ACTION FOR THE FUTURE

by BARBARA WARD (LADY JACKSON)*

We must begin with the fact that Christians are a minority. Even in nominally Christian countries, whether in the developed or the developing world, the number of people for whom religion is a principle of social action is relatively small. In Asia and most of Africa, the absolute number is tiny, as well. We cannot hope to be effective by sheer size. We cannot take it for granted that our ideas are the ideas of the majority. We cannot assume that automatic attention will be paid to what we say. All this does not condemn us to ineffectiveness. The Biblical images of salt and leaven are relevant to our condition. But a minority is not a leaven unless it dedicates itself to action. Otherwise we have Our Lord’s word for it that the salt that loses its savour is fit only to be cast into the

What gives minorities their influence? How, for instance, did the Aboli- tionists in eighteenth-century Britain overcome two centuries of apathy and a vast concentration of vested interests in the slave trade? The short answer is that they dedicated themselves to their campaign with religious zeal, that their programme aroused a positive response in terms of rational experience and consciencious concern in the wider culture of which they were a part, that they worked together, as Christians- Anglicans, Evangelicals, Quakers - and that they formed a broad coalition, for direct political pressure, with all men of good will. There is no reason in theory why the Christian Community should not become latter-day Abolitionists of the slaveries of our age - hunger, ignorance, disease, rural under-employment, city worklessness. If we take each of the four conditions underlying the success of the Abolition- ists, all are in some measure present in our day. Take, first of all, the sense of religious zeal or vision. Now, as always, it is the prophetic task of Christians to “discern the signs of the times” and today they lend themselves, to a remarkable degree, to a dynamic Christian interpretation. For the first time, science and technology have unlocked the doors of scarcity. The rich post-Christian Atlantic minority of the world‘s peoples increase their wealth each year by the sum of total national income in

Privy.

Lady JACKSON (BARBARA W m ) is writer, economist, lecturer; Albert Schweitzer Professor of International Economic Development, Columbia University (USA) ; Member, Pontifical Commission Justice and Peace (Great Britaio).

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other continents. Christians, rooted in the Jewish vision of justice and judgment - “the hungry He hath filled with good things, the rich sent empty away” - and sharing to a very great degree in the new bounty, should be able to recognize the eye of a needle when they see one. For the first time, the whole planet has been drawn into a single physical community. Christians, inspired and moved by the mysterious images of the Second Adam and the Son of Man, can hardly deny the moral community of a single human species which physical proximity has turned from an ideal to a necessity. For the first time, the nuclear breeder- reactor, with its promise of almost unlimited energy, permits men to think of “inventing” a less constrained and limited future. Christians, schooled in the vision of man as essentially creator, working with God to remake the face of the earth, can show forth the sense of hope and energy which underlies this responsibility. In fact, the new realities seem almost to cry out for a Biblical sense of direction and enrichment. The dry bones of abundance and power could live again if men could stir them with the breath of a truly prophetic vision.

A Christian commitment to the Biblical concepts of human justice, human unity and human creativeness would not run counter to the non-religious or post-religious outlook of our age. Western society, rooted in its Judeo-Christian heritage, has, hardly surprisingly, its own commitment to the same ideals. The welfare state is the child of Biblical justice. Woodrow Wilson’s international idealism draws on the brotherhood of man. The temper of science and enterprise is oriented toward the future and its creative tasks. Communism carries a secular version of the same temper all round the planet. And the coincidence is not simply one of ideals and principles. It can be argued that much of what has to be done in development today is not too far removed from the concrete experience of reform in already developed countries.

In the strategies discussed for developed lands, a transfer of resources from rich to poor nations of the order of one to two per cent of Gross National Product can be seen as the first sketch of a world tax. The policies required to remedy the irregular and lopsided distribution of the gains made in international trade can be said to resemble improvements in the domestic wage bargain. Such concepts as a world “indicative plan” for agriculture or an over-all estimate of the capital needed to supplement developing nations’ earnings through trade or even liquidity policies, such as the Stamp Plan, which direct new drawing rights on the

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International Monetary Fund in the first place to developing countries have at least a family ressemblance to the types of indicative planning, full employment policies and concepts of “demand management” with which developed countries have experimented since 1947. Admittedly, it is a radical change to apply these concepts to the international economy. None the less, they represent not a leap into the unknown but an evolu- tionary application of tried and successful strategies to a new situation. Similarly, the reforms for which it is suggested that Christians should press in developing countries - land reform, progressive taxation, educational and manpower policies and suitable population control - are not untried or arbitrary. They have formed part of every successful experiment in development - notably in the modernization of Japan. As recently as the forties and fifties, they were an element in Italy’s post-war growth. Equally, history gives quite specific evidence of the risks which wait on any failure to adopt them. The old Turkish Empire, Russia before 1917, China between the wars-in all these societies, rural misery, unreformed tax structures and minimal education weakened the nation’s ability to transform itself in time. In short, to urge society to adopt the kind of changes needed for successful growth does not mean to fly in the face of reason and history or to suggest expedients which have not worked elsewhere. Christians can unleash their energy and vision in the knowledge that they are pursuing rational and practical ends.

