Values or Preferences?

When are our values real, honest to goodness values, and at what point do they become merely personal preferences? Do we understand the difference?

In 1763 Patrick Henry made it pretty clear that he understood the difference. Arguing the famed Parson's Cause in Hanover County, Virgina, Patrick Henry proclaimed that, by ignoring their elected representatives, King George was "a tyrant who forfeits the allegiance of his subjects." Henry ratcheted up his inflammatory speech to the point of treason, in some peoples’ minds, when defending his resolutions against the Stamp Act in the House of Burgesses on May 30, 1765.

Later, in March of 1775, Henry urged his fellow Virginians to arm in self-defense, closing his appeal with those immortal words, "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."

Governor Henry understood the difference.

More than 150 years later, just two days after Adolf Hitler was installed as Chancellor of Germany, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer attacked the “fuhrer” (leader) by calling him the “verfuhrer” (mis-leader), or as some translate it, the “seducer”, on one of his regular radio broadcasts. That broadcast was cut off in mid-sentence, and The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Show was history.

Bonhoeffer was the first, clear voice calling for the church to resist Hitler’s persecution of the Jews, declaring plainly that the church cannot merely "bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself."

Pastor Bonhoeffer understood the difference.

Just recently Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio made it pretty clear that they understood the difference when they announced that they would be dropping their student health insurance program because of the federal mandate that these plans must include contraceptive coverage. Agree or disagree with this deeply held value, one thing is crystal clear; the sanctity of life, or at least their clearly articulated definition of life, is indeed a value, and not merely a preference to Franciscan University.

Eastern Ohio’s Franciscan University understands the difference.

Now you may think that Franciscan University’s decision is pretty timid when compared to the likes of Patrick Henry’s and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s decisions, and that may well be so. I leave all that for history to decide. But this isn’t about whether or not one person’s values are bigger, or greater, or more important than the other. It’s a matter of whether or not the principles that we say we hold dear are real, honest to goodness values, or just personal preferences.

I prefer premium, homemade-style ice cream over soft-serve, but I’ll eat soft serve. I prefer one of Shaw’s famous apple smoked pork shops over a Big Mac, but I’ll still eat a Big Mac . . . if I’m really, really hungry, and the alternatives are . . . well, you get the picture. Preferences are plentiful, and they’re relatively harmless no matter which way you go with them. Values . . . that is living up to our values . . . is hard work.

I pray we’re up to it.