Talking about values rarely leaves one feeling indifferent to the conversation. Perhaps that is why, with few notable exceptions like Robert Benne or Gilbert Meilaender, Lutheran theologians have shied away from the political minefield of ethics in favor of safer fields like history. It is far easier to list prominent Lutheran historians than it is to compose a similar list of ethicists.

Part of the challenge is that values are more culturally learned than classroom taught. That is why a LCMS farmer in the Midwest is going to have a different set of values than a LCMS corporate executive in New York City. Their experiences concerning what constitutes achievement and success are as much shaped by their cultural standards as by anything that they are taught in their church. As Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam has argued, the Biblical teachings of a church are more often read through the lens of one’s own culture rather than the other way around. Different cultures mean different values even when there is a shared faith.

This blog entry is being composed on a tiny atoll in the Pacific Ocean where I am teaching a group of Marshallese teachers how to use music and the arts in the everyday classroom.

For a long time educational practice here in the Pacific has been dictated by western standards and values. Marshallese students have been taught subjects as if they were rural students living in the United States. Test scores have yielded predictably bad results.

As Marshallese begin to take control of their own educational futures the style of education is changing to better reflect a values system whose core principles, as cited by the recent Ej Ju El Bwe’n Lonjat document (available in English at http://www.yokwe.net/ydownloads/Reports08/RethinkingReport08.pdf) are: Iakwe (similar to Aloha in Hawaiian – “hospitality with love”), respect, caring, sharing, and sacrifice. Indeed these values are counter-intuitive to the values of individual achievement, progress and advancement which tend to dominate American educational models.

The challenge Marshallese educators face is to honor the values of a culture which values community at the expense of the individual, while at the same time preparing individuals for a global world whose culture often does not share those values.

It is always enlightening for me to return to the land of my daughters’ birth. It reminds me of the challenge that I face as I try to help them balance competing cultural values in their bi-cultural world. It is a complex, messy, important task precisely because their very identity depends on it. Add to the mix the values which are shaped by their Baptismal identity and I get to experience first hand why quality ethicists are a rare thing indeed, and much to be treasured.