Do No Harm – Understanding the Rule

Focus Question:

Most Christians do not intend to harm anyone; however, we sometimes are not aware of the harm we do. What does it mean to "do no harm"?

A Prayer

God of love, we know you want us to love your creation: neighbors, friends or enemies, strangers, the natural world, and ourselves. Yet we do harm, often unintentionally. Help us to be more aware of the harm we do. In Christ we pray. Amen.

WHAT DOES THE RULE SAY?

Unintended Harm

When we moved into our current house, we realized our basement stairs weren't build to present-day code. Most of the treads were shorter than the average adult foot; and in the turn of the stairway, the treads were even shorter. In addition, the risers weren't built in correct proportion to the treads; and halfway down, anyone over six feet tall had to duck to avoid the ceiling. When we had guests, I'd put a sign on the door that said, "Beware! Weird stairs!"

A look through a daily newspaper will reveal all kinds of unintended harm. A driver hasn't kept her car in good repair, the brakes fail, and a pedestrian is injured. A distracted nurse gives a patient medicine intended for another, and the patient's condition worsens. A pet owner tells the neighbors that his dog won't bite, but the dog attacks a child.

The first rule, "do no harm," is easy enough to understand; but following it can be challenging. The builder of the weird stairs didn't intend to hurt anyone, but the potential for harm was there. The driver, the nurse, and the dog owner didn't intend harm; but people were hurt. Most of us most of the time don't intend to harm anyone, but we are often unaware of the harm we do. What does it mean to do no harm?

Reflect on the Ride

How Aware Are You? Assess your awareness of what it means to do harm by writing responses to the following questions.

Where is harm being done? (Use an example from your household or circle of friends, your family, your congregation, your community, your city, your state, a group of people with whom you identify, your nation, or the world.)

Who is being harmed?

What harm is being done?

Who is doing it or causing it? (The "who" may be one or more people, groups, corporations, institutions, states, or nations.)

Why is it happening?

How is harm being done?

Rueben Job in Three Simple Rules tells us that these rules are simple but not easy. This first rule may seem the hardest of the three to follow; but it has clear benefits, not only to those we might harm but to ourselves. Job declares that in the middle of difficult situations "it often saved me from uttering a wrong word or considering a wrong response." This rule "can provide a safe place to stand while the hard and faithful work of discernment is done" (Three Simple Rules; p. 21). Job recommends this rule to groups engaged in conflict. Agreeing to this rule can change the climate of the conflict, keeping us from gossip, manipulation, and injury to the character of opponents. Following this rule can help us see our commonalities, reduce our fear of the other, and bring forth creativity and insight. However, following this rule can be quite challenging. It demands self-discipline and faith that God will lead us; and as Job writes, it demands "a radical trust in God's presence, power, wisdom, and guidance and a radical obedience to God's leadership" (p. 24). The rule makes further demands on us. It may take us places we'd rather not go, cause us to relinquish our power, and require us to entertain the thought that we may be wrong. Job assures us, "The good news is that we don't have to make this journey alone. There is always One who stands there with us" (p. 28).

Reflect

How do you respond to Job's understanding that the rule "do no harm" can provide a safe place to stand during the work of discernment? Why do you think the rule requires radical trust and obedience in God?

John Wesley's General Rules

When Wesley composed the General Rules for the societies, bands, and classes of the early Methodist movement, he listed some examples of harm to avoid. Job describes them as sounding "quaint and dated" to our ears (Three Simple Rules; p. 17). Twenty-first-century Christians may be surprised at how many of these ways of doing harm have an economic dimension—working on Sunday, buying and selling on Sunday, slaveholding, not paying sales taxes, participating in usury (lending money at unlawful or exorbitant rates), wearing expensive clothing or jewelry, buying or selling distilled alcohol. Some of these are about harm done to our relationship with God and with other people, and some are about both.

Wesley's list represents what he saw, and much of it was about harm to the poor. Using sources of knowledge available to him in the 18th century, Wesley looked for the root causes of poverty and saw that the shift from an agrarian economy to an industrial one was part of the problem. Britain had fenced off common land. Small farmers were getting poorer while the wealthy were getting richer from agriculture. Unskilled workers left the countryside in search of jobs in the city, sometimes to no avail. Households in the country suffered from lack of income while the increased number of unskilled workers in cities drove down wages. Some of these ways of doing harm were related to the indulgences and luxuries of the rich. Spending money on unnecessary items was a stewardship issue. Resources that could have helped the poor were often wasted by those who had money. The use of distilled alcohol and the number of horses owned by the wealthy were driving up the price of grain. Wesley saw these factors as robbing the poor.

Reflect

If you were writing John Wesley's General Rules for doing no harm today, what would you put on the list?

The Answers Depend on the Questions

When we look at John Wesley's rule to do no harm, we may ask: what harm am I doing? We examine ourselves for ways we might hurt other people—gossiping, taking revenge on our enemies, undercutting a co-worker's efforts, starting rumors about people we don't like, or making someone else look bad. Of course, it is important to discipline ourselves to avoid doing harm; but we can also prevent harm by looking at the bigger picture. Instead of asking only "What harm am I doing?" we could begin with a more comprehensive set of questions. Who or what is being harmed? What harm is being done to them? Who, collectively, is doing it? Am I one of them? If so, what can I do to stop the harm?

Reflect

How do the questions in this paragraph affect your awareness of harm caused by groups or institutions? How might you unwittingly be part of the group?

Of course, these questions work on the individual level. We may note that we are harming ourselves by not taking care of our health or not being good stewards of our...