WHAT IF WE STARTED WITH LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE?
The time is the late 1980s. The place is a non-descript university teacher lounge. Two people are discussing a developmental theory. Not unusual, in a university psychology setting, but upon closer look, the younger graduate student, Carol Gilligan, is challenging a tenured and senior professor Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg. She is not only challenging the proposed hypothesis of the thesis but also the structure and design of the study itself.
While you may not remember hearing about Dr. Kohlberg in any of your introductory psychology or education classes, you may remember studying and discussing the 'Heinz dilemma.'
In this ethical dilemma, Heinz has to make a decision either to save his wife, who has cancer, by stealing the lifesaving drugs from the pharmacist or to abide by the law and in so doing, watch his wife die. Gilligan's first criticism is that Kohlberg only chose to interview 72 males, 'belonging to the upper and middle class.' (1)
She wondered if a different demographic, perhaps female, marginalized, or underrepresented students would answer the question differently.
Her second criticism centered on the premise of moral development itself. Was the pinnacle of moral development, as Kohlberg understood it, 'individuals as separate, relationships as hierarchical or contractual' (2) actually how we lived or wanted to live?
In her groundbreaking 1982 book 'In a Different Voice,' Dr. Gilligan answered those questions and crafted a development of ethics that she termed 'Ethics of Care.'
I thought of Dr. Gilligan this morning as our Sunday School class continued to read 'Barking to the Choir,' by Father Gregory Boyle, S.J. As a reminder, the conversation is my interpretation not a verbatim of the contents.
It is easy to read Fr Boyle's narrative. His humor and conversational narrative deftly capture not only the day-to-day operations but also the residents and students of Homeboy Industries. We find ourselves sharing space with others in his office who have come to visit, chat, cry, or scold. We listen in as he comforts mourners with compassion, listening to anger with kindness and hope.
What seems less easy is to place Fr. Boyle's passion in the larger context of our society's response to those who break the law, those who repeatedly engage in criminal behavior, and those who defiantly resist society's best efforts at reform.
I imagine Dr. Gilligan asking: who is protected by the law, and who gains by removing those who challenge the existing status quo rather than dismantling a system created to support the privileged.
These are complex problems of abandonment, large-scale systemic racism, and generational disenfranchisement. To suggest there are only two options; i.e., supporting law and order or reform is a false dichotomy.
A couple of minutes before our class ended, a participant posed a question. 'What if Fr Boyle's offer of love and acceptance were not the last hope for those having gone through every option our criminal justice system offered, what if we started with love and acceptance?'
What indeed.
1. http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-gilligan-and-kohlberg-controversy/
2. https://uwethicsofcare.gws.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Reiter-S.-A.-1996.pdf
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34467028-barking-to-the-choir
https://homeboyindustries.org/
