First Principles: Do No Harm

Cute dog photo: the look of love.

Here is how we're living these days. Everywhere, in every village across the U.S.

In a public meeting and again in an OpEd to our local weekly newspaper, our neighbor Mr. Freeman felt justified in throwing the partisan term "cancel culture" at those who have asked him and elected officials to stop harming others with their public speech.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of such divisiveness. I want us to remember that to enter the polis, or public realm, we do so to find common ground amongst our differences, and to be kind toward and compassionate of our imperfect selves.

When we enter the public realm either as elected officials or participating citizens, we are required to be self-aware, to understand how our personal beliefs and the ways we express them cause harm to others, and to vow to reduce and limit that harm.

Participating in the public realm requires intentionality, welcome, listening, generosity, the ability to ask for as well as to give forgiveness, and, most importantly, a conscious understanding of how harm happens and the desire to do no harm. 

There can be no single holders of "truth" in the public realm: as the German-Jewish philosopher of the Holocaust Hannah Arendt noted, "truth" is something we build between each other and our differences.

Those who believe they are holders of a single "truth" are playing god in a way that lacks humility and causes harm to those not like themselves. It is no one's place to judge in a way that holds anyone else in a less equal place.

We are united and graced by the same animating spirit of this world. This shared spirit is the foundation on which our public speech and actions must rest. All humans, regardless of the color of their skin, their gender, or whom they love are sacred and worthy of sacrament and justice.

As a proud and lifelong queer person, I've personally experienced the deep and lasting harm caused by speech that dehumanizes me by saying I am not worthy of certain basic rights. For my survival, I've learned to question whether my and others' humanity is equitably served by those who proudly profess beliefs that discriminate against us.

Mr. Freeman wants the right to proclaim his own "Biblical truth" not just in his church or home but in the public square. Yet this highly personal reading of the Bible judges that I and others are not worthy of the human dignity of equal access to the rights, benefits and sacrament of marriage. This speech, repeated again in Mr. Freeman's OpEd, dehumanizes queer people and causes harm: harm he does not intend, but of which he must become aware.

Dehumanizing Black and Indigenous peoples as "animals" and "savages" unworthy of the rights of literacy, marriage, property ownership, etc. is how U.S. white culture has justified and implemented centuries of genocide, enslavement, and mass incarceration.

Dehumanizing speech includes that some are “sinners” to be saved by others, and leads to bullying, harassment, and sometimes death. Queer people are followed, bullied, beaten up, thrown off bridges, tied to fences. We've been kept from our sick and dying loved ones because we cannot marry. We've been kept from jobs or the health care we need because of how we look or who we love.

The division of church and state structured into our public realm is crucial in a world in which some religions encourage their participants to be the judge and jury over others, rather than to live in the fullness of a grace that unites the living world.

Public officials are asked to resign when the people they represent no longer trust they can uphold the common good.

Simply saying "I'm sorry" for patterns of behavior are not enough for those who have been harmed to believe we will not continue to be harmed. We must hear that the people representing us understand how harm is caused, and clearly state that not only will they discontinue such speech into the future but also evaluate their decisions to be sure they treat everyone equally. 

Requests for resignation could and should prompt opportunities for listening, meaningful dialogue and forgiveness. Unfortunately, too often such calls only generate defensiveness and partisan rhetoric, which in turn limit learning and understanding.

Asking for the resignation of a public official is not "cancelling" or condemning them. It is an action that speaks to the seriousness of the harm, all the past harm, and the potential for future harm; and is made to generate and make visible real understanding of what must be forgiven.

As a practicing Catholic I am fully aware of the serious limitations and imperfections of religious institutions. I am also aware of the power of grace to unite us beyond the individual readings of scripture and actions that are used to divide us.

It seems to me that rather than a single "Biblical truth" we are better served by acting on the larger values embodied by the Christ, Buddha, Allah, and other spiritual teachers.

Love everyone. Actively seek justice and mercy. Ask for forgiveness. Do no harm.

#truth

#religion

#sacraments

#donoharm