Every so often the landscape is populated with another round of people advocating “value free” living—which often includes crying out against an alleged imposition of religious values on education, public policy, or whatever else it’s being attached to.
I have made it a point in Oboedire to stay away from creating a “social commentary” atmosphere. I did not start this blog for those kinds of purposes.
But it is within the sphere of spiritual formation to assert that there is no such thing as a “value free” life. As soon as any group proposes a particular view or practice, an opposing group charges that group with “trying to impose your values on us.” But then, they turn around and propose what they want to happen in place of the impositional group. It’s interesting that they don’t admit that they are” trying to impose our values on you.”
The whole thing is very complicated, and in the support of “free speech” I want to give one group the right to oppose another group. That’s just creating a “public square” where decency reigns and all “voices” are given an opportunity to present their views in their best possible light.
But to go beyond that to allow one group to allege that their position creates a “value free” environment is simply not true.
Life is, by nature, ethical. It may be “the law of the jungle” or “the law of the land” or something else. But you cannot write a sentence or pass a law without connecting it to some expressed or underlying value.
That’s one reason, for example, why I have to make it plain that Oboedire exists to promote the formation of the Christian spiritual life. I happen to believe that the vision and values of Christianity contribute to personal and social life. So, I write from that vantage point—not as a way to silence anyone else, but only to join in the larger conversation about what “the spiritual life” looks like in faith and practice.
Depending on what I write—or anyone else writes, for that matter—let’s at least have the honesty to say we ARE advocating some value, or set of values. Every act we take, every law we obey, and every proposal we make has some underlying value fueling it. There is no such thing as a “value free” life.
Oboedire 