Ethics Center-new resource for pastors

Ministry: Not everyone is familiar with the Ethics Center at Loma Linda University. Would you tell us how and why it began?

Larson: We started writing proposals for the center in the summer of 1982, and one year later the university board approved the final draft. The center was created to provide a place where specialists from various professions can meet to explore current ethical problems.

Ministry: Was the center established be cause of the recent well-publicized bioethical cases that involve the university?

Walters: Some thought that the Baby Fae case was the impetus for the center since it emerged at about the same time, but plans for the center had been laid more than a year earlier.

Ministry: Whom do you see the Ethics Center serving?

Walters: We see ourselves serving not only the university and the church but society. Insights from the Adventist tradition are of significance to ethical issues currently being discussed in the country and the church.

Ministry: You see the center as part of the church's outreach?

Walters: Outreach in that we believe there are aspects of our tradition that can add important nuances to the larger discussion in Christian ethics.

Ministry: Can you give us some examples?

Larson: The Adventist belief about human nature--the body and soul as one--projects a conceptual foundation for solving a lot of issues in medical ethics.

Teel: Most of the time this doctrine has been referred to as the "state of the dead," but we feel that the idea that the human body, soul, and spirit are so inextricably bound together has an abundance of implications for the state of the living.

Ministry: In other words, you might see this doctrine as having implications for an issue like abortion?

Teel: When you talk about the state of the living, I think there is very little you can't apply it to.

Walters: Another example is that Adventists encourage vegetarianism. We can contribute more on this subject than we generally do. There are many who are vegetarians for moral reasons other than health. They connect it with the value of animal and human life.

Ministry: The church hasn't spoken to that angle very much, has it?

Walters: Not as much as it could, for Ellen White was very pointed in this regard. As evidenced by our work through ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency International) the church also has a concern for the Third World and its starving millions. We have learned from other vegetarians that it takes 10 pounds of grain protein to make 1 pound of animal protein. We could contribute more by emphasizing these broader implications of vegetarianism.

Ministry: Do you see the Ethics Center not only as a resource center but as reviving the church's interest in some issues that perhaps have been forgotten or ignored? Ecology, for example?

Teel: It is difficult to divide the human organism into small parts. For example, concerning vegetarianism and world hunger, I take School of Health students to projects in Mexico and Central America. We are faced with the stark reality that the health of the Third World peas ant is described in terms of malnutrition. Hunger is a health issue. But it can also be an economic one dealing with the ex porting of crops. It can be a political one, for who determines what crops will be produced? Does the government have farmers plant the more elite crops for ex port or the serviceable ones that will feed the masses? It is hard to say we will look at this only as a health issue.

Larson: May I go back to the question of purpose as noted in our charter? In August 1983, the board was given a document that specified that matter quite clearly. In terms of audience we are playing to three groups: (1) the university--to do things in ways that will make it a spiritually alive place for our students; (2) the church, particularly its medical dimensions; and (3) the larger bioethics and moral community of the world. The Ethics Center has a forum for sharing with that third group that no other institution in the church has. When scholars from other universities visit, we find we make many friends. And we send our newsletter to members of the Society of Christian Ethics, which includes professors of Christian ethics across the country. We have received encouraging responses from many of them about the work we are doing here at Loma Linda University.

The charter specifies that the center is to "focus primarily, but not exclusively, on issues in medical ethics." Some have wondered if looking at issues like apartheid and nuclear war is deviating from our original purpose. No! First of all, our original purpose specifies that we are to look at a number of issues. Second, as Charles has indicated, these issues do have medical ramifications. If people don't have jobs or enough food to eat or are eradicated by nuclear bombs, they are not in good health! We feel there is a clear medical connection. Third, the Encyclopedia of Bioethics itself--the standard work in the field--includes material on racism. So the notion that medical ethics should be narrowly construed and not consider these other problems is not sound.

Teel: As an illustration I picture an agronomist teaching Third World farmers to produce 20 percent more food. This change has ramifications beyond helping hungry families. Periodically, these farmers had found it necessary to work down on the plains as migrant la borers to make ends meet. Now they be come independent and do not have to go down to the plains for work. The land owners lose their supply of cheap labor and must raise the pay they give other workers. So by teaching people to be come independent, the agronomist has engaged in a risky political act that can endanger his or her life. This situation illustrates the integral nature of the whole process.

Larson: We try to be balanced when we hold a conference on a controversial is sue. We get the best Christian spokespersons we can find representing an array of convictions. The Ethics Center avoids taking a stand on any of these issues. An example is the nuclear war conference last fall in which we provided different viewpoints.

Ministry: Why do you follow this approach?

Larson: We have a lot of confidence in the Holy Spirit. We believe that as we speak openly out of honest Christian conviction we learn from each other. Then consensus can come about instead of being imposed on us by someone other than the Holy Spirit.

Ministry: Does the fact that you are not giving any ready answers indicate that the center is a kind of think tank?

Larson: Precisely. The upcoming abortion conference (November 15-17) will bring together people from all points of view in Adventism. They will present the best papers they can so that out of that prayerful interaction a consensus can eventually be reached. That is the contribution of the center. We have no authority in the church whatsoever.

Walters: The officers of the church wanted us to have it clearly in mind that we were not to speak for the church on ethical matters. We had no idea of ever doing that--it would be antithetical to our mission, which is to bring together the most articulate and thoughtful spokespersons on every side of an issue. The final answer is with God, but His Spirit can work through our communicating with one another.

Ministry: Did you help with the most re cent church guidelines on abortion?

Larson: No, none of us were involved with that.

Ministry: Then preparing such guidelines isn't part of what the Ethics Center would do?

