We are here tonight to affirm the ideal of the Common Good and to honor those among us who have lived their lives under the sway of that value in a beautiful and persuasive manner. 

In affirming the value of the Common Good, however, we run the risk of sounding like we are for motherhood and apple pie.  Who in the world would argue publicly against the Common Good?  Today, we probably would have more people arguing against apple pie because of the carbs and saturated fats than against the Common Good, right?  As for motherhood, nobody but a fool or an insensitive psychotherapist would ever criticize that institution!

As we all know, though, it is one thing to affirm the value of the Common Good and quite another to live ones life with this principle consistently at ones center.  We all have many pressures to live life in exactly the opposite direction, in the pursuit and protection of narrow, personal self interest.  Some of these forces are external and some are driven by forces embedded deeply in our souls. 

For examples of external pressures to pursue self-interest, we only have to turn to media advertisements that frequently depict lavish lifestyles only a few can afford.  Countless products are advertised with the message to treat yourself to this because you deserve it.  Our temples to commerce, the shopping malls, are crowded with an alluring opulence.  In modern business, making a killing and taking care of the competitors is the rule.  Concern is minimized for the effects of this commerce, including how it is produced, what happens with it is used and when it is discarded.  Business typically has not been concerned with the impact on those outside the shopping mall and the corporate wall.  While I don’t mean to be black and white about this, there are clearly enormous pressures away from concern for the Common Good and toward narrowly defined self-interest.

In addition, deep in the soul of every living creature, human beings included, is the powerful root mandate to preserve one’s life.  We are hardwired for this.  This mandate extends easily to making certain one has enough safety, food, and shelter to ensure this.  It also is easily extended to those who are perceived as kin – as the same kind, in other words.   While I believe we also are subject to impulses that lure us in the direction of a natural concern for the Common Good, these primal and social forces that move in the opposite direction must be recognized.  In the case of the psychological-biological drives, these forces need to be understood and respected and not shamed – even as we act to transcend their narrow claim.  Shaming and condemning only leads to resistance and polarization, not to any healthy resolution or progress.

These are some of the reasons that living ones life today according to the principle of the Common Good is a very strong challenge and, indeed, quite unusual, not to mention risky.

I want to expand on the idea that we are subject to impulses that coax us in the direction of the Common Good.  If we look at our own national history as well as at the world’s great religions, we find some strikingly similar, seemingly universal features, that would suggest we are being pulled in the direction of concern for the Common Good. 

On the national side, the introduction to the Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Even though the phrase the Common Good is not used, everything in this familiar paragraph moves in that direction, indeed is an essential description of the idea of the Common Good as it pertains to our national governance.  It is reasonable to conclude that the idea of the Common Good is at the core of our nation’s founding and among its highest principles.

Long before our nation’s beginnings, however, one can find the idea of a compassionate concern for the Common Good emerging from the purist forms of the world’s great religions.  The Fresno Ministerial Association held a program last year where we heard from leaders of six faith traditions on the theme of compassion and concern for the Common Good in each of those religions.  The religions represented were Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism.  Uniformly, they all found compassion for others – ultimately, for the Common Good – to be at the heart of their faith.  (A more detailed account of this is in your program.)   In a recent book, biblical scholar Marcus Borg makes it abundantly clear that the ideal person according to the major religions of the world is the compassionate human being.  The ultimate goal of all these religions is to foster a compassionate human being concerned for the Common Good.

For this phenomenon to be this widespread, there must be something quite powerful in the universe that flows in that direction.  If so, it certainly would be wisdom on our part to align and harmonize ourselves with this flow.  Responding to this flow is the way of the heart.

For a recent widespread example of this kind of response, we only have to remember the international outpouring of assistance to the victims of the recent Tsunami.  Not only did nations respond (one or two which had to be nudged a bit), but also an enormous number of private agencies and, perhaps most moving, countless private individuals. 

To be compassionate literally means that we are feeling another’s pain as our own.  When this happens, we begin to care deeply for the other who is hurting and we want to do something to relieve their pain.  The other may be hungry or ill or oppressed in some way.  When we open our heart toward this other, we invariably are moved to do something to feed, heal, or liberate them.  This may be through immediate relief or long-term social reorganization.  This movement to help inevitably moves in the direction of the Common Good.

In addition to the pathway of the heart, there is another that is through the intellect.  This is where we consciously intend to do for others, to benefit the Common Good, because this is the right thing to do according to our value system.  An important variation of this is the understanding, derived from process philosophy, that when we create a compassionate environment for all, we take part in this environment as well.  That is, any future that we promote for all that is better than what we have today has the potential to benefit us as well as everyone else.  This also has been called enlightened self-interest.

So, folks, how do you think we are doing as a community, a state, a nation, and a world, as far as deep and lasting demonstrations of compassion for the Common Good?  I would like to be able to say that I know in detail how we are doing in each of those ever-broadening circles, but I don’t.  Sometimes I don’t even know how well I am doing.  But I do have my hunches and my intuitions. 

At the very least, we certainly must do better, much better, than we are doing currently.  It is my strong impression that in recent years we as a nation have begun to do far worse, moving in the direction of narrowly defined self-concern instead of in the direction of concern for others.   On just one measure, the split between those with the highest 15% of family incomes and those with the lowest 15% of family incomes, the U.S. is the worst of all the industrialized nations, according to Borg. 

Even through the simplified and muted channels of information provided by major media, the news is deeply disturbing on a daily basis to anyone concern for the Common Good.  I don’t mean to imply that there are not good things happening in Fresno or California or the United States or elsewhere, for there are many good people and institutions working to benefit others.  This includes many in this room.  But the momentum that I experience definitely is moving against those trends. 

Those here tonight know what it takes to strive to support the Common Good, know both the extraordinary challenges as well as the rewards of the pursuit of life down this path.  Your work matters and it matters even more today than in previous years.  There are so many social systems that appear to be on the brink of breaking apart, or whose destruction is now becoming apparent, such as the information this week that nearly 40% of the largest US companies have grossly underfunded pensions.  This becomes added to massive problems with our health care system, our support for the poor, and on and on.  It is hard for us who uphold these values not to get discouraged.  We have to remind ourselves that the work we are doing is the way of the Heart of the Universe, that we are working in harmony with that Heart – not for any personal rewards now or later, but for well-being of our world.  This puts us in a right-relationship with the Heart of the Universe, and this is a powerful reward in and of itself. 

This leads to why we conceived of this new award.  We created this award because we want to call public attention to those whose lives have been dedicated to the pursuit of the Common Good, to lift up these people as models to our community.  We want to inspire more and more to work for the Common Good so that we help reverse today’s momentum toward greed and narrow self-concern.  We definitely need more allies in this work and more community support for it.

Likewise, we want to enthusiastically support those who are doing this kind of work, making this kind of effort, for this often is a very lonely and contentious pathway to pursue.   People understandably get upset when they feel criticized or threatened with the loss of power and material goods.  Yet, there is no way to pursue the justice needed in order to promote the Common Good without those of us who are the haves of today having a bit less in the future.  

But without that, we will never reach the state of shalom that is described in the Hebrew Bible.  This is a state of human relationships where compassion and concern for the Common Good is the norm and not the exception.  Tonight we honor three people – Carl and Esther Robinson and Ellie Bluestein – who have made this their personal norm.  May we all find ways to increase our efforts on behalf of the Common Good in the weeks, months and years ahead.  Thank you.

By David E. Roy, Ph.D.
June 5, 2005