My first observation in this point, then, is that we should draw upon values in
processing the rural public policy debate. At the same time, however, we should
recognize that our values must be drawn from and subservient to the larger vision.
For example, the current candidates for the presidency appeal to us in terms of
cherished values—e.g., the family farm and efficiency in farm enterprises. They also
attack one another in terms of violated values. And—although they contradict one
another—when we judge them from values alone, they both appear to be correct.
Or, take the presentations of the commodity groups when a farm bill is being
prepared. Each does a Wonderfuljob of wrapping their proposals in cherished values.
We listen and we agree. Then, the next group does the same—and so do we.
Later, we may reflect upon their presentations and realize that to respond to
one Supportively will do great harm to the other. Only a larger vision that takes note
of the needs, interest and goals of each set of players—and of the whole—can get
policymakers out of the morass.
Secondly, values can and should be employed to criticize and refocus the larger
vision from time to time. Recall how in H. Richard Niebuhr’s recital of the application
of the vision of the kingdom of God in America that the focus shifted from sovereignty
of God to reign of Christ and then to the kingdom on earth. Times changed and the
focus needed to change, too. But each focus distorted in some ways the larger
biblical understanding of the kingdom. To my mind, each of the foci stressed a
particular value: justice, love or hope. Among the Puritans, for example, justice
sometimes became unloving. Among the evangelicals, love often neglected justice
and hope. And, among the millennialists, there were those who became so “heavenly
minded that they were of no earthly good.”
Recently in preparing the manuscript for a text on rural ministry, a writing
team—drawn from the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist
traditions—identified eight rather specific values that were informing the team’s vision
for rural America. I find their listing to be illustrative of the values the churches would
bring to the table in a discussion of rural policy:
1. Agriculture and other natural resource-based economic activities should be
sustainable and renewable.
2. Rural persons∕families should be able to enjoy the just fruits of their labor.
3. Rural people should be presented the good news of the Gospel and encouraged
to respond by ever-praising Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
4. Rural people should be taught about the beliefs and values of the Christian
life and encouraged to apply them in their daily lives.
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