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The Review of Faith & International Affairs

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FORMATION OF MORAL CHARACTER THROUGH GLOBAL COMMUNITY SERVICE

Peter J. Paris Available online: 20 Feb 2012

To cite this article: Peter J. Paris (2012): FORMATION OF MORAL CHARACTER THROUGH GLOBAL COMMUNITY SERVICE, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 10:1, 25-28 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2012.648391

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FORMATION OF MORAL CHARACTER THROUGH GLOBAL COMMUNITY SERVICE

By Peter J. Paris
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ne of the great problems of the 20th century, and indeed every past century, was the actual or potential domination of one group of people by another. The many varying forms of domination have included slavery, colonialism, patriarchy, racial segregation, and genocide, each of which encouraged further oppression, conquest, exclusion, terrorism, and destruction. Both continental and diasporic African peoples have been subjected to all of those forms of domination. In the United States, after a civil war that ended two and a half centuries of slavery and a subsequent century of second-class citizenship, the Supreme Court reversed the Plessy v Ferguson decision in its 1954 Brown v the Board of Education decision. That action not only marked the death of the separate but equal doctrine that had legitimized racial segregation since 1896; it inspired the launch of the modern day Civil Rights Movement under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. During that same decade, the Reverend Dr. James H. Robinson, pastor of the Church of the Master in Morningside Heights, New York, founded the Operation Crossroads Africa program, which President John F. Kennedy later adopted as the model for his Peace Corps initiative. Robinsons aim was to provide an opportunity for male and female students to engage in an intercultural and interracial program of work and study with African students in

various African countries in order to broaden the perspectives of all concerned. The program was also designed to promote a positive image of the United States in Africa during a critical time for both the Cold War and the pending collapse of European colonialism. Dr. Robinson viewed the dawning of independent African nations as strategic, given that the United States had very few good relations anywhere in Africa (with the possible exception of Liberia). He devised a program that would help prepare young people on both continents to deal constructively with this new era in international relations. Using the model of the ecumenical work camps that were developed in Europe after World War II, he designed a similar program that would contribute value indirectly to the growing Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the promising independence movement in Africa. In both situations, he believed it was necessary to provide a context for black and white Americans to live, work, and study together as a means for shaping the dispositions of every participant towards a greater commitment to intercultural and interracial service at home and abroad. From the rst Crossroads Africa groups in 1958 to the present, black and white American
The Rev. Dr. Peter J. Paris is the Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor Emeritus of Christian Social Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of Religion and Poverty: Pan-African Perspectives (2009). He participated in the rst years operation of the Crossroads Africa program in 1958.

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formation of moral character through global community service

students have spent six to 10 weeks every summer working with students in various African countries to build in each place a much needed community project1 such as a school, a well, a clinic, a road, or some other facility that the people greatly desired. Dr. Robinson believed that if privileged American students had such a grassroots experience in Africa, it would motivate them to pursue some type of constructive engagement with Africa in the future. The motto of the Operation Crossroads Africa Program was then, and continues to be, Make a difference for others, see the difference in yourself. Every testimony about the impact of the program on its participants has conrmed the latter part of that motto. The foundation of good leadership is good moral character, which is formed by the habitual practice of good actions. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that the habitual practice of nonviolent resistance produced a nonviolent people. That is to say, the quality of habitual actions eventually becomes internalized in the actors being, which reects a settled state of character. Accordingly, a person of good moral character is known by his or her disposition to act in a certain way. A good moral disposition pertains to the regulation of the impulses, drives, desires, passions, and appetites, and its form is expressed in a set of moral virtues acquired by moral example and habitual practice. It is important to note, however, that a morally good character cannot be formed in isolation from others who exemplify such virtues. A morally good community is a necessary condition for the development of moral character in individuals. Further, good moral character is nurtured more easily in those whose dispositions desire it. Thus, the willing dispositions of young people desiring the experience of working, studying, and living with those from other cultures constitutes the basis of moral training conducive for intercultural relations. According to the testimonies of many Crossroads volunteers, including mine, the Crossroads Africa program cultivated in young people such virtues as mutual respect for one another across cultural, racial, and gender boundaries; empathy towards the sufferings and
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needs of others; a willingness to share ones knowledge and skills with others; sensitivity towards what is fair and just in personal and international relations; tolerance for differences in cultural practices and political opinions; and openness to resolving conicts through negotiation and compromise.

My Global Immersion through Crossroads Africa

Though Crossroads Africa was founded formally in 1954, its rst program did not occur until the summer of 1958. At that time I was completing my divinity school degree at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. I had learned about the program the previous year and was encouraged to apply, so I eagerly did so. Subsequently, however, I was informed that my application had been denied because the program was open only to those with American citizenship. Yet, in early May I received an unexpected letter from Dr. Robinson informing me that if I were still interested in joining the group and could complete all arrangements within a six-week period, I would be accepted. Apparently, St. James Methodist Church in Montreal had agreed to make a nancial contribution to the program with the proviso that at least one Canadian be accepted. Since I was the only Canadian applicant in their les, I was approved2 and after a 10-day orientation at Columbia University in New York City, I was one of the 60 students ying to ve countries in West Africa (Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria). My group of 12 was assigned to Nigeria. Instead of a work project, a study tour around the country was organized for us and for various Nigerian students from different regions of the country.3 Since the Nigerians had not travelled widely in their own country, it was a learning experience for them as well. The experience of living together for 10 weeks enabled us to share with one another many aspects of our respective cultures. We travelled throughout the three regions of Nigeria (west, east, and north) learning about their social, economic, agricultural, religious, and political diversity through lectures, discussions, and numerous eld

