Lungsanliu
Defining Christian Ethics
As humans we have a multitude of
decisions to make in our everyday lives- what to do and what not to do; what is
right and what is wrong. And as Christians we consider the rights and wrongs
according to the principles of our faith. Though there is no blueprint or
manual, we have a kind of guidance in our choices between right and wrong; good
and bad based on our moral vision of right and wrong which we call Christian
ethics. ‘Ethics’ means ‘set of moral principles’ or ‘moral philosophy’.
Morality and ethics are used interchangeably even though they are not exactly the
same. People associate morality or ethics only with adultery, stealing, murder
etc. But the topic of ethics is much wider and encompasses all areas of human
life.
As a subject, ‘Christian’ ethics means a
systematic study of the way of life exemplified and taught by Jesus, applied to
the manifold problems and decisions of human existence. However, simply defined,
Christian ethics can be stated as “seeking to do or live out according to God’s
will and what pleases God”. It is not a legal system of ethics but principles
that inform us how we should act based on the word of God. Christian ethics are
not based on principles alone but on a living person that is Jesus Christ. One
can easily become legalistic by just memorising a law without understanding the
principle behind it. We fall into pharisaic legalism if all we do is simply
adhere to a policy or rule. For the Christian, it should be a matter of
conviction of the heart. We chose to follow certain principles of conduct out
of love for our Saviour. Christian
ethics is grounded on the example, life and moral vision of Jesus as revealed
in the Bible. There are several frames of reference in which the term Christian
ethics is used, understood, or misunderstood like - the ethics of the Bible,
ethics of the New Testament, the ethics of the Christian Church and its many
churches, the best in moral philosophy of all ages and places, the moral
standards of Christendom, and the ethical insights of Jesus. These overlap and
meet each other but Christian ethics find its base in the ethical insights of
Jesus and in these other frames of reference only if they are consistent with
the way of life taught and exemplified by Jesus.
So, the Christian bases his/her
ethics on the divine revelation of God’s word and the person of Jesus Christ
whose central teaching is the “Kingdom of God”, “reign of God”, “rule of God”
and whose mission is to give fullness of life to those who follow Him(John
10:10). However we cannot claim to have a perfect and clear record of the life
and teachings of Jesus. It is only to affirm that we have an adequate,
dependable and indispensable guide to Christian action in what we know of Jesus
and in what we know of God in the Bible. The critical part of ethics is in
discernment by the help of the Holy Spirit. Basically the moral life God
requires of us is to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly in God’s way
(Micah 6:8). Following this tradition, Jesus transformed relationships with the
divine power of love and truth he incarnated.
Christian
Ethics and Change
While maintaining its vital connection with
its founder and with Christian communities in the past, Christian ethics is
still in the making. It absorbs new insights or new truths as these are
progressively discovered in human relations. This means even though the ethical
insights of Jesus and the teachings of the Bible remain unchanged, interpretation
of the Bible and the focus of Christian ethics has undergone many changes depending
on the interpretation and emphasis of the Biblical principles by people in different
periods of time. An illustration for this can be seen in the way human slavery and
racism and were interpreted and understood in different periods. Human slavery
was considered as a natural or legal practice n many cultures in the past. The Bible has been invoked to justify slavery
in the past by American Christian slaveholders saying, “who could question the
Word of God when it said, “slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and
trembling” (Eph. 6:5), or ‘tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to
give satisfaction in every respect”(Titus 2:9). People of that period believed
that African Americans had inherited the ‘curse of Ham. They were destined to
be enslaved because of Ham’s unspecified sinful activity with his father Noah
circa 2325 BCE almost 100 generations earlier. It was the Baptists in America
who strongly opposed racial integration and equality in America. But the Bible
also contains themes of love, mercy, justice and equality that can be
interpreted as strongly supporting the abolition of slavery. These passages
went largely unnoticed to most 19th century American Christians.
However, the pro-slavery verses are overlooked today.
Similarly conservative Christians fought the
Suffrage Movement-(right to vote for women and Blacks) in the West as being
against the teachings of the Bible claiming that it was against God’s natural
order for men and women to be in equal footing before the law. Those who fought
for the right to vote were labeled as feminists, socialists, atheists and
anarchists at that time.
