"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care for other people." (Dr Anthony Fauci) One of the world's leading experts on public health, immunology and clinical responses to viral outbreaks, demonstrates one of the key qualities of critical and strategic thinking; intellectual humility. He knows there are things he doesn't know, and acknowledges there are some things he cannot do.
Dr Fauci isn't alone in being lost for words when it comes to explaining that selfishness is against a person's self-interest. Even harder to explain, that care for other people is essential for a community to survive and flourish, and therefore there are times when personal freedoms and rights are limited by the common good. Which brings us to physical distancing and wearing face coverings.
It isn't that Dr Fauci is not persuasive, convincing, eloquent or endowed with authority. It's just that none of these matter to the person who makes their own self-interest their categorical imperative. But in the context of a pandemic, and the spread of a virus that is highly infectious, which exacts a high mortality rate, and is novel and therefore not yet fully understood, one of the major strategies in limiting spread and therefore threat to life, is human co-operation, caring for and about each other by the exercise of coordinated disciplines of physical distancing, wearing face coverings, hand hygiene
These are known strategies that suppress the spread of the virus. However, if significant numbers ignore such precautionary strategies then the virus spreads, people become ill, and significant numbers will die. Caring for other people has become a public health strategy. But that can only work well when there is near unanimous participation in the protective measures.
Reflecting on the poignant honesty of Dr Fauci's words, as a Christian theologian, minister and public citizen, it becomes clear to me that something is deeply wrong when significant numbers of the community for reasons of their own, choose to ignore medical evidence, scientific consensus, and their own responsibilities to protect public health. In other words choose not to care for others.
Of course many such folk will have their reasons. Fair enough. I suppose those who passed on the other side of the man who fell amongst thieves on the Jericho road, they too had their reasons. Leave it to the Samaritan to demonstrate why it is important to care for other people. Amongst the nudge, nudge clues Jesus embedded in that parable is the Samaritan "seeing the man", a word always freighted with meanings - paying attention to, being considerate of, having compassion for. And if that sounds like too much freight, just listen to the further nudges towards loving our neighbour properly. Just read slowly the underlined phrases, each of them an act or attitude of caring for the other:
"...and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”
I have every sympathy with Dr Fauci. But of this I am very sure. When someone asks Jesus "Who is my neighbour?", it isn't out of altruism and a concern for other people. And when people ignore physical distancing, hand hygiene, and refuse or resent wearing a mask, it isn't out of care for other people either. I share the genuine perplexity of Dr Fauci when he says"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care for other people."
But I read that story Jesus told - told mind you! We read it - the first audience heard it, and some of them hated it! Jesus left no wriggle room. Love your neighbour as yourself. It isn't advice; nor is it a polite suggestion; not merely an attractive option you may choose to consider. It's the law of God. It does not come as invitation but as imperative; and it is not hypothetical it is categorical.
There is something profoundly amiss with the moral core of a society when an eminent Doctor comes up against individuals in whom invincible ignorance is rooted in self-interest, which in turn thrives in a culture where 'ought' has been dissolved into self-assertion, and in which the common good is an irrelevance, even an obstruction to the claimed rights of the individual.
So yes. No wonder Dr Fauci is at his wits end trying to explain moral obligation to people for whom social responsibility, public accountability, moral obligation and the common good have little or no ethical purchase.
But that can never, ever, be the case for those claiming to be Christians and followers of Jesus. Hear it clearly. "Which of these proved to be neighbour to the man?" And hear the reply, "The one who had mercy on the man." Exactly. The one who went to considerable cost, risk and inconvenience for the sake of someone else. Call in question the science; insist on your rights as a citizen; resent the encroachment on your freedom; refuse to wear a face covering during a pandemic. But don't then claim to follow the teaching of Jesus, because he is on the side of your neighbour.
The story of the Good Samaritan long ago entered universal currency as a barcode of authentic discipleship. All of our self-serving arguments demolished by a parable establishing once and for all the categorical imperative, to love the neighbour, to show mercy, to go and do likewise.
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