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peter j. paris

opposed colonialism and sought to rebuild their trips both in urban and rural contexts. One of nation embodied differing ideologies, strategies, the most interesting parts of the program was and policies. our audiences with the traditional chiefs in In short, the Crossroads experience was every village we visited. In the northern revelatory for me because it enabled me to look region we met many imams and emirs who shared with us the basic principles and practices anew at my assumptions about Africa and its relationship to the Western world. Because I had of Islam. As North Americans we traveled the country heard very little about Africa that was positive, this experience was altogether liberating. I with our newly acquired Nigerian friends, resolved always to inquire into multiple African meeting and discussing with academic, perspectives on any subject pertaining to that government, religious, medical, social, and continent. It is important for foreigners not to economic leaders who were eagerly waiting for forget that they inevitably carry the spirit of their their countrys forthcoming independence. The nationalities with themeither as asset or Crossroads experience opened our eyes to the liability. They should diligently and carefully reality of colonial rule, which we North assess this factor wherever Americans were now able to they are, and especially in see though the eyes of THOUGH THE CONTINENT Africa. In my judgment, Nigerians rather than the CONTINUES TO BE RICH IN morally good leaders must be uncritical viewpoints of our school textbooks (in which NATURAL RESOURCES, IT HAS committed, as expressed in the Canadian Crossroads colonialism was portrayed BECOME INCREASINGLY International programs largely as an act of POOR IN HUMAN CAPITAL mission statement, to the benevolence towards the creation of a more equitable Africans rather than the oppressive system it actually was). Everywhere we and sustainable world by engaging and strengthening individuals, organizations, and traveled in Nigeria the atmosphere was charged communities through mutual learning, solidarity, with the spirit of expectancy, and Nigerian and collective action.5 students were consumed with endless concerns pertaining to the forthcoming political independence. Independence would be a novel Leadership Demands of the 21st experience for all its citizens because no living Century Alas, the optimism that accompanied African Nigerian had ever known anything other than independence and the founding of Crossroads colonialism. En route to Nigeria, we spent a few days in Africa in the middle of the 20th century has today been replaced by widespread cynicism Ghana as guests on the beautiful campus of the University College in Accra.4 On the one hand, bordering on hopelessnessthroughout Africa. we were pleased to witness the lingering euphoria Though the continent continues to be rich in associated with Ghanas pride in having been the natural resources, it has become increasingly poor rst African nation to gain its independence from in human capital due to the exodus of millions of British colonial rule in March of the previous its educated elites to other parts of the world in year. On the other hand, we were both surprised search of political freedom and material gains. and enlightened by the many criticisms that the Meanwhile, the suffering of the masses in Africa students had about the political philosophy and has grown exponentially due to warfare, public policies of their newly installed President genocide, widespread corruption, Kwame Nkrumah. Once again, we discovered environmental destruction, and lack of clean that in a democracy many differing opinions water, fertile land, and medical resources for attend virtually every political achievement and curable diseases. its unfolding implications. In other words, Clearly, most African countries have had democracy implies that even those who had more than their fair share of despotic leaders bent
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on using the nations resources for their own personal enrichment rather than the common good of their citizens. Alongside lingering impacts of colonialism, various forms of neocolonialism have increased. Most scholars now see a combination of external and internal forces contributing to Africas contemporary problems. In the opening sentence of his small but powerful book, The Trouble with Nigeria (written near the time of the 1983 coup dtat in Nigeria), Chinua Achebe stated unequivocally: The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.6 Though that declaration correctly diagnosed a loss of moral virtue among the nations political leaders, it only captured one element of what African countries require. Moral leaders are necessary, but not sufcient, for the ourishing of modern nations, whether in Africa or elsewhere. The preservation of economic and social development and stability requires a free media alongside legal, economic, judicial, and political institutions that are more durable than the person exercising leadership. Good leaders are needed to direct those institutions but strong

institutions are, by denition, not dependent on the leaders alone. Unfortunately, neither the colonial regimes nor their successors succeeded in establishing strong institutions as a sine qua non for the sustenance and preservation of democracy in Africa today. Good leaders can eventually turn bad if they remain in ofce too long. That has happened repeatedly in most post-independence African countries and it continues to occur today. What democracies need mostand especially democracies in Africais the establishment of vibrant civil societies alongside strong democratic institutions guided by moral leaders. Such an accomplishment will require the imagination, intelligence, nancial resources, and counsel of non-partisan, diasporic African peoples and their allies working cooperatively with the African Union throughout the continent. What will also be required are procedures and practices that cultivate virtues that promote the moral wellbeing of others, including courage, justice, temperance, generosity, and prudence. Global voluntary service programs such as Crossroads Africa have contributed in important ways to this objective. v

1. An important aspect of the program was the concrete legacy of a nished project as a reminder of the collaborative venture of African and American students in a given place. 2. It is important to note that Canada began its own independent Crossroads Africa International Program in 1959. Accordingly, because I had been the sole Canadian in the 1958 venture, the Canadian organization has viewed me as the rst Canadian in their program as well. When it celebrated its 50th anniversary in April 2009, I was invited to speak at the event in Toronto as the rst Canadian Crossroader. 3. The ofcers and members of the Student Christian Movement of Nigeria played a major role in this organizing effort. 4. The University of Ghana was initially established as the University College of the Cape Coast in association with the University of London in 1948, the same year that the University College of Ibadan was established and which would later become the University of Ibadan. 5. Canadian Crossroads International, Mission Statement, http://www.cciorg.ca/Page.aspx?pid=384 (accessed July 1, 2011). 6. Achebe, The trouble with Nigeria, 1.

Reference
Achebe, Chinua, The Trouble with Nigeria. Oxford, Heinemann, 1984.

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