For the third condition - cooperation between Christians - the times are clearly favourable. Indeed, the newness of full Catholic participation in ecumenical action gives a shock of freshness to the whole venture. At this stage, the mere fact of working together makes an impact on public opinion. Quite routine encounters and statements receive un- expected attention. We still make headlines by a joint statement, whether or not it is the prelude to action. This condition will not last, of course. Action must follow. But it exists today.

The outlook is more cloudy when we turn to the fourth point - co- operation with all men of good will. We meet at a time when there is rising evidence of widespread erosion in the post-war hopefulness and idealism about world society - an idealism which created the United Nations and its agencies and pioneered such critically important institu- tions as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. One aspect of this mood is fading support for economic assistance as a settled policy of the developed nations. True, the mood also finds expression

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in widespread talk of failure and waste and corruption. But in a sense this disgruntlement reflects rather than causes the general mood. Critics do not try to find out the not inconsiderable evidence of success because they have lost interest in the policy. Nor do they accept inevitable errors as they would, say, in defence, because particular mistakes are acceptable only when general policy is supported. It is this overall acceptance of aid that is weakening. One should not exaggerate. There are moves in the opposite direction. Canada proposes to set up an important Develop- ment Centre at Montreal. A number of governments have undertaken to increase the flow of aid. But it remains true that if men of good will are to be rallied to renewed support for an international strategy for development, one of the preconditions of success may well be vigorous and sustained action by the Christian minority.

What are the chances of the Christian community accepting this role? We have to recognize the fact that they are very small unless a very considerable effort of education is set in motion at once. It is needed at the two levels already discussed - the specifically religious inspira- tion of Christians drawing on their deepest spiritual resources to take up the task of “renewing the face of the earth” and, at the same time, their practical dedication to those secular reforms in our nascent world society which experience has shown to be possible and necessary. At present, most Christian education does not give a major role to either of these needs. Catechisms, schoolbooks, seminary training, university and adult education -we can look in them in vain for a Christian vision of planetary justice and order and of the practical steps needed to achieve it. It follows that our first requirement is an educational strategy for Christians. This strategy would, naturally, have to operate at many levels-in the parish, in the dioceses and regions, within the nation, a t the highest level of authority in the various Christian Communions. The problem is to secure sufficient unity of purpose for the effort of education to be effective while making complete allowance for the variety of local approaches and needs.

Such a flexible strategy would seem to require:

(1) an ecumenical group of theologians to meet at the highest level to suggest the outlines of a theology of development for local application. One can surmise that such a group would draw heavily on the Bible bringing to Christian awareness the astonishing prophetic force and

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richness with which it prefigures man’s growth toward planetary justice and neighbourhood. The group would prepare material for ecumenical study of the Bible as the source of man’s vision of his responsibilities as cocreator and developer of a dynamic world. It could suggest forms for services of intercession and dedication to social and world justice. It could sponsor collections of sermons on the theme of justice and develop ment. Each communion would prepare its own liturgy to celebrate the oneness of peoples and the sharing of the earth’s abundance, within and between nations, thus breaking out of the emotional restrictions of parochial, tribal and national exclusiveness and opening Christians eyes to the vision of their planet as the single precious home of all humanity - a vision which, for example, blazes out of the windows prepared by Chagal for the synagogue in Jerusalem.

(2) a group of Christian parents, catechists, and primary school teachers to devise a syllabus which gives children their first introduction to the concepts of human brotherhood, social obligation and planetary justice. The importance of sound racial teaching at this stage can hardly be exaggerated. This group would prepare broad guide-lines and pass them on to similar groups at the national and diocesan level for local adaptation.

(3) In the same way a group of Christian educators would suggest syllabuses and reading lists for Christian high schools in which religious inspiration is combined with economic, social and historical teaching on social justice both locally and in the world community. At this stage the relevant Papal Encyclicals and documents of the World Council of Churches should be introduced and where it is found that suitable text- books are lacking, steps should be taken to get them written. Naturally, each country will require its own working groups and its own versions and languages at all levels of education, but common principles should be maintained. Similarly, film libraries, documentaries and television series will vary from place to place, but the common Christian inspiration should appear in all.

(4) University and seminary teaching requires a more sophisticated version of (3). But once prepared, a good deal of the material could also be used for adult education. A particular university, seminary and missionary emphasis could lie in preparing people to devote all or part of their lives to the technical assistance aspects of development in other lands.

( 5 ) Courses, reading lists and films for parish groups-ecumenical or separate - for regional conferences and national rallies are not yet fully available. An ecumenical group of experts is needed at the summit and in each country to survey what does exist and commission more material. Where books, films and reports could be used over a wider range of audiences, common lists are needed of an international kind.

