Editor’s Note: This article is based on President William P. Robinson’s fall 2007 convocation address at Whitworth University.
I would like to comment on three aspects of community life at Whitworth — rules, responsibility, and respect. I didn’t alliterate these characteristics on purpose, although I can see where you might think that someone coming from a family of Bonnie, Bill, Brenna, Ben, and Bailley is into alliterations. Not true. My motto is Always Avoid Alliterations.
Rules. Rules are necessary and good. We can’t live without them. Whether we are talking about the laws of nature or the laws of community, we suffer when we disobey them. However, rules are not as smart as values. For that reason, the most effective organizations and the most satisfying communities are driven by shared values, not by rules. Good judgment and faithfulness to community values will lead to better decisions than rules. For example, Daniel got tossed into a lions’ den because King Darius got suckered into substituting a rule for the simple value of honoring the king. Certainly, Daniel respected the king, but when he prayed to the true God, a rule kicked in and handcuffed the king’s response. Darius knew immediately that good judgment would have outperformed the rules.
Most rules find their origin in a value, often an abused value. This past summer I spoke with a man who told me his company’s “policy handbook” is, and I quote, “a history of our company’s screw-ups. Behind every policy and rule, I was able to trace disasters big and small. Now, policies are more responsible for running the business than people.”
In August I read a book on the formation of the United States Constitution entitled The Summer of 1787 by David Stewart. The constitutional convention was prompted by the recognition that this fledgling country needed stronger rules, that the Articles of Confederation didn’t quite cut it. But what became crystal clear as I read this book was that the grand battles 230 years ago in Philadelphia were over the values out of which the laws were written. Rules simply codify our values. But the fundamental shortcoming of rules is that they frame the boundaries of our values, rather than expose the heart of our values.
Boundaries, by definition, outline a territory. But when a community is defined by its boundaries or rules, its identity becomes who it IS NOT rather than who it IS. For example, how do we think of the Amish community? By their rules — non-violence and no electricity. But after last year’s horrifying murder of five little girls at school, we saw the heart of their values, not their rules. Before they had lowered five handcrafted wooden caskets into the ground, they began the difficult work of forgiving the murderer and starting a fund to aid his widow and three children. The world that knew the Amish only by their rules was shocked by their heart, a heart that revealed them to be more about the love and forgiveness of Christ.
Ironically, rules can deny access to the values they represent. Last winter Bonnie and I attended a meeting at a Ritz-Carlton hotel. Late one evening our friends wanted Bonnie to play the lobby piano for them. We called the hotel security to get it unlocked. They explained that earlier in the month someone had abused the piano so it was now locked in the evenings. Quite politely, we reminded them that the motto of the Ritz-Carlton is “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” They agreed. We then asked if we looked like ladies and gentlemen. They agreed that we did, especially the ladies, but they said they had no choice. The rules are the rules. And the rule ended up blocking ladies and gentlemen from serving ladies and gentlemen.
Rules set the bar too low, especially in Christian communities. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pays high tribute to the law — Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Matt. 5:17). But he goes on to describe a new kingdom that is driven by the values behind the laws. The law says do not murder; Jesus says do not hate. The law says do not commit adultery; Jesus says do not lust. When Whitworth really lives by the heart of its shared values, we will honor God and serve each other far beyond where any rule can take us.
And that leads to the area of responsibility. The survival of value-driven communities rests on the extent to which their members act responsibly and take responsibility for their actions. When you are presented with the rules of this community, it means in these areas we have taken responsibility for determining the behavior the rules enforce. But when you are presented with the values of this community, you are responsible for determining the behaviors the values represent. If you are reckless with that freedom, it hurts the community and it hurts you. And eventually, your recklessness leads to a rule.
I used to do communication training for the internal audit department of a huge conglomerate. I learned one thing from these folks I will never forget. In their audits, they found that trust is a necessary ingredient of both success and fraud. Most people respond to being trusted by giving their best work; but a few people abuse the trust. In that same respect, most people will accept the responsibility of good decision-making and strengthen the community; some people will abuse the freedom, forcing values to be replaced by rules.
Finally, if there is a characteristic without which Whitworth cannot be Whitworth it is respect. The faculty and staff of Whitworth University have joined a very diverse group. We have joined those who stand at the cross of Christ. We stand with the daughters of Jerusalem, with a Roman centurion, with a dying thief, with John the disciple, with the first century church, with the 16th century church, with the church of East Africa, with the orthodox church, with the church of Latin America, with Mary Magdalene, with an African cross-bearer named Simon, and with Mary the very mother of Christ. We join this diverse group and proclaim with the Roman Centurion, “Truly, this is the son of God.” We have found that proclamation so powerful, so life changing, and so redemptive that we have made it our only rule of faith and our principal rule of membership in this community.
As a faculty and staff we do not have specific doctrinal rules for membership; we do not have specific behavioral rules for membership; we do not sign a faith statement. Rather, in all of our diversity we make a faith statement, “Truly, Jesus Christ is the son of God.” We join in community, believing that the unifying power of the cross is greater than all the ideas that divide us and all the characteristics that differentiate us. That belief also gives enormous value to our students who do not call themselves Christians. These students help us explore and understand territory closed off to Christians who surround themselves exclusively with those of like minds.
So, here we are, a Christian community that gives freedom to its members to hold very different views on communion, war, politics, worship, homosexuality, baptism, abortion, alcohol, gifts, miracles, and just about everything else. If we do not respect that freedom, and more importantly, respect each other, we will end in fight or flight.
Grace and truth form the cornerstones of respect in the Whitworth community. Respect rests on truth. We are more likely to respect a person for telling the truth we don’t want to hear than for spinning the truth into something we do want to hear. But as I have said many times in this place and on this occasion, truth told without grace will weaken its impact. An angry or sarcastic presentation of the truth offers a perfect excuse to reject it. Grace, on the other hand, communicates respect. In John 4 and John 8 we find Jesus with women guilty of sexual immorality. By the way, absent from these stories were the equally guilty men whose culture protected them while hanging the women out to dry. In both stories, Jesus showed a level of respect that startled those around him. In both stories Jesus told the truth in love and respect. In neither story did Jesus condemn the offender.
Grace and truth build the bridges of respect. Not only will respect open people’s ears and hearts to your ideas, respect opens you. Respect leaves the door open for new truth. Respect respirates your intellect. Respect will allow you to accept the possibility that those with whom you sharply disagree might be sources of truth.
This year may respect, grace, and truth be yours, both in giving and taking, as you enjoy the blessings of Christ in the Whitworth community.
William P. Robinson is president of Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash.