Both the Abolition of Slavery, Women’s
Suffrage and Black Civil rights movements changed the culture by attacking the
deeply rooted Biblical traditions of slavery and patriarchy. The Biblical
interpretation called ‘natural social order of God’ runs contrary to the ethics
of liberty and ‘’natural rights of all humans that are found in the Bible. Today
the zeitgeist has radically shiftedthat ideas like racism and slavery are
considered abhorrent to the same Group that spouted scripture to justify
institutionalize them.
Jesus’ Revolutionary Ethics and Women
Jesus was a revolutionary in his view toward
and treatment of women. He conferred equal dignity and personhood on women in a
culture and time when they were not considered worthy of such treatment.
Our twenty-first century perspective makes it
harder to detect the drastic changed Jesus was introducing to women’s lives.
Women in Judeo-Christian society: Women’s status and position in society was
defined in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the interpretation of those scriptures
where they were generally considered as property along with female slaves, male
slaves and cattle etc. Women did not have voice in legal matters and were not
accepted as credible witnesses in a court of law. They could not go out in
public, or talk to strangers. When outside of their homes they were doubly
veiled. They had become second class citizens or ‘non persons’ excluded from
the worship and teaching of God. Education was a male privilege, women never
studied under rabbis. Rabbi Eliezer wrote in the 1st century CE, “Rather should the words of the Torah be
burned than entrusted to a woman...Whoever teaches a daughter the Torah is like
one who teaches her obscenity”.
In the Hebrew law (Old Testament) a husband
is allowed to divorce his wife if she found “no favour in his eyes” because he
had found something shameful about her. The husband simply writes out a divorce
paper and sends her away (ref. Deut.
24:1). There are no references to a woman giving her husband such a bill. This does not mean that the Old Testament does
not have anything positive for women. The Biblical message as revealed in the
Old Testament provides for women’s rights and equality.
In ancient Greece and Rome too, women held a
low social status. An example can be seen how young girls were forced into
marriage at an early age even before puberty as the legal age of marriage in
ancient Rome was 12 years.
Our Lord Jesus violated numerous Old
Testament taboos and regulations which specified gender inequality and refused
to follow the behavioural rules established by the three main Jewish religious
groups of his time: the Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducees. The revolutionary foundation Jesus
established for women’s equality is revealed in the gospel narratives. This
equality was so contrary to Jewish law and custom of the time that it shocked
his contemporaries. Some examples are:
1)His treatment of the woman caught in
adultery, pointing to the injustice of persecuting the woman while no
punishment was directed toward her male sexual partner.
2) He ignored ritual impurity laws. Mark
5:25-34 describes that Jesus cured a woman suffering from menstrual bleeding
for 12 years. In Jewish society of the day, it was a major transgression to
talk to a woman other than his wife or children.
3) He talked to a foreign women: (John 4:
7-5:30) He talked to a Samaritan woman who was doubly unclean because she was a
foreigner and a woman. The encounter with the Samaritan woman and Jesus’
respect for her regardless of her race, gender, religion or, marital status and
his message of a new life transformed an entire town. Jesus also helped another
foreigner, Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:22-28.
4) Christ present theological educational
opportunities to women like Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). It would be
unheard of for a woman to travel with a rabbi. In these matters and many
others, Rabbi Jesus radically broke with tradition. He taught them openly,
engaged their minds, recruited them as his disciples, and counted on them in
weighty matters. He gave his male disciples a lot to think about when they
heard him teaching women the same deep theology he taught them.
5) He used terminology which treated women as
equal to men: Luke 13:16 describe how Jesus healed a woman from an indwelling
Satanic spirit. He called her a ‘daughter of Abraham,’ thus implying that she
had equal status with sons of Abraham. (Son of Abraham was an expression
commonly used to respectfully refer to a Jew but daughter of Abraham was an
unknown parallel, a designation created by Jesus).
6) He accepted women in his inner circle.
Luke 8:1-3 describes the inner circle of Jesus’ followers- 12 male disciples
and an unspecified number of female supporters (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna
and “many others”). It would appear that about half of his closest followers
were women.
7) He appeared first to one or more women
after his resurrection: Matthew 28:9-10 describes how Mary Magdalene and the “other
Mary” were the first followers of Jesus to meet him after his resurrection. Instead
of diminishing women as legal witnesses, Jesus affirmed them as key witnesses
to the most crucial events of human history- his own death, burial, and
resurrection. He commissioned them as credible witnesses at a time when women
were not legally recognized as legitimate witnesses in a court in any matter.
Jesus trusted them with the good news of his resurrection and they offered
testimony of his identity.
