About 40 years ago there appeared a
famously controversial book called
_Situation Ethics_ by Joseph Fletcher.
The book posited that there are no
hard and fast rules, but that decisions
must always be guided by _agape_.
Some of the responses the book
provoked were gathered in another
book, _The Situation Ethics Debate_,
edited by Harvey Cox. That second
book included excerpts from an essay
by Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike.
I know he was controversial too, but
let's not go down that tired byway.
I wish to concentrate on the point
Pike raised in that essay: Is _agape_
really the highest kind of love?
_Agape_ is usually understood as
doing good to people you don't like.
Pike points out that this really isn't
meeting their deepest human need,
that what they really need is not your
goods, your money, or your help, but
your *respect* -- and that is not
included in _agape_; the people you
are trying to help will sense the
implicit put-down. Romans 5:8
shows that even God has this
attitude toward us, so even God
doesn't meet our needs.
-- Jeffrey J. Sargent
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