On September 18, Dr. James Read, then executive director of The Salvation Army Ethics Centre in Winnipeg, received the Order of the Founder, the Army’s highest award. 

Read has spent his entire career helping Salvationists think critically about ethical, social and moral issues. He moved to Winnipeg in 1982 to help create what is now Booth University College, serving as a professor of ethics and philosophy. In 1994, he founded The Salvation Army Ethics Centre and, in 2008, he became a senior policy analyst for the newly formed International Social Justice Commission. He also served as chair of the International Moral and Social Issues Council out of International Headquarters.

As Read enters retirement, editor-in-chief Geoff Moulton spoke with him about his tenure at the Ethics Centre, critical issues facing the church and what has brought him joy on the journey. As he reminds us, ethics is primarily a matter of the heart.

You’ve helmed the Ethics Centre for 27 years, since its inception. What have been the main contributions of the centre and how has the work evolved over time?

It was a privilege to play a part in the birth of the Ethics Centre. In the 1990s, I began as a health-care ethics consultant for the Canada and Bermuda Territory with the support of Lt-Colonel David Luginbuhl, then health services secretary. In the early days, the centre was largely attuned to the needs of Salvation Army health services, hospitals, long-term care facilities, eventually extending those services to non-Army hospitals as well.

When the territory developed core values, we saw an opportunity for the Ethics Centre to help The Salvation Army “walk the talk,” noting the need for integrity in the organization, not just in individuals. Raising awareness of the values and building support around them became one of the Ethics Centre’s goals. In 2008, with the development of the International Social Justice Commission in New York City, the Ethics Centre began resourcing the international Army. For the last 13 years, our work has focused on social justice concerns, not just internal organizational concerns.

The world seems topsy-turvy these days. What are the main ethical issues that need our attention? Is there one that resonates for you personally?

The world does seem topsy-turvy right now. Whether it’s always been that way, we might debate. But it’s not just the topsy-turvyness that gets my attention—there is a polarization of people like I’ve never experienced before. Many are divided into camps, taking sides, planting their flags and defending their ground. That mindset is at odds with an ethics approach, which attempts instead to understand the world and specific challenges for the purposes of bringing people together. Unfortunately, we are in this fractious time where people have entrenched views. We are not in a time in which people are seeking to be humble and admit that we don’t have it all figured out.

So, how can we work together? In terms of the issues, first, of existential, global importance is the state of the environment. I think that Christians in the West generally need to take climate concerns more to heart. We must ask what it means for us to be earth creatures, to understand that God has made us embodied creatures, and we are dependent on the earth as the earth is dependent on us. We can’t just use material resources at our whim, but rather must steward those resources for the health of human beings and the planet.

I have also become increasingly aware that God has distributed brains and ability throughout the world, but opportunities are not distributed evenly. It is shameful that we allow the inequitable distribution of resources. We can sit too comfortably in our part of the world, the wealthy part of the world, and worry about first-world problems when there are needs elsewhere. People are dying unnecessarily of malnutrition and preventable diseases, they are frustrated by the lack of educational opportunities, they lack access to meaningful work. God is calling us to be attentive to those needs.

In the Army, we are also troubled about human sexuality: How do we understand our sexuality and live our sexuality in holy ways? There are sharp divides and passionate differences between equally sincere Salvationists. Seeking a godly way forward is important, but also difficult and fraught with the risk of schism.

How do we engage critically as Christians with the challenges of the world and society?

For too many people, the word ethics sounds academic and abstract. For some, it’s considered a judgmental word. But ethics is not just about living in our heads, nor is it merely calling people out and trying to find out how they are misbehaving. There are practical fundamentals in Scripture at the heart of ethics, beginning with the Golden Rule. It prompts us to ask ourselves more frequently, what is it like to be on the other side of this problem or question? Would I be as prepared to be on the receiving end as I am on the giving end? If we did that more systematically, we would not only be more ethical, we would understand other people more. We need to use our ethical imagination. What would it be like to walk in another person’s shoes? Jesus said, “I’m giving you a new command that you love one another, as I have loved you” (see John 13:34). How is it that God, in Jesus, loves us? How might that be the model for us?

Is there a particular “Salvation Army lens” for viewing ethical and moral questions?

It’s true that Salvationists often have a unique way of looking at the world. The so-called “Wesleyan quadrilateral” encourages us to probe Scripture, look at the tradition of the church through time, understand lived experience, and put it all together in a rational way. But these four sources of moral wisdom or ethics are really just a kind of shorthand. Ultimately, all truth is God’s truth, so that wherever we find insight and wisdom we should be prepared to draw on it. We have to avoid an “us” and “them” approach to ethical issues. Rather than trying to find out how Christians can approach life differently from Jews or Muslims or secularists, we should ask: How do people—whoever they are and whatever their context—come to understand the right way to live?

As Salvationists, there are parts of Scripture that are especially compelling to us. For example, we believe firmly in the boundless grace of God. While we’ve got arguments for guarding moral boundaries, fundamentally, God wants to see no one lost, no one disrespected, no one beneath contempt. As we look at the world, we are troubled by the fact that there are people who are thrown away as not worth anybody’s time. We are not alone in being troubled, but it is a distinctly Salvationist way.

You’ve built a great team at the Ethics Centre, and now you have passed the baton to Colonel Eleanor Shepherd as the interim executive director. How do you see the Army engaging with ethical issues moving forward?

At the Ethics Centre, I have been privileged to work alongside a team that includes Aimee Patterson and Emily McFarlane and, most recently, the administrative support of Lindsay Reid. We’ve also been blessed with a territorial Social Issues Committee. If the centre’s purpose is to equip people to see and care about the world Christianly, ethically, then I think we’re doing our task. We have aimed to multiply our resources, through educational offerings, courses, values surveys, webinars, writing and in-person presentations at conferences. We do this not to draw attention to the Ethics Centre itself, but to raise awareness of the needs of the world and equip people to be equal to the challenge.

What has brought you the most joy in your journey as a Salvationist and employee? 

Being able to talk with and work with other people who are interested in ethical issues fills me with great joy—forming common cause and living in the boundless generosity and grace of God. Ironically, I also find deep satisfaction in being able to get away to study. I enjoy spending quiet time reflecting on books and Scripture. I am not very good with the speed of the internet age. With books, we keep control over the time as we move through the text, which allows us to go back and to pause. Ethics time is slow time. I find joy in reflecting and pondering in quietude, as well as being caught up in a purpose with other people who are doing good. 

While retirement will give you a chance to refocus, I’m sure that you will not be idle. What’s next for you?

I’ve never been here before. I don’t know what retirement looks like. Of course, it will include family time. There may yet be several years in which I am doing something ethics related, but I don’t know what that something is. I have lived in a world that values productivity, and I like being productive. But I think that I need to learn what it is to appreciate rest, what it is to truly worship, what it is to not be busy. I want not just to be in service to God, but to learn to be quiet before the Lord and receive the grace that he has for me.

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