Invitation to Christian Ethics

Ken Magnuson

• Publisher: Kregel Academic
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780825434457
• eBook ISBN: 9780825477584
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

A comprehensive introduction to Christian ethics addressing today's most challenging moral issues Invitation to Christian Ethics is an indispensable guide for helping pastors, counselors, and everyday Christians navigate today's difficult moral questions. Readers will benefit from Ken Magnuson's survey of ethics from a biblical perspective as well as contemporary theories of moral reasoning. This survey is followed by twelve chapters devoted to some of the thorniest issues Christians encounter today, such as:
• Sexuality, including homosexuality, sexual identity, and gender
• Marriage and divorce
• Infertility and assisted reproductive technologies
• Abortion
• Physician-assisted suicide
• Race relations
• Creation care
• Capital punishment
• Just war, pacifism, and the use of lethal forceMagnuson provides biblical insight into each topic and presents key moral considerations. He also answers specific, practical questions that arise and concludes with a summary of his recommended approach to each issue. Readers will learn how to grapple with difficult moral questions and will receive guidance for some of life's most challenging ethical conundrums.

PART 1

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER 1

AN INVITATION TO CHRISTIAN ETHICS

Listen closely, pay attention to the words of the wise,

and apply your mind to my knowledge.

For it is pleasing if you keep them within you

and if they are constantly on your lips.

I have instructed you today—even you—

so that your confidence may be in the LORD.

—Proverbs 22:17–19

Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

—Matthew 5:16

Many people are interested in moral issues, but not so many want to read a book about ethics. Similarly, many people want to play a sport, but not so many people want to practice. Perhaps some are reluctant to read books about ethics because they believe that ethics is all about religious, civic, or institutional policies, rules, regulations, or laws, all of which (they may believe) limit freedom and deny us pleasures in life. Why would they want to read a law code? It may be important, but surely it is boring. There may be a few people who like that kind of thing, and we may need people who do that work, but you don’t want to be one of them, and you don’t want to read their reports. Moral issues may be interesting, but reading about ethics seems abstract, boring, and difficult.

Yet ethics can’t be boiled down to a list of rules and regulations. This book is an invitation to understand ethics, particularly Christian ethics, differently. Ethics is worth reading, in short, because it is about things that are worthwhile, like faith, family, friendship, love, the purpose of life, choices we make and how we make them, and so on. Yes, rules play a role too, as we will see, but they must be understood in relation to everything else. They are not the essence of ethics.

Readers are invited to think about what ethics is all about, and to consider what makes Christian ethics distinct from other ethics; to ask, for instance, what the gospel has to do with ethics. Readers who are not convinced that Christianity is true, and may be opposed to many positions that Christians take on moral issues, are invited to consider the issues discussed in this book as part of a worldview, or view of reality, that is represented here. Positions on moral issues should not be taken up buffet style, picking and choosing according to what we prefer with each issue. Rather, we should understand particular issues, moral principles and rules, right and wrong, virtues and values, and all other aspects of ethics, in relation to a comprehensive worldview. In turn, it is important to weigh carefully any worldview, both in terms of its overall view of reality and its moral claims. Before looking more closely at what Christian ethics is all about, it might be good to ask why you should want to study it.

First, properly understood, ethics is a central concern of Scripture, from beginning to end. Genesis describes the order and design of God in creation, God’s relationship to his creation, responsibilities given to human beings, as well as the problem of sin and rebellion in the fall, creating disorder and death. These are all part of a moral framework to unpack. The Mosaic law establishes parameters to uphold justice and prevent harm, to promote love in relationship with God and others, and to structure Israel’s society. Old Testament narratives portray examples of good and evil, faithful and unfaithful people, and God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises. The wisdom literature presents paths of life and death, extols the wisdom of living according to God’s law, and teaches how to respond appropriately to God through worship. The prophets condemn the immorality of Israel and its neighbors, and call for repentance and justice, especially for the weak and powerless.

