{"id":7890,"date":"2013-09-09T15:10:58","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T19:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=7890"},"modified":"2013-09-09T15:10:58","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T19:10:58","slug":"servant-of-two-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/servant-of-two-masters.html","title":{"rendered":"Servant of Two Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If I had a car, I suppose I could have a bumpersticker that read \u201cMy other Sunday obligation is the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0And part of the weekly ritual tends to be glaring at the Ethicist column, which frequently gives questionably ethical advice.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, a reader wrote in to say that she sorts mail for a group of homeless or at-risk American Indian people and, when she found that one new mother had been sent a free formula sample, wanted to throw it out, so that the woman wouldn\u2019t be tempted to neglect breastfeeding. \u00a0She wasn\u2019t sure how to balance her duties as mail sorter with her duties to the child. \u00a0In addition, she worked as an infant and maternal health advocate in a separate job.<\/p>\n

The Ethicist replied<\/a>:<\/p>\n

You have two unrelated jobs \u2014 mail delivery and advocating for infant health. So what do you do if the requirements of one contradict the responsibilities of the other? My advice would be to consider the worst case within each ethical framework and ignore whichever system has the least damaging real-world potential. Throwing away someone else\u2019s mail is absolutely unlawful. (In this case, it\u2019s defined as obstruction of mail and would be treated as a misdemeanor.) On the other hand, there\u2019s obviously nothing illegal about failing to tell someone that formula is less healthful than breast milk. But can anyone objectively argue that the upside of upholding a man-made law regarding the improper disposal of unsolicited mail is greater than the downside of placing an already at-risk child in a potentially amplified position of peril? It\u2019s not as if you\u2019re making this judgment arbitrarily; as someone holding both jobs (and presumably trained to do so), you are in a valid position to decide which edict matters more.<\/p>\n

In the specific scenario you cite, however, your two volunteer jobs are not really at odds. Give this woman the formula that was mailed to her, but not before urging her to consider the value of breast-feeding. Use the opportunity to educate her about how these nutritional methods are different, and let her decide what is best for her and her baby. In this way, you\u2019d be performing both of your duties simultaneously.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Ethicist mentions the law against destroying mail without dwelling on the reasoning for it. \u00a0It\u2019s not just one factor in the letter-writer\u2019s utilitarian calculus; it indicates something about the nature of the job she accepted as mail-sorter. \u00a0It\u2019s an institutional position of trust. \u00a0A trust that would\u00a0still<\/em> be violated if she adopted the advice of the Ethicist and gave the woman a lecture along with the formula.<\/p>\n

Suppose the woman had been ordering racy books, and the mail sorter had been torn about whether to destroy them and settled on simply lecturing the recipient? \u00a0When the woman receives mail, she has not invited everyone who handled the package into her home for a set-to about the contents. \u00a0We can use mail because postal workers (and volunteers) leave their knowledge at the job, and don\u2019t use their privileged access to information to harass the people on their route (even if it\u2019s for the ostensible greater good).<\/p>\n

If her two jobs come into conflict frequently, she should resign one of them. \u00a0And it might be worth asking\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0she\u2019s not permitted to destroy mail, and being a bit curious about the answer, before she lets her own ethical intuitions play merry hob with the system everyone else is participating in and depending on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m frustrated by this letter because the Ethicist acts as though the mail sorter\u2019s ethics are unrestricted by her role as an agent of an institutional. \u00a0The Ethicist assumes the solution is to find a way to \u201cperform both of your duties simultaneously\u201d not that taking on a duty may force a choice. \u00a0It\u2019s not licit for her to just ignore whichever job\u2019s restrictions \u201chas the least damaging real-world potential.\u201d \u00a0Even though they have downstream effects on people, the\u00a0NYT<\/em> ethicist seldom factors the health of traditions and institutions into his moral calculus.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I had a car, I suppose I could have a bumpersticker that read \u201cMy other Sunday obligation is the\u00a0New York Times.\u201d \u00a0And part of the weekly ritual tends to be glaring at the Ethicist column, which frequently gives questionably ethical advice. A few weeks ago, a reader wrote in to say that she sorts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":7892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morality-in-practice"],"yoast_head":"\nServant of Two Masters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If I had a car, I suppose I could have a bumpersticker that read "My other Sunday obligation is the\u00a0New York Times." \u00a0And part of the weekly ritual tends\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/servant-of-two-masters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Servant of Two Masters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If I had a car, I suppose I could have a bumpersticker that read "My other Sunday obligation is the\u00a0New York Times." \u00a0And part of the weekly ritual tends\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/servant-of-two-masters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-09T19:10:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2013\/09\/burning-letter.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/servant-of-two-masters.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/servant-of-two-masters.html\",\"name\":\"Servant of Two Masters\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-09T19:10:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-09T19:10:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"If I had a car, I suppose I could have a bumpersticker that read \\\"My other Sunday obligation is the\u00a0New York Times.\\\" \u00a0And part of the weekly ritual tends\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/servant-of-two-masters.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/servant-of-two-masters.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/servant-of-two-masters.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Servant of Two Masters\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. 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