Larson: No. The role of the center in such issues is to present papers, place the material in books, and have them circulated for people to read so that they can make up their own minds. We are a resource--not policymakers.

Ministry: How can you help the local pastor?

Larson: Pastors can get on our mailing list. They can read Update (our newsletter), attend conferences, and read the books we publish. One of us or some other representative of the center can visit the church as a guest speaker.

Ministry: If a pastor has a special ethical problem he is facing, say in counseling a family that has a member in the hospital in a coma, can he call you?  

Larson: Yes, a pastor can call us for individual consultation in difficult cases.

Ministry: Tell us about your books.

Teel: One project that pastors would be interested in is a yearlong series on ethics in Adventism that studied each of Adventism's cardinal doctrines Creation, Sabbath, wholeness, etc. for its personal and social ethical value. We asked What do these doctrines tell us? What ethical resources do we have in terms of them? I'm optimistic this book will be extremely helpful as a pastoral resource. Other books forthcoming will be on general medical ethics, Christian views on nuclear war, and Adventism and abortion.

Ministry: Is the center considered liberal or conservative on issues?

Walters: I lament the labels of conservative and liberal because they are limited in how they can represent some issues. Who is liberal and who isn't? One may be somewhat theologically liberal but more conservative on abortion than the statement the church has put out.

Larson: In Update we have placed articles taking two different stands on an issue back-to-back. Sometimes someone will read the first one and conclude that that is our stand and label us accordingly and not read the other one. My plea to those who feel we are not evenhanded is to read the whole issue or to attend an entire conference or read the whole book--because we make a genuine effort to have all sides represented.

Sometimes a person published in Up date may be known as a liberal and may even be someone who has left the church. Yet on the issue at hand that person may be very conservative and may be the best spokesperson espousing a particular view point. One author we used was associated with a very liberal theological position, yet we couldn't find anyone in southern California who could articulate better a conservative political view that we needed on a particular subject. We hope that people won't judge in superficial ways.

The Ethics Center is not trying to serve all persons. It is trying to do a limited thing--that is, be academically responsible. We don't go into Sabbath school classes for children and present a variety of ideas. We deal with responsible adults, and in that setting it is appropriate to present more than one perspective.

Ministry: You are saying that you want to present both sides of an issue, yet you say that you want to present Adventist ideas on these ethical issues. How can you do both?

Walters: In our individual writing we can present our positions from our own context. Then the Adventist position is not coming on as a doctrinal overlay, but is being projected out of our own rootedness in the tradition.

Larson: I think it is just more honest and Christian to present both sides of an issue.

There are things in our Adventist heritage that are worth exploring for their moral relevance. I have been pleased to note a parallel between what some very sophisticated philosophers are saying about what it means to be a person and Ellen White's simple definition that humans created in the image of God possess the "power to think and to do." That is a marvelous definition of personhood. That phrase contains much philosophi cal richness that we need to explore.

Teel: There is one thing I find myself wrestling with as an Adventist. In my younger days it seemed easy to distinguish between what was religion and what was politics. Now I am finding that total separation difficult, although I still consider the concept of separation of church and state vital. But to say that they have noth ing to do with each other is questionable. Life does not work that way. My religious beliefs strongly influence my values and ethics. The ethics we share shape how we want to run our life together as a commu nity, and this evolves into practices, tradi tions, and laws.

So I find it difficult to understand per sons who say we should not write about politics. I can't think of anything that doesn't have political implications. I define politics in this case as how we decide to cooperate and shape the life we share. In that broad sense, our deliberations will often have political ramifications, whether we are talking about abortion, women's rights, or when life begins and ends. They all tie to public policy and how we agree to live as a community.

Ministry: Give us an illustration.

Teel: One of my favorite editorials was in an early Adventist Review [the Seventh-day Adventist Church paper]. I believe it was by John N. Andrews, on the sin of slavery. He said that some suppose that when they get to the gates of the New Jerusalem and are dragging behind them a trunk labeled "Politics," and they are asked to explain their pro-slavery stance, they will respond, "I'm not at all censorable for my attitude on slavery, for that was a part of my politics." The editor asks, "Will such an answer be advanced by any reader of this article?" That is a precious illustration of how our moral and ethical value systems affect how we define our corporate life together--in other words, our politics.

Larson: Some of our friends say we should not discuss "political" issues such as apartheid, but stay with "nonpolitical" issues like abortion. Can you think of a more "political" issue than abortion? Apartheid involves us because our church can be part of a solution or part of the problem. To discriminate arbitrarily on the basis of race, gender, age, or any other morally irrelevant issue is unjust from a Christian point of view.

Walters: I have a problem with our going into politics only when our own interests are at stake. For instance, we feel it is all right to go into politics to protect our interests concerning tobacco- and alcohol-related issues or religious liberty. But are these the only issues that adversely affect God's children? There are others that are equally important to God and what He is doing in this world.

Ministry: Can you tell us more about your plans?

Larson: The rhythm of our year goes like this. Monthly we have a medicine and society conference in the hospital. Quarterly we try to have something of interest for people in this region. Annually we have a national conference of importance--the next one will be the one on abortion.

In January of 1989 we will offer, for the first time, a fellowship in clinical biomedical ethics. We envision a dozen ministers, teachers, and medical professionals spending 12 weeks studying medical ethics here under the leadership of Dr. Gerald Winslow,* who will be the newest member of our team. Not only the university medical center but the Veterans Administration hospital and Riverside General will provide clinical opportunities. Nowhere else is there quite the same opportunity to study Christian medical ethics in a clinical set ting. We look forward to having inter ested Ministry readers contact us about this unique learning experience.

Readers of Ministry who would like more information about the new learning opportunities being provided by the Ethics Center may contact Dr. Winslow at (714) 824-4956.