Ethics is no less a concern in the New Testament. At the cosmic level, the Gospels and the Epistles declare Jesus to be the Son of God and true human, who came to reconcile human beings to God and to one another through his death on the cross, to defeat evil and death, and to inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth. These things are part of the gospel, within which ethics must be understood. At the level of everyday living, the New Testament gives attention to actions and motives, to virtues and vices, and to what it means to be a follower of Jesus and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. When Jesus met with his disciples for the last time, he gave them a charge that we refer to as the Great Commission, to make disciples, “teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20). The failure to make disciples and, yes, to teach ethics, is sometimes the great omission of the church. The biblical resources for Christian ethics are not limited to Jesus’s teaching, either. Second Timothy 3:16–17, often quoted to emphasize the authority of Scripture, also speaks to the concern for ethics in the whole of the Bible: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Our lives are important to God, and he takes great care to teach us how to live. We should be concerned to live in a manner that pleases God, and to teach others to do so as well.

Second, it follows, then, that we ought to study ethics because it is important. In a frequently cited statement, Socrates says, “The discussion is not about an incidental matter, but about the way we ought to live.”¹ Ethics has to do with how we live our lives. Many people prefer not to think too deeply about life, perhaps for fear that something they love will need to be sacrificed, that there are things that may need to change. They prefer the distractions of sports, movies, television, music, and other entertainment. Or they prefer to peer into other people’s lives through social media, and to present the mundane things of their own lives to others. Though entertaining for a time, such things are empty, and life may seem to be meaningless—a despairing thought that is sometimes encouraged by song lyrics that say as much. Entertainment and mundane things in life need not be eliminated. They are part of life, along with big decisions about faith, education, marriage and children, friends, work, where to live, and many other important choices. The big issues, and countless decisions that we make every day, all reflect and mold our character, and they are all meaningful as they are shaped by our basic orientation in life and our understanding of the purpose of our life. In turn, sorting out the orientation and purpose of our lives will affect our decisions about the big, and even the mundane, things in life. Thinking about ethics will help us to sort out how we live our lives.

Third, it is worth thinking about ethics in order to improve our moral reasoning. How we live our lives involves our basic alignment and intentions, about who we are and how we act. Moral reasoning concerns how we make such decisions. It is something that we develop by observing others, by thinking about how to do it, by practicing it, by engaging with the people of God, and being saturated with the Word of God. I will devote some time later to the process of moral reasoning, involving especially moral reflection and deliberation. For now, it can simply be said that we need to understand issues well through careful reflection, and not simply act or judge by impulse (though our impulses can also be shaped). We should go beyond simply articulating our position on a given matter, to offer a reasonable and compelling rationale for our position that flows out of a biblical worldview. That is, we ought to articulate not just what we believe but also why we believe it.

One of the fruits of careful reflection is better decision-making or moral deliberation. We want to be able to apply a biblical worldview properly to contemporary, concrete, and often complex matters, in order to make decisions or offer counsel about such things as dating, marriage and family, contraception, politics, economics, the environment, assisted reproductive technology (e.g., in vitro fertilization), stem-cell research, and many more issues. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by some decisions. It is often difficult to access and assess all the facts, to know how to weigh competing moral claims, or even to have time to think things through when it seems like decisions have to be made at once. All these things and more can make moral reasoning difficult. Yet it is a skill that can be developed. This book may help you with moral reasoning in two ways: by proposing a model for moral reasoning and by working through a number of issues. If you don’t agree with what is proposed, your reasons for disagreement and thinking about alternatives will be part of the development of your own skill.

Fourth, studying ethics can help us to understand and engage with people around us, and to share with them reasons for our beliefs. We do well to try to understand better why other people think and act the way they do. We may disagree, but we ought to listen and engage with others, to take an interest in them, rather than simply reject them out of hand. This does not mean affirming each person’s view as legitimate, or “true for them.” Many views are not legitimate, or justifiable; some are repugnant. Many attitudes and actions ought to be resisted and rejected, or repudiated. Yet that can be done with genuine care and concern for the person. From a Christian point of view, how we respond to others is important, and is an opportunity to witness to them about Christian faith.