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(6) Each country engaged in effective adult education requires some centre for ongoing information. In Canada, the proposed Centre may provide this kind of “data-bank.” The Christian Communions should consider the provision of library, newspaper and periodical services for their campaigners.

(7) It need hardly be pointed out that all these proposals are expensive. There is a question of judgment and priority here. For instance, Christian Communions active in providing schools - as do Catholics in the United States - might ask the question whether half a million dollars spent on a new school complex in a single area should have a higher priority than an educational campaign covering all the nation’s schools. In countries which collect widely for Christian charities and relief work, the question should be asked whether a part of the collections might not well be spent on educating Christians to the needs of world justice as well as charity. If parishes in the developed world were to adopt a yardstick for financing their international activities - for instance, a certain percentage of parish revenues - a proportion set aside for education might make the operation ultimately better understood and hence accepted.

The needs of social justice and world order are, however, too urgent for action on a wider front to await the consummation of a long process of Christian education. The long-term effort must, of course, go on. But its effectiveness needs to be tested and its significance made dramatic and exciting by actions designed to produce more immediate effects. Here we leave the role of Christians looking inwards to their own Communions and confront their role as stimulators of citizen action and participants in wider programmes with all men of good will. Within this context of a general campaign for development, a number of policies can be considered.

(1) Each country needs some new ecumenical instruments of leadership and also needs them at the diocesan level. On the Catholic side, local Commissions for Justice and Peace are probably the answer. They seek to work closely with their opposite numbers in the National Councils of Churches. The form of this cooperation will vary from place to place but the same kind of joint headquarters is clearly essential.

(2) Christians should take the lead in mobilising support for the various recommendations of policy which are being undertaken at the inter- national level. The United Nations is preparing a development strategy for the 1970’s. The President of the World Bank has called for a “Grand assize” on the effectiveness and future of foreign aid. The Beirut Confer- ence could consider, on the basis of Professor Tinbergen’s paper and its

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own deliberations, issuing a Charter of Statement of the guidelines it thinks useful for these high-level enquiries.

(3) The effort might be made to arrange for a series of diocesan, national and regional conferences of religious leaders where the guidelines are announced and Christian support pledged for them.

(4) These conference, for which influential secular leadership might also be sought, might be accompanied by intensive propaganda campaigns to spread the ideas of development and justice among the general citizen body. For instance, the cities chosen for national and regional summit meetings could be exposed to “saturation treatment” before the conference, with lectures and films for each civic group, special classes in all the schools, sermons and special services in all the churches, and a youth march in which young people got sponsorship for their walk at so much a mile and handed over the proceeds to developmental charities. The emphasis after the summit would be on citizen groups to carry on the tasks of education and propaganda on a continuing basis. This programme has been camed out in a number of Canadian cities and the techniques and results can be studied.

( 5 ) From dedicated groups of this kind one should attempt to recruit volunteers for fulltime pressure on elected representatives. These “lobby- ists” would undertake to know the facts, submit parliamentarians to a steady barrage of informed questioning, rally wider backing in times of need-for instance, during the discussion of a foreign aid bill in a developed land or a proposal for land reform in a developing one - and, if the occasion arose, seek to make an election turn on the candidates’ attitude to development and justice. The present conviction among parliamentarians -that the citizen body is not interested in either - could be shaken if only ten to fifteen per cent of the electorate, a potential swing vote, showed sufficient tenacity. Vocal university protest in Britain, for instance, checked the government’s intention to impose higher charges on foreign students. Hitherto, Christians have not shown much political leadership in the field of development in spite of the fact that they alone, in the Atlantic world, could provide a ten per cent dedicated minority in virtually every constituency.

(6) The bulk of citizen action has to take place inside the nations since governments still carry the responsibility for most of the world’s ultimate decision-making. Hence the national ecumenical groups, Commissions, or conferences will no doubt undertake the direction of much of the citizen action needed for development. But it is essential to avoid a complete division between the developed and developing world. The issues of social and international justice are not those of charity and alms-giving, of patrons and dependents. The Christian vision is one of

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profound interdependence, of mankind working jointly at its own develop ment and achieving together “the glorious liberty of the Sons of God.” Two consequences follow from this. The first concerns the mobilization of citizen support. Regional and indeed world meetings should be en- visaged with the participation of all the earth’s peoples. Possibly the broad outlines of a strategy for the seventies might bring together ecumenical leadership at the highest level and thus put all activity a t other levels into the proper context of planetary interdependence and brotherhood. The second consequence concerns the kind of strategies to be pursued. Where possible, Christian opinion should encourage the elaboration of truly international policies and support the strengthening of international agencies, at the centre and in the regions. These are the most hopeful instruments of mankind’s worldwide “housekeeping” and best express the needed thrust toward truly planetary institutions.