelligent and informed decisions with a heavily censored and propagandized education? How in the name of God can religious organizations justify having ever supported the arms race and dictatorships around the world? Or for supporting oppressive political policies that deny rights to their fellow citizens? This is pathological morality. Can the ironies go unnoticed? Our dowry for future generations is exploited resources, chemical waste and nuclear proliferation. What is to prevent misguided moralists from pursuing agendas that decimate the planet and oppress the rights of others?
Our country has always dominated others to as a way to preserve social order. While paying lip service to a church driven religious ethic, America pursues political policies offering economic stability, not salvation. Softening resistance with missionaries and Coca-Cola, Western interests have historically exploited cheap labor sources in the name of God and the American way. The inequities in our treatment of third world countries cannot continue. While the cold war is over and America no longer shadowboxes with the communist threat, the proliferation of third world countries with nuclear weapons has created a new and dangerous situation. Nuclear proliferation makes political oppression of non-Western nations a particularly hazardous means for maintaining global economic hierarchies. Indiscriminate threats of radioactive fallout and nuclear winter have created new equality at an international level.
Will the fear of self-annihilation prove to be sufficient common ground for developing ecologically sensitive and humanitarian compromises in the world community in the future? Unfortunately, the likely answer is this tenuous ground of equal insecurity will be aggravated by the controlling hierarchy into justification for continued oppression. Monopolistic capitalism will continue to suppress the rights of non-Western countries and allow big business to ravage the environment under the guise of free trade and Christian morality. The American public seems unable to see through misdirection and propaganda to realize the motives of a political system controlled by corporate interests. Whatever the course of international policy, as long as it fills America's breadbaskets and gas tanks, it will probably be seen as morally responsible and necessary by the God-fearing public.
The flaw in the psychology of Christianity is rancor. (Nietzsche) And more broadly stated: the inherent flaw in every code of ethics is there must be a wrong which is left out of the system. If there is no enemy we will make one up: someone must be made responsible for the suffering endured. Much of what goes on in the name of Christianity today is reactionary and retrogressive. It is a reaction to the nihilism confronting postmodern America. Blind loyalty to allegorical Christian dogma is a measure of the desperation and helplessness people feel as their convictions are nullified by reductionism. As Christian doctrine succumbs to reason, can America develop an ethical posture of coexistence without rancor? And to the point: can it develop an ideology where the rich do not oppress the poor?
The decline of the Christian tradition has allowed for the assimilation of a previously unknown self. The philosophic negation of oppressive religious dogma has released repressed (unconscious) content from the collective psyche. In a process of desublimation, acceptable cultural values have expanded to include what was previously considered deviant. In the wake of Christianity, society continues to have a strong sense of right and wrong, but these values are in a state of change as religious doctrine loses its authority to shape our lives. The breakdown of traditional venues for attaining moral directives has produced a situation where personal choice reflects self-interest with little regard for the needs of the collective. In response, America overcrowds her prisons. Social compatibility for future generations will be determined by how well alternatives for self-actualization provide for integration into a culture with humanitarian values.
The arts, humanities and sciences provide integrating experiences and belief systems for developing out of the Christian mindset. They actualize a greater range of experience through democratic strategies. The potential exists for development of a more fully actualized and socially integrated personality with humanitarian values of coexistence and codependence based on common interests at a global level. The trick for developing a successful society is for personal values to be socially responsible -- for duty and pleasure to become one. When personal values successfully reflect social morality, individual expression is ‘transpersonalized’ and common bonds of trust are established. This suggests the possibility of an ideal model, but there can be no ideal solutions. There is no utopia. Ethical choice reflects the socialization of the self in a changing world and not universal ideals. It is possible we may achieve a humanitarian ethical code of coexistence in America, but not until a cultural revolution has dispelled the notion that Christian imperatives are served by corporate political interests, or that faith based political directives of religious extremists will render a just society.
