Oh, The Joy!

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Oh, The Joy!
By Patrick Anderson, editor

My time with grandchildren during the past few days has given me unmeasured pleasure. They make me smile, often giggle, always swell with hope and pride. They take their place in the world for granted. They worry not at all about marriage equality, debt limits, death penalty, organ donation, or most of the other topics expounded on in Christian Ethics Today, or so it seems. They would say they have plenty of problems and issues to contend with, even at ages 6 through 10. Still, they spend much more time in blissful endeavors than in struggling with life’s persistent problems, as Guy Noir would say. Oh, the joy! I love to have them rub off on me.

But I find joy not only in the innocent company of children. For me, the struggle with those persistent problems is also a source of joy each time I compose another issue of the journal. This issue of Christian Ethics Today is no different, but somehow today as I review the final draft of the Spring 2012 issue I feel especially happy. The subjects discussed in Christian Ethics Today are not necessarily happy topics. Indeed, most of them are quite disturbing. But as a Christian, and as an editor on behalf of readers of this journal, it gives me great joy to read, select, edit, and think about the essays I consider for inclusion in the journal.

We deal in matters of importance, the issues of the day. And if the subject were easy it would not be an issue. I have been asked if I had “an agenda” as editor of Christian Ethics Today. The question usually comes after a particularly difficult and controversial essay was published. No, my only agenda is to fulfill the mission statement of the journal, the one Foy Valentine and Joe Trull developed and followed, that is to “provide laypersons, educators, and ministers with a resource for understanding and responding in a faithful Christian manner to moral and ethical issues that are of concern to contemporary Christians, to the church, and to society.”

There is certainly no shortage of moral and ethical issues that are of concern to us all. So, when thoughtful Christians reflect deeply on the issues of the day, we can expect to understand those issues better, to know how to respond in a faithful Christian manner. I find great pleasure in reading what smart and committed Christian persons think about the issues of the day. Here in this volume we have the best thoughts of Professors Jonathan Tran and Reta Finger, President Jimmy Carter, Martin Marty, Gary Moore, Jim Wallis, pastors Angie Wright and Scott Stearman and Hardy Clemons…Oh, the joy! We have the benefit of a student, Rigoberto Weekes, Chaplain Monty Self, executive David Beckmann, writer Marion Aldridge, poet Jim Langley, and optician/pastor Clark Reichert.

We benefit not only from reading that with which we already agree, but with being challenged by opinions or conclusions with which we do not agree. Again, that is what an issue is, something difficult and thorny and worth wrestling with, something not cut and dried, already figured out.

So dear readers, enjoy another volume of Christian Ethics Today. Let me know how we can do a better job of fulfilling our mission.