Introduction
Certain requirements are imposed on the Catholic pulpiteer from both the church and the modern society, including the moral and ethical impeccability of their work. A pastor is usually viewed not only as a professional minister of the church, a performer of religious rituals, and a preacher, but also as a spiritual mentor who helps people in difficult life circumstances.
In general, secular knowledge views clergymen rather as professionals incorporated within a social institution that is the “church”. Accordingly, they have certain statuses, perform certain roles, and carry out social control over certain norms. This puts a heavy weight of responsibility on the shoulders of church ministers. Both the church and society endow the priest with the status of a religious leader with its inherent ethical characteristics.
When one does not take into account the many peculiarities of pulpit in Christianity, then, perhaps, the main topic under discussion would always be the ethical aspects of pulpiteer’s behavior. How they manifest themselves in society, what motivates their actions in private life, and, most importantly, how they communicate with their congregation – all these details have a strong moral undertone.
The abilities of a priest – their sermon, missionary methods, education, level of cultural development – affect deeply their ability to communicate in ethical ways. Questions of behavior and external communication lead then to the topic of ethical failures, and their effect on the church, congregation, and community. The pulpiteer’s responsibility as a spiritual mentor is so great that it is considered in a soteriological aspect. It claims that when the people of the congregation of the minister sin, the priest is the one to blame. The moral choice and personal ethical code of the pulpiteer help them not only to avoid mistakes, but also to better understand human hearts, and through understanding, find more effective advice and means of help.
Main Aspects of the Pulpiteer’s Ethics
Christian exegetes refer to biblical descriptions as moral monuments and lessons that characterize pulpit in terms of its representative meaning for a Christian mission. This trend of focusing attention on the ethical side of the pastoral ministry survived until today because, in the Christian worldview, moral values have a key place. Even when discussing issues that are not directly related to the professional ethics of a clergyman, church officials appeal to the minister’s altruism as a characteristic line of pastoral vocation.
The church as a social institution cannot be removed from the socio-political life of the country, due to which the abstraction of the clergy from social problems qualifies hierarchs as a deviation from Christian service. Thus, it is important for any minister to show their community a high level of ethics and morality, serving as a guide and a mentor. Therefore, for the servants of the Church, it must be a serious concern of what and how they speak and convey their opinions on different matters. The minister’s speeches are their main and most valuable tool, about which it is necessary to show the most careful care.
Only with great attention to the ethics can a pulpiteer preach for true faith and morality in their congregation and community. Additionally, love and respect for the community is an invaluable quality in a pulpiteer, without which they have no incentive to work on themselves. These qualities must manifest in the minister at all times without fail. One of these manifestations is the care of the minister for their decent appearance so that their church, congregation, and community would not be ashamed of them.
The Bible’s Opinion on the Ethics of the Pulpit
For almost everyone, even an atheist, a priest, or a pulpiteer is inconceivable without high morality and holiness in all areas of life. If an obscene behavior and a tendency towards bad habits are noticed behind the minister, then this negative opinion would be automatically transferred to the whole church. From the point of view of Christian morality, all aspects of a priest’s life, including even leisure, are of no small importance. In early sources, there are recommendations for the clergy not to visit entertainment establishments and avoid morally faulty companies. Additionally, the text of the modern priestly oath contains an indication of the moral obligations of the priest to lead their congregation by their good example.
Moreover, church workers constantly come across the requirement of holiness from church ministers on the pages of the Holy Scripture, which in very strict tones instructs those who take up God’s work. The King James Bible (2017) claims, “a curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord’s work!” (Jer. 48:10). Accordingly, all the epistles of the Apostles contain an exhortation to integrity. In the Epistle to Titus, St. Paul speaks of the crucial quality of the leader of the Church: “For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God.” (Tit. 1:7). Thus, the minister of the Christian church must constantly strive to spiritual perfection in order to avoid ethical failures.
Consequences of the Ethical Failure for the Church, Congregation, and Community
The church and its workers are obliged to ensure the preservation of its good name – not only in the purity of dogma but also in maintaining moral integrity. Bickers and Loos (2018) state that “Christianity provides distinct ethical “scripts” that, once adopted and acted upon, strongly affect the ways in which people live their lives” (9). A pulpiteer must constantly take care of high morality and ethics in both their work and environment.
History shows that the lack of proper attention to Christian morality and ethics does not remain without bad consequences in the field of dogmas. People want to see in the pulpiteer a more perfect, spiritualized person. Thus, the pulpiteer must avoid ethical failures in addressing their congregation, as they know the properties of spiritual struggle and the methods of a successful march to God.
Ethical failure of the pulpit has the potential of giving rise to a liberal attitude towards Scripture, and, subsequently, a decrease in true faith. Moreover, many, tempted by the fall of their pastor, sometimes even leave the church, disillusioned with all of Christianity. Others might become members of various sects simply because the leaders there have better human qualities and do not allow themselves to fail in the aspect of ethics. Bialecki (2017) adds that “church officials should also keep in mind the demographic crisis that evangelical Christianity is currently undergoing” (52). Only the priesthood of high spiritual culture, which has great life experience and the ability to communicate with people, is capable of solving the problem of attracting people of different intellectual levels into religion.
Thus, if the minister fails to recognize, address, and correct their ethical mistakes, the church community would perceive them as undeserving of their position as God’s steward. Ultimately, this might lead to disrespect and dismissal towards the church in particular and Christianity in general. Modern theologians need to expand their scientific research into the fusion of pulpit theology and both Christian and secular ethics. This is a necessary field of study for preachers to avoid possible ethical mistakes in their ministry in the future.
Conclusion
The morality and ethics of a clergyman never leave anyone indifferent. If an ordinary person can afford to live as they please, for the church worker, the concept is different. The more actively a Christian minister tries to act in the field of God, the more influence they have over the church, the congregation, and community. Modern life might plunge the pulpiteer into various temptations, which they must fight. In this fight, the pulpiteer will be helped by the study of the foundations of Christian ethics, and by the fulfillment of the rules developed by the centuries-old Christian tradition.
The behavior of a minister of the church, their appearance, their speech, their character are under the scrutiny of those around them, whether they want it or not. However, there is a special kind of failure that can lead to unfathomable consequences – an ethical failure. An ethical failure might present itself as statements that demean human dignity, expressing an arrogant and cynical attitude towards the person, ill will, showing verbal aggression, or replete with slang words and phrases. Thus, for any pulpiteer, it is crucial to understand that their ethical failures can and will negatively affect all three components of their moral responsibility: the church, the congregation, and the community.
Works Cited
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Beekers, D., & Kloos, D. (Eds.). (2018). Introduction: The productive potential of moral failure in lived Islam and Christianity: The productive potential of moral failure. In Straying from the Straight Path: How senses of failure Invigorate Lived Religion (pp. 1–19). essay, Berghahn Books.
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Bialecki, J. (2017). Eschatology, ethics, and Ethnos: Ressentiment and Christian nationalism in the anthropology of Christianity. Religion and Society, 8(1). Web.
De Gruchy, John W. “Christian Humanism, Progressive Christianity and Social Transformation.” Journal for the Study of Religion, vol. 31, no. 1, 2018, pp. 54–69. Web.
de Gruchy, J. W. (2018). Christian humanism, progressive Christianity, and social transformation. Journal for the Study of Religion, 31(1), 54–69. Web.
King James Bible. King James Bible Online, 2017. Web.
King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible Online. Web.