Several years ago, I attended a peace church conference. Surprisingly, I did not find a lot of emotional piety but rather profound thought, even when asked questions such as “Is there a better way to preserve the community than shunning?” However, I was most impressed with a discussion about the need to make cooperation the primary ethical value in the 21st century.
The speaker presented this as a cultural matter related to the anabaptist communities drawn into the “English” sanctification of competition.
He offered a learned understanding of capitalism utilizing competition to offset the selfishness of human nature. It was supposed to supply the best products by allowing consumers to compare what was available. However, its limitations were exposed when human nature made it all about personal profit without considering the community’s needs. Of course, he quickly used advertising to show that competition had little to do with the product anymore.
As he talked, two recent upsetting experiences of athletic competition came to mind. The first occurred during a high school discussion about sportsmanship. I was stunned when a young all-star woman soccer player I considered the most caring of the group said if an opposing player exposed her ankle, she would not hesitate to step on it.
The second was observing an exercise at the college’s basketball sports camp. Participants practiced foul shooting while others jeered them.
Both took me back to my days on a high school basketball team where intentionally injuring or making fun of an opponent would have been regarded as disgraceful and might have gotten you booted from the team. Although we wanted to win, we honestly thought the primary goal of athletics was to teach teamwork.
The speaker at the peace conference claimed anabaptist culture was based on transforming human nature to do God’s will. I Corinthians 12-14 made clear that Christian love involved each community member sharing their gift for the common good. He believed the church should demonstrate to society the cooperation that makes a community healthy.
Paul suggests collaboration is a better word for everyone, helping everyone do a common thing. As in an orchestra, every participant has a different but essential part to play if we are to make beautiful music together. Everyone can and must help carry everyone else. Everyone counts if we are to attain harmony.
As in the family there are fragile members, each has different needs that matter while others have different gifts that can minster to those needs.
As we try to build a global culture, the church certainly should be a voice championing collaboration.