Many people are not interested in talking about “religion,” but they are interested in what is going on in the world around them. Ethical issues are in the news every day, and some who would close the door to direct talk about faith (yours or theirs) may be willing and eager to talk about current issues. Ultimately, such conversations will lead back to matters of faith, since what we believe determines what we do, though they might not have initially thought in such terms. Making those connections may provide the opportunity to explain why you believe (and act) as you do, and perhaps even to make a compelling case for faith in God and following Jesus. There are opportunities with neighbors, coworkers, someone sitting in the adjacent seat on a plane, or other parents whom you sit with for hours at your kids’ sporting events, to name a few. Christians have, or should have, much to say to make sense of the world and of difficult issues, including the mundane (but extremely important and relevant) ones. Indeed, the Christian worldview is the only one that can make full sense of what is happening in our world. We ought to engage people.

Fifth, ethics is important to think about as a preparation for ministry. So many issues in ministry and pastoral counseling have an ethical dimension. Consider a relatively brief, yet diverse, sampling of matters that people in the church (and outside of it) might bring to their pastor (or seminary-educated friend):

• Someone asks, “What are the most important issues that should be considered when deciding who to vote for, and how should we think about such things as care for the poor, national security, immigration, the economy, marriage and family issues, abortion?”
• A newly married couple wonders whether there are any moral considerations related to birth control.
• A married couple desiring children recently found out that they are infertile, and they desire to know whether there is anything wrong with using in vitro fertilization. What if they find out it is only possible with the use of a donor sperm or egg, or a gestational surrogate?
• A group of singles in their twenties would like you to talk about whether it is legitimate, or perhaps even preferable, for them to remain single. Some of them wonder whether it is a calling. Others want to avoid marriage because the divorce rate is so high.
• A friend who is a member at a mega-church has discovered that a couple at the church are cohabiting, and that they say there are many other couples in the same situation. Further, they are convinced that there is nothing wrong with it biblically, as long as they are faithful to one another. Marriage is just a piece of paper. How do you respond?
• An elderly man at the hospital is on life support. The family is told that there is no brain activity and he has no chance of recovery. Yet they are hoping for a miracle, and they believe that if they “pull the plug,” it would be killing him, so they are fighting the hospital to prevent them from doing that. They want to know what you think.
• A woman tells you that her husband is addicted to pornography. She is disgusted by his behavior and feels betrayed. She wants to know whether she is justified in pursuing a divorce. He says he knows that it is wrong, feels terrible after he succumbs to the temptation, and has tried for years to stop viewing pornography; but he can’t control his desires. What can he do? What should she do?
• A young woman tells you that she is confused about her sexuality. She has come to realize that she is attracted only to other women. She was recently pursued by another woman, and it ended in a sexual encounter. She felt guilty, but also thrilled by it. She always thought homosexuality was wrong, but now she is not sure. She didn’t choose to be attracted to women; it is just the way she is “wired.” Can she be in a faithful relationship with a woman and be a member at her church?

Each one of these scenarios are matters involving pastoral care, as well as matters of ethics and moral reasoning. Each involves understanding people and their situation, considering relevant facts, helping them to discern what the Bible has to say about the situation and what is God’s will for them; that is, what is the right thing to do? Each person must examine who they are and how they ought to respond to the situation. In addition, what is sometimes missed is a consideration of how the community plays a role in each situation.

Sixth, it is worth thinking about Christian ethics in order to combat false teachings and destructive behavior in society and the church and to offer a coherent and compelling moral vision for all of life, which flows out of the Bible and our theological convictions. For some, the message of the Bible is that there is good news and bad news. The good news is that you can have eternal life. The bad news is that you have to give up all the good things in this life. It just doesn’t seem worth sacrificing a life of pleasure, especially if they don’t find the appeal to eternal life compelling (due perhaps to an impoverished understanding or an impoverished vision cast by Christians). Christians, they think, are suspicious of all of life’s pleasures. They are all about rules, and they want to tell everyone else how to live. Why live by somebody else’s rules? Why not go for the gusto, experience everything that life has to offer, and do things ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Part 1: Philosophical Foundations
• Part 2: Biblical Foundations
• Part 3: Marriage and Human Sexuality
• Part 4: The Sanctity of Human Life
• Part 5: Social Order and the Environment