8) In his teaching on divorce in Mark
10:11-12, Jesus overturned the tradition
when the husband had the right to divorce his wife for any reason while the
wife does not have any such right by putting both the husband and wife on equal
footing by stating that marriage is for life and both should remain faithful
for life.
9) Besides, Jesus repeated the importance of
supporting widows throughout his ministry. The Gospel of Luke alone contains
six references to widows. (Luke 2:36; 4: 26, 7:11, 18:1,20:47 and 21:1)
However, the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus
were all male. Jesus might have chosen only single people because he wanted
disciples who were unencumbered with spouses. In first century Jewish culture,
unmarried women travelling with men would cause so much criticism that the
reception of Jesus’ teaching by the public might have been impossible.
Traditional Jewish practices were concerned
with tradition and perception whereas Christ was concerned with what is right
and true. His emphasis on treating others in accord with a transcendent principle
contrasted starkly with contemporary Jewish practices and the secular world at
that point of time.
In response women recognized Christ’s
treatment of them as genuine liberty, to be individuals in relationship to God,
though the church has struggled with a Christ like application of his example. A
personal relationship with Jesus Christ transformed the lives of women in the
New Testament, in the early Church and in contemporary life.
An encounter
with Christ also transformed Apostle Paul leading him to proclaim the
revolutionary example of gender equality set by Christ with resounding clarity:
“there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are
all one in Christ Jesus”(Galatians 3:28).
In his letter to the Romans, Paul highly recommends Phoebe the deacon
(Roman 6:1-2), honored Priscilla as a co-laborer and teacher along with her
husband Aquila in Romans and First Corinthians.
Junias, whom Paul highly complemented as an outstanding apostle (Rom.
16:7) is proved by many scholars today to have been a female apostle.[1]Many
believe that these words and inferences transcend his cultural-specific
concerns about uneducated women teaching in church which have been quoted by
many Christians to suppress and silence women in the church.
In this higher ethical principle set forth by
the Jesus movement, men and women are both treated with dignity, equality and
respect and therefore are to be equal before law, society or religion. The New
Testament gives explicit rules for preventing the mistreatment of women. In the
Letter to Timothy, Paul writes, “treat younger men as brothers, older women as
mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity (1Timothy 5:2ff). The Apostle Paul articulates the
revolutionary perspective on equality in marital sexuality in 1Corinthians 7:3ff:
“The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife and likewise the wife
to her husband. The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her
husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but
to his wife...” Many church leaders have been overlooking these passages that
teach complementary relationship while emphasizing hierarchy on the duty of the
wives to husbands.
Christ’s Ethics in relation to Zeliangrong
Women
As Christians who are genuinely seeking to be
true in following the ethical principles of Christ, what does the radical
treatment and acceptance of women by our Lord Jesus entreat us? What does it suggest
for Zeliangrong Naga Churches in their relation towards women? Many people
believe that there is no need to discuss the condition of Zeliangrong women
because their lot is much better than that of the women in the past and their
present counterparts in other communities. This comparative view does not
justify the fact that the Zeliangrong women still face discrimination as they
are not guaranteed equal opportunities in social, economic, political and
religious spheres by our society, customary and religious institutions.
The reality is evident in how women are left
out of the decision and policy making process in the society and community
affairs. This means they have no voice in governance. All policies are made by
men and oriented to the conveniences of men.
Poverty is said to have a female
face because our society strategically makes a woman poor. A woman is left
vulnerable at the mercy of others as our customary law does not provide any
sanctions of economic security for her future since a female cannot inherit any
family property. There is nothing she can call her own –even the children she
has given birth to and brought up by her own hands. In some cases, a woman who
has no male offspring has been led to leave her marital home after the death of
her husband by his kin who want the property.
Women are but custodians of male property in any case. If a woman leaves
her marital home due to widowhood or divorce, she goes away empty handed-
leaving behind the children, the assets and home she has spent years of hard
labor to build up. There has to be a mechanism in our customary law to grant
social and economic security to women.
The roles a woman is expected to
take up in the family and society are manifold and indispensable but her
never-ending activities in the family and contributions to the society are undervalued
and invisible as they are not counted as economic activities. Discriminatory
gender roles are taught from childhood in which girls are expected to help in
household activities while leaving the boys to go out to play whole day or sleep
till late are the simplest indicators of gender inequality in Zeliangrong
society.
