Do No Harm - (Do Nothing) - Do Good

First, we’re coming back! Over the course of the next couple weeks I will finally be able to explain everything. For now, just stay tuned to the site or our social media sites for more updates. I am thrilled to be back! Thanks so much for your patience and support!

Second, I had the opportunity to speak at my church today (Short North Church) and one aspect of the talk was specifically directed at today’s holiday. We are in the middle of a series called “Three Simple Rules,” which explores the familiar Wesleyan framework for the Christian Life – Do No harm, Do good, and Stay in Love with God. My task today was to explore “Do Good.” I did so by offering 4 “Doing good is not the same as _______” statements. This excerpt is from the first section, “Doing good is not the same as NOT doing harm.” You can see my whole talk here under previous broadcasts.

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For the first “doing good is not the same as…” I want to, as Pastor Amy mentioned last week, begin with a transition.  Pretty early on in my preparation for this talk, I realized that in our current place in history, it is impossible to address the topic of doing good without connecting it to the topic of doing no harm.  That is to say, if we lived in a neutral society with no history at all, perhaps it would be simple enough to just do good.  But maybe more than anytime in the past, we have become keenly aware of harm that has been done.  It just doesn’t seem ‘good enough’ to say, “ok, we’re starting from scratch and from this point on, we are only going to do good.”  

Doing good is not the same as NOT doing harm.

In the transition from “do no harm” to “do good” I don’t think there is one step, but two.  In other words, I don’t think these two concepts are exactly opposite.  Here’s what I mean – to not do harm is not to automatically do good.  I think the three steps go something like this: 

There is do harm, There is do nothing, and there is do good.  

Now, I know when I get into splitting hairs like this, it is phenomenally important for me to point out why I think this matters.  For me, it’s because my idea of the Christian life, growing up, was to avoid “bad” decisions.  The result of this mindset seems to have been that, often times, when I would come to a decision point in life I would simply ignore the “harmful” decision.  That doesn’t mean I would choose the “good.”  It means I would ‘opt out.’  

Here’s sort of a simple example.  Early in my voting life, I was very dedicated to one particular party in our system.  Slowly, I began to see some of the harm in that, mostly thoughtless, decision.  But, at the time, I felt like all I could do was ‘opt out’ of the voting process all together.  I’m pretty sure, opting out was not the “good”est decision.  

I felt like I couldn’t help but point out this bit of nuance today because tomorrow is the Holiday which was traditionally called “Columbus Day.”  Now, it seems like culture has, sort of, slowly woken up to the fact that Columbus wasn’t the completely pure hero that some of us grew up thinking he was.  In fact, many of his own journals are bone chilling in the way he documents the planned enslavement of the native people, but I am bringing this up for a specific reason today.  I know I’ve opened a can of worms and I am not going to clean it up for you to take home.  Today you just have to take home a bunch of worms.  

Here’s the specific reason I brought this up.  Harm was done and now, because of finally listening to the descendants of indigenous people we know that this holiday causes harm in a group of people who is beloved by our creator.  

So, let me go back to my two steps – not one –and offer three ways to think about the holiday tomorrow.  These are, by no means, the only three options (especially my example of the good one), but they are, perhaps a helpful first step. 

Option 1: we continue to cause harm by celebrating Columbus Day as usual, ignoring the hurting voices of others. 

Option 2: we ‘opt out’ and ignore the fact that it is Columbus Day, essentially do nothing. 

Or, option 3 (the ‘do good’ one): we take tomorrow as a specific opportunity to listen to the voices of Indigenous People to begin thinking about the good that can be done. 

Option 1 is harmful, but it could be argued that Option 2 is equally harmful.  A great deal of healing and good can come from just listening.  

If you are interested, after service, I would be happy to point you to a couple of sources.  A simple step for everyone could be to go to native-land.ca to see who originally inhabited the land you live on.  Or the land you grew up on.  For the record.  Our church sits on the land of the Miami.  

As you consider how you will observe the holiday tomorrow, remember Doing good is not the same thing as NOT doing harm.

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I think today is only my day to speak insofar as I can point you to great indigenous voices to listen to.

Here are three of my favorites:

Kaitlin Curtice - you should follow her on twitter today (@KaitlinCurtice), I definitely trust her recommendations today more than my own.

Randy Woodley - on twitter @randywoodley7, or at his family’s farm site eloheh.org

Richard Twiss - on twitter @richardtwiss. I have found his lectures on youtube extra helpful.