comes great responsibility.”–Spiderman We’ve been watching (and pretending) a lot of Spiderman around here for the past few days. And I’ve been thinking about that mantra and how it applies to various ethical situations facing our country and our family. Spiderman feels responsible for everybody. He thinks he’s responsible for his uncle’s death because he had an opportunity to stop the thief who murdered his uncle and didn’t do it. He shirks his responsibility to fight evil in order to pursue the girl he loves and finds that he can’t protect her unless he does what he has been empowered to do–fight evil. So how does all this responsibility/power stuff relate to our nation and to the decisions we make as a family? I have lots of questions but not so many answers.
I supported our nation’s decision to invade Iraq, partly because I believed, along with practically everyone else, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction or was busily developing them and that he was encouraging and training terrorists to export death and destruction around the world. Even after we discovered that Iraq’s weapon program was probably not as well developed as was originally thought, I believed that we had a moral responsibility to overthrow the government that was responsible for torture, persecution, and murder on a large scale. I could not live with the idea that we had the power to get rid of Saddam’s evil, and we stood by and let it happen. But where does that responsibility end? Do we have the responsibility and the resources to eradicate evil in every country on the globe? Of course not. How much responsibility do we have, because of our riches, to rebuild SriLanka or Indonesia? How many dictators must we overthrow and replace? Do we decide on the basis of self-interest? Saddam was a threat to us, so we took him out. Dictator Y is only killing his own people, so we leave him alone? Or do we decide on the basis of what is possible? We could remove Saddam, so we did. Removing Kim Chong-Il of North Korea would provoke China, so we just talk to him and tell him to be good.
Then there’s individual and family responsibility. I long ago rejected the idea, at least in practice, that it is wrong to shop or eat out on Sunday because we’re supporting those businesses who compel their employees to work on Sunday. Likewise, I rent movies from Blockbuster even though I believe that they are purveyors of many very subversive and evil movies. I recently asked a question on another blog about boycotting Walmart, and received this answer:
Mattel and Disney and all the other toy manufacturers don’t pay decent wages because Wal Mart won’t pay a fair price for toys, and since they are the world’s largest retailer, they have the power to set the market price. So they set a wholesale price so low that the manufacturer can’t pay a decent wage.
Wal Mart has a multitude of sins, including selling products below their cost in order to kill competitors, knowingly hiring contractors that employ illegal immigrants to clean stores, because they work cheap; widescale discrimination against female employees, refusing to pay overtime and making salaried workers work 60 hours a week
Am I really responsible for the sins of Walmart’s owners and stockholders because I shop there? If so, what are my alternatives? Are there any sin-free zones where I can shop? Isn’t Target or Sears just as bad? Don’t they all get their products from the same places? Or is there a threshhold at which the sin becomes so egregious that I am truly encouraging and participating in evil when I shop at a certain business? If I knowingly bought products from businesses that were working within the Nazi system during WW2, wouldn’t I be morally culpable? If this is a general principle, shouldn’t I also refuse to rent movies at Blockbuster, watch movies produced by certain film companies, buy anything made in China, shop at stores that open on Sunday, etc. ad infinitum? How far does my responsibility extend? With great power comes great responsibility. Because as Americans we are rich, we have some power. How much responsibility do we have?
And then what about unintended consequences? Our presence in Iraq has had some unintended consequences. Some say we have drawn more terrorists to the region by our very presence. My not buying products made in China (or sold by Walmart) could have unintended consequences, too. If enough people joined me, those people who are now working for slave wages and under horrid conditions might becme unemployed and starve to death. Would this, too, become my responsibility?
As anyone can see, my training in ethics is somewhat limited. However, I think these are the kinds of questions that average Christians struggle with and want answered. Any ideas?
Luke 12:48b From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.