But what does virtue ethics say about your current situation? I’m not sure. And I don’t know Hauerwas’ work well enough to work through how he might answer. But I think one way to work through this issue is to bring the Bible into things. And I don’t mean something like, “hey, why don’t you start a topical bible study in your church where you get together and figure out what you think the bible says about immigration.” The problem with that is that you set up a hermeneutic that is going to produce the same old readings you’ve had. Why not go out and read the bible with those people who are your ethical quandry? And maybe this can be a beginning of a new practice that trains you in faithfulness, in a new virtue—something like seeking the voice of the Spirit in the strangers. I don’t know.

The decisionist model thinks about ethical activity abstracted from real life, from a history of decisions—all the ways we are formed to think and act. So, what is primary for Hauerwas is nurturing the sort of community that displays Christ’s story so we are already preparing ourselves for those crisis moments. Then, interestingly, what some outside the community call a ‘crisis’ moment isn’t really even a moment of decision for those inside the faithfullly formed community. So, for example, where the decisionist considers the crisis of Nazi Germany and the mass murder of the Jews through the lens of Bonhoeffer, the character-formation ethicist will turn to pastor Andre Trocme and his church at Le Chambon. They were formed into a poeple who didn’t have to think twice about what to do during the rise of Nazism: they extended hospitality to the stranger, of course. They saved hundreds of Jews from the Nazis. But the decision to be a community that housed and protected the Jews from the Nazis was made before the crisis moment.

So, to pick up on what Isaac was saying above. There are some people for whom this so-called immigration ‘crisis’ is nothing of the sort. It’s a non-issue. If you already worship with so-called ‘illegal’ immigrants, then of course your church will challenge this new legislation. The livelihood of the body of Christ in which you are a part depends on the lives of those ‘illegal’ immigrants. You would challenge any power that seeks to rip apart that church, that body of Christ. Or, let’s say you chose to raise your family in a neighborhood of ‘illegal’ immigrants (and I know of many of such neighborhoods in Los Angeles). Your life and the lives of your children will be intertwined with those of the neighborhood children and families. Of course you wouldn’t let the powers that be rip away those people on whom your life depends.

Jason, does that make sense of Isaac’s comment? And Isaac, is this the sort of thing you are talking about? I seen that you read Hauerwas as well, so I imagine these are the lines along which you think.

Not sure if that answers your questions. But I would be interested in hearing more about what you mean by And where you are might make a particular decision more possible than others, or even rule out some possibilities to begin with.

I’m wondering about this indecision, or uncertainty, that you talk about. Shouldn’t we also call listening to or obeying your “nature” or “instinct” a decision? And could we also think about your listening position inbetween the two sides of the debate also as the product of a decision? You are where you are because of decisions. And where you are might make a particular decision more possible than others, or even rule out some possibilities to begin with. I imagine that there are many folks who don’t have to think twice about what the right choice would be simply because who their friends are. I also imagine that many folks think it’s inappropriate to to learn about the debate by perusing the internet or watching the news. Instead, they have placed themselves in places where the demands of their neighbor and the network of information that flows through the neighbor makes this issue a non-decision—what to do is self-evident. I guess what I’m wondering about is all the decisions you made to get where you are so that you find yourself in a position that makes uncertainty an option. Does that make sense? What do you think?