Do the right thing - it works

It’s always interesting to me when we discover that doing the right thing is also doing the thing that works. In so many cases, it turns out that the idealistic path is also the practical one. For instance, Jesus told us that life was about loving our neighbor, even our enemies, and that only those who lose their lives for his sake and for the gospel will truly save them. The ideal he gave us is to love others selflessly.

In recent years, psychologists have applied rigorous study to the experience of human happiness and have found that happiness does not come from riches or entertainment - although a basic level of food, shelter, and comfort is still a must. Instead, happiness comes from human connections and from service in a greater cause. Loving service is not just the right thing to do, it is also the only pragmatic way to live with the deep happiness we long for. The ideal is what works.

Loving your enemy is often disregarded as naïve and unrealistic. The conventional wisdom these days is that we must wipe out our enemies, especially in a world in which terrorism is such a horrific threat. But Jesus preached a different way. He and his disciples practiced nonviolence, and later the church fathers created a “just war theory” in order to define the very narrow criteria under which the careful use of force could be justified as a necessary evil by preventing a greater violence. Two of the criteria are that the use of force may not cause more suffering than it is certain to prevent, and that force may never affect innocent civilian populations. You can tell right away that this theory comes from a century in which battles took place on battlefields far from civilian homes. The strict criteria for just war are meant to remind us that violence is tragic, even when we use it toward good. Many would argue that modern weaponry and warfare is, by definition, never justified, because it always involves civilians and collateral damage. It could never meet the criteria for a just war.

But all of that is just a nice ideal, right? It doesn’t work in the real world. Well, it turns out that it does. The RAND Corporation is a non-profit institution committed to researching public policy. It began during World War II, and is commissioned by government branches, including the Pentagon. RAND recently finished a study of terrorist groups since 1968, and found that most terrorist groups end because 1) they become incorporated into the local political process or 2) they are brought down by local police who arrest or kill key leaders. RAND further recommended that the concept of “war on terror” was not effective.

So it turns out that building political relationships or using force in a small-scale, specific way is not just the ideal recognized by Christian tradition. It’s also what works.