Should Ethics Come First?
By Joe E. Trull, Editor

     I am upset. We live in a day when ethical issues bombard us—same-sex marriage, stem-cell research, war in Iraq, Enron-type corporate greed, lawsuits over Ten Commandments monuments, and even the Rev. Jerry Falwell telling Southwestern Seminary students in a chapel service how to vote.

     The crisis in ethics is widespread. Roman Catholics struggle with revelations of clergy sexual abuse and church cover-up, Episcopalians react to the elevation of a practicing homosexual priest, Presbyterians and Methodists are divided over the ordination of gay ministers, and the Southern Baptist Convention prohibits women serving as pastors.

     Yet, as David Gushee outlines inside, the study of Christian ethics is in decline. What disturbs me greatly is the continued minimization of Christian ethics in our churches and educational institutions.

     In the opening pages of Systematic Theology: Ethics, James McClendon Jr. asked, “Should Ethics Come First?” Unlike most theologians, McClendon argues for the “chronological priority of ethics,” noting theologians are forever leaving ethics until last, and at times leaving ethics out altogether.

     McClendon is right—ethics came first in Christian history. The first disciples of Jesus did not proclaim a new philosophy or another national religion. Rather they lived as a new community—“resident aliens” ((Phil. 3:20) whose lives were counterculture to the world. The church of the first century was identified not by its theological teachings or its mystical revelations—in the beginning Christianity was a new way of life.

     In a Graeco-Roman society of vicious immorality, where wealth was worshiped, life was cheap, and purity and chastity were vanishing, came a new moral influence. The extraordinary ethical life of Christians was a moral witness that astounded and attracted the first-century world. That is why the earliest disciples of Jesus were called “people of the Way” (Acts 9:2) even before they were called Christians.

     In the late nineteenth-century Christian leaders in England and America cried out for reform in light of the social problems growing out of the Industrial Revolution. The mushrooming inner cities were congested with the poor working class. Economic injustices became the breeding grounds for crime and moral corruption.

     The Social Gospel Movement focused on the ethics of the kingdom of God and sought to apply Jesus’ teachings to bring social harmony and eliminate gross injustices. To their credit, these SGM leaders brought about the abolition of child labor and influenced legislation that improved working conditions and the lot of the urban poor.

     However, due to the liberal theology of the SGM (optimism about human nature and the possibility of establishing the kingdom of God on earth), more individualistic Christian groups rejected both the theology and the ethics of “cultural Protestantism.”

     For most of the twentieth century, church involvement in social problems such as race relations or war was labeled “social gospel” and “liberal.” Conservative churches were wary of social ethics, for fear of being corrupted by liberal theology.

     The outstanding Baptist ethicist T. B. Maston helped change that idea. He began as a teacher of Religious Education. When he initiated a course in Christian ethics at Southwestern Seminary in 1943, at first it was relegated to the School of Religious Education—taught in another building and listed apart from theological studies. Even later when it was moved to the School of Theology, it was placed in the “Practical Division” with evangelism and pastoral ministry, rather than with theology, where it belonged.

     Nevertheless, by the 1950s and 1960s, Christian ethics had become a major course of study at Southwestern and other seminaries, partly due to critical social issues of that period. In 1960 more than 30 doctoral students at Southwestern majored in ethics—only New Testament studies had more students. Due to Maston’s influence, ethics teachers emerged: Ralph Phelps, C. W. Scudder, Marguerite Woodruff, Bill Pinson, Guy Greenfield, Ebbie Smith, Bill Tillman, Bob Adams and a host of missionaries, pastors, and denominational leaders. (At Southern Seminary Henlee Barnette had equal influence producing scores of ethicists including Paul Simmons and Glenn Stassen.)

     In 2004, has our need for teaching and practicing Christian ethics diminished? Look at the issues debated on CNN or discussed on Oprah or Dr. Phil: war, capital punishment, corporate scandals, church-state dilemmas, surrogate parenting, and politricks!

     In a day when ethical issues are numerous and complex, what is our response? Churches seem to avoid ethical questions. So concerned with “Growth” and “User Friendly Congregations,” many modern church leaders opt for neutrality—take no stand on anything that is controversial, just confess belief in patriotism, the American way, and bottom-line success.

     I agonize with church and denominational leaders who are trying to keep their ship afloat. Yet, isn’t the kingdom of God bigger than being Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or even the inoffensive No-Name Church that is obsessed with neutrality? My how we need prophets today like Micah, Amos, and Isaiah.

And now the punch-line—my own grand obsession! If ethics came first in Christian history, if the first-century world was turned “upside-down” by the moral witness of Jesus’ disciples, if the need for Christian ethics is widespread in our morally confused culture, then why in heaven’s name are we minimizing Christian ethics in the classroom and in pulpits? Why are we retreating? Why are we so reluctant to be honest with the teachings of Jesus?

Have we been corrupted by our culture? Are we so intent on church success that we have sacrificed the “hard sayings of Jesus” in order to be numero uno?

     Consider this contrast. A few SBC seminaries are increasing their ethics department to ensure an ultra-conservative, political agenda. In response, our three largest moderate seminaries not only do not have a Professor of Christian Ethics, they also offer a CE course only as an elective—which means low enrollment. We are graduating hundreds of seminary students who have not studied Christian ethics—and please don’t tell me (as one teacher did), “We include it with theology.” I know what that means—it’s left till last, and then usually left out (as McClendon noted)!

I am grateful for Bill Tillman at Logsdon Seminary, Dan McGee and John Wood at Baylor, Paul Sadler at Wayland, Jeff Holloway at East Texas Baptist and Dave Gushee at Union University to name a few exceptions to this trend. Check your school’s catalogue. Talk to the Dean. Insist that Christian ethics teaching be a vital part of the curriculum. In a world with too much decay and darkness, we must keep the “salt and light” of Christian ethics primary, as did Jesus in his life and teachings (Matt. 5:13-16).

Updated Thursday, December 23, 2004