Can we be both free and equal?

A New Yorker article (7 January 2019) deals with the ancient dichotomy between individual freedom and social equality.

The problem is obvious. If you prioritize freedom, then the smartest and strongest or more privileged by birth will end up with more, thus abandoning the moral goal of equality of all in the community. If, on the other hand, you pursue equality, you will necessarily restrain the freedom of industrious and intelligent individuals.

Accordingly, it seems that you cannot have both – at least, not in the fullness of either. Is there any way out of this conundrum? The New Yorker article puts it this way: “How do you move from a basic model of egalitarian variety in which everybody gets a crack at being a star at something, to figuring out how to respond to a complex one, where people with different allotments of talent and virtue get unequal starts?” (p. 49).

The New Yorker’s answer to its own question could come straight out of the New Testament: “For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Romans 12:4-6).

Whereupon, Romans follows with a list of diverse roles within the early church community, exhorting the appropriate members to take up their task.

The point is that it is the essential contribution of each of the diverse groups that creates equality in the community. The same argument is repeated in 1 Corinthians 12: 4-31.

If we appropriated Paul’s social philosophy, it could call much of our congregational life into question. It would be problematic to designate one minister of a team the “lead” minister. It might cause us to rethink our sacramental view about who should preside at the Lord’s Table.

In a community where all roles have equal status we might be highly reluctant to characterize the presider as a “lead” minister. By recognizing and respecting different fields of human undertaking for the well-being of all, the community members thereby accord equal worth and dignity to all.