God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

The courage to change the things I can;

And the wisdom to know the difference.

Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.

Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

Many years ago in the kitchen of my grandparents home, I read on a wall-mounted plaque the words of wisdom written by Reinhold Niebuhr in the above quotation. I would learn many years later that Niebuhr was a great theologian and social philosopher of the 20th century. Niebuhr often described himself as a Christian realist and even his well-known prayer quoted above reveals something of the core and wisdom of his Christian realism. That is, Niebuhr would consistently argue for reform to promote social justice, but within the limits and constraints of human nature and its contingencies. Social justice would provide provisional and not ultimate solutions. His thought represented a reaction against nave and utopian reform efforts in late 19th- and early 20th-century America.

His ideas have influenced millions conservatives and liberals alike. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama have specifically identified Niebuhr as an important intellectual influence. Similarly, and perhaps even more significantly, Martin Luther King Jr. studied Niebuhrs thought while at Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University. And, yet, Niebuhrs thought cannot be categorized simplistically as liberal or conservative. There is no ideological category for his thought as a whole, though some elements could be called liberal and other elements could be called conservative.

The King quotation reflects further evidence of Niebuhrs realism in approaching questions of the common good. Derived from Niebuhrs Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), King was invoking Niebuhrs teaching that in every group there is less reason to guide and check impulse, less capacity for self-transcendence, less ability to comprehend the needs of others, and therefore more unrestrained egoism than the individuals who compose the group reveal in their personal relationships. Writing from jail, King was arguing from his own experience that Niebuhrs teaching was accurate and true that groups supporting racial segregation were much more difficult to persuade otherwise than persuading individuals alone of this injustice.

Niebuhr linked empirically observable group dynamics to his Christian realism and argued that generally group egoism and pride is more difficult and virulent than individual egoism and pride. Group loyalties can become so strong that conformity to group norms defines individual virtue. In contrast, the individual standing alone has a greater capacity to check egoism, appeal to an ethical standard and render a more impartial and ethical judgment.

Niebuhrs argument continues to have relevance. Although groups of all stripes are important to America, Niebuhr reminds us from a theological perspective emphasizing pride and egoism that there are potential group dynamics and pressures running contrary to the common good. When class, sectarian, ethnic, gender or any other basis for group identity demands increasing levels of commitment and loyalty, the pressures to belong to the group may well override the individuals responsibility for independent, critical thought. This is a formula for pluralistic divisiveness rather than the promotion of the common good and national unity. And so, yes, we celebrate the pluralistic diversity of groups in America, but we remember Niebuhrs caution that selfish and divisive egoism is not confined to the individual, but actually even more accentuated with groups.

As we personally reflect on our own group associations, may we have the wisdom to know the difference between those group actions that are egoistic, selfish and self-serving and those group actions which we all applaud in contributing to our common good.

Ed Yager is a professor of political science at Western Kentucky University.

Ed Yager is a professor of political science at Western Kentucky University.

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Reinhold Niebuhr and our common good - Bowling Green Daily News