Asking Ethical Questions
Written by: Dr. Katie G. Cannon
To engage in rigorous class strata inventory as moral agents means we must probe the complex cultural histories and economic arrangements of slavery and colonialism in the past, and international globalization in today’s socio-political domain—and ask, what moral reflections come from women and men, youth and adults, who respectfully yearn to actualize the deepest possibilities of human existence? In other words, when we open ourselves to God’s revelations, what are we called to do about prejudiced preconceptions, biased undercurrents, and fear-mongering in its deepest and rawest state in relation to the injuries of class elitism?
Here in the 21st century, as members of religious faith communities, we find ourselves standing on the brink, the precipice of conflicts, contradictions, complexities, and multi-stranded tensions, and yet, we are the ones responsible for debunking, disentangling, and unmasking the powerbrokers who receive monies, disperse funds, make decisions, and determine what is normal in our one-way, non-inclusive socio- economic contexts.
To make this point another way, we must face front-and-center, and ask, what is required of us, the ones possessing material means to live as embodied prophetic remnants, by rejecting stigmatized identities based on social class strata and not passing over the so-called least, lost and last visible at our door step? What do we need to change in order for us to live in solidarity with our sisters and brothers existing on the margins, the threshold of laboring to earn a living wage?
More than anything else, our specific work as responsible doers-of-justice is to examine the themes and questions emerging when people of faith draw our line of spiritual genealogy through the writings of canonized scriptures as we wrestle daily with the meaning of authentic Christian discipleship, here and now?