Many Zeliangrong women are facing various
kinds of violence like sexual violence and domestic violence in the hands of violent
and alcoholic husbands. Because cases are not recorded, our Christian society turns a deaf ear to the sorrow and tears of women facing abuses and violence
in the home and elsewhere. Today when issues of violence against women receive
considerable media attention, our church leaders and seminary students know
very little about the dynamics of sexual and family violence and have little or
no experience in dealing with it. Generally people try to find fault with the
women in any cases of sexual assault or ignore it.
Glass
Ceiling in the Church : In spite of the claim of physiological differences
to justify unequal treatment of women, today, with access to education and
training, women can do almost all things that used to be exclusively male
roles. They have moved out of their ‘traditional roles’ as housewives and farmers
to become bureaucrats, politicians,
business entrepreneurs, scientists, soldiers, doctors, sportspersons, drivers,
even weight lifters and boxers etc., However in the ecclesial realm, women’s
respond to their ministerial calling has been limited to women and children
ministry and missionary work in some cases. Pretending there is no
discrimination because it was Christ’s will does no more than shift the blame
on Christ. He is then presented as one of the worst discriminators in the
history of the world. But we know this statement would be preposterous. It is the
interpreters of the Bible and their selective emphasis and not Christ who has
kept women from ministering His saving power. God created man and woman in His
image. Man and woman may be different but
they are equal before God because
they are both created ‘in His image’.
The Bible also teaches the priesthood of
all believers. As Christians we should hold on to the transcendent truths of
Scripture to find equality and oneness in the sight of God.
Conclusion
In our Zeliangrong Baptist Churches, while
ignoring our prophetic call to stand against the injustices, corruption and loot
of the poor, violence faced by women and care for widows and orphans; our Christian
morality seems to take keen interest
mainly in sexuality by excommunicating (striking out names of) people found to
have committed adultery
What does ‘being Church’ require of us today?
I believe it will mean being concerned about the things that worry /concern
God. If God is concerned about people’s situations and experiences, His message
needs to be interpreted in their particular context. In this way, the Church
and its mission will stay relevant and true to the calling of Christ rather
than remain behind as a monument.
Following Christ demands us to follow in his
steps and including his acts for women’s rights against the social traditions that obstruct
their full humanity. Firstly, our Churches need to acknowledge discrimination
as an ethical issue. This calls for our churches to name violence against women
(in all forms- domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual violence, etc) as
serious sin rather than trying to ignore it or pointing fingers at the
victims. Women’s concerns are very much
a part of the whole Body of Christ and are not to be deduced as secular, anti-biblical
or feminist concerns. It is time to bring these issues of injustices to the
mainstream of the church ministry rather than avoid them. Churches need to be
equipped and start gathering resources in learning how to supportively involve
in mending God’s creation. Let the churches wipe away the tears of ‘sorrow’
from their women’s eyes or at least cry with them to understand them.
References
Harkness,
Georgia. Christian Ethics. Abingdon Press, 1957.
Hiers,
Richard H. Women’s Rights and the Bible.
Pickwick Publications, 2012
Humtsoe,
Eyingbeni. “ Women’s Experience of ‘Sorrow’ as a source for doing Theology from
Naga Perspective.” In No More Sorrow in
God’s Garden of Justice. Women Study Series No. 4. Edited by Limatula
Longkumer. Women Study Department, Eastern Theological College, Jorhat, 2007.
Kohm, Lynne
Marie. “Á Christian Perspective on Gender Equality.” In Duke Journal of
Gender Law and Policy, Volume 15:339 (2008). www.scholarship.law.edu/
Legge,
Marilyn J.. “Moral Imagination in Transformative Theological Work.” In The Ecumenist, Vol. 51, No. 3 Summer (2014/9).
Legge, Marilyn
J.. “‘Your Sons and Daughters Shall Prophesy’: Calling and Community.” Augustana
University CollegeTheological Lecture Series (March 10-11, 1999) Camrose, Alberta.
“The Bible in Christian Ethics.” www.paulonpaul,org/ethics/bibl-ethics.htm
[1]It
is believed that the original name was Junia, a female name. No example of a
male noun Junias was found in ancient times whereas Junia was a common Latin
name which occurs over 250 times among inscriptions from ancient Rome alone.
Early Church fathers like Origen of Alexandria, Jerome and John Chrysostom mentioned Junia was a
woman apostle. This name in course of time has been rendered a male form ‘Junias’
but this male name was not present in that time. The male name ‘Junias’ did not
come into existence until the 9th century. Addition of ‘s’ rendering
it a male name is found only in the later munuscripts after the 13th
century.
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