wfn.org | Faith and Life commentary-Personal and public morality

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April 14, 1998 Contact: Thomas S. McAnally (615)742-5470 Nashville,
Tenn.  10-21-71B {225}
	
NOTE:  A photograph of Phil Wogaman is available upon request.

By Phil Wogaman*

The President's recent difficulties have given rise to a good deal of
moralizing.  As a life-long Christian ethicist -- and as a pastor of the
church the Clintons often attend -- I have taken more than passing
notice.

Much of the media attention has not impressed me as being terribly
profound. Sometimes it has even seemed a bit sanctimonious. But what I
miss most of all is a sense of proportion. It is as though we can expect
flawless behavior from others, and any flaw, or even an allegation of
flaws, cancels out every other quality of character, leadership, and
vision. And so the hunt is on to locate flaws.

I am most struck by the discussions of the relationships between
personal and public morality. That is an old subject. Reinhold Niebuhr's
1932 book, Moral Man and Immoral Society, was an analysis of how people
who are perfectly upright and "moral" in their personal behavior
sometimes behave in very selfish ways in their business and political
life. Personally, they can be very self-disciplined. They can be caring
fathers and mothers and prone toward good deeds at the highly
individualistic level. But at the same time they can pursue their
self-interest aggressively, even ruthlessly in the institutions they
belong to and support.

Later in life, Niebuhr remarked that sometimes the terms should be
reversed. Sometimes society as a whole rises to a higher moral point
than many of the individuals that compose it. For instance, civil rights
laws embody a higher morality than the prejudices of many individuals.

The late John Bennett wisely observed that "the personal character of
our leaders in public life is of great importance, but the primary
emphasis should be placed upon integrity in the discharge of public
responsibilities."  That should not be taken as disregard for personal
character for there can be a close relationship between personal
character and public responsibility. But it should be a caution against
a narrow conception of character and a disregard of public issues of
enormous importance. Perhaps it can also be a caution against rushing to
judgment on the basis of rumor and unproved allegations.

Amid the great national debate over morality, some have asked whether
there are no moral absolutes any more. Surely to people of faith, there
are indeed absolutes. God is certainly the absolute point of reference,
and we are taught that love of God and our neighbor is the supreme
principle.  Everything else has to be a working out of these absolutes,
and there surely is room for continuing debate. But when asked whether
any person perfectly exemplifies the moral absolute, I can think of only
one. And he was crucified. 

#  #  #

*Wogaman, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington and
seminary professor of Christian ethics, is the author of 13 books. He is
a clergy member of the Baltimore-Washington United Methodist Annual
(regional) Conference.

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