March 10, 2009: In Praise Of Duty

The other day I was listening to a radio program that played hits from the 30s and 40s, and heard an interesting song where "Jazz Singer" Al Jolson extolled his beloved's good looks. At one point he croons,

You know I care and I'll be faithful to you
Not through a sense of duty
You are too beautiful
And I am too drunk with beauty

I told my son Ben, "Listen to this! He thinks he's paying her a compliment by telling her it's her beauty that inspires his faithfulness. He's not being true to her because he has to, because it's his duty, because there is something inside him that forces him to be faithful no matter who she is or how she behaves or what she looks like - but because she's so beautiful!" And Ben answered, smartly of course, "What happens then when she is no longer beautiful?" Exactly. Maybe then she would appreciate it if his motivation had been duty all along.

Duty is a good thing, and there is no shame in being motivated by it. Duty stands strong when other motivations weaken and fall. But there are reasons why we are suspicious of it and would prefer not to reveal that it is the efficient cause of our behavior. It seems so prosaic and unromantic. We even feel insulted (certainly not complimented!) when we learn that someone did right by us not because we inspired it but because he was simply "doing his job". He would have done the same even if we weren't worthy or handsome or smart or kind. "Oh. I thought I was special. I guess whether I am or not is beside the point - that's just the kind of man he is."

About six weeks ago (see the January 27 essay, "Wait, Seriously?") I argued with a respondent who seemed to object to the holy status I gave to duty. He (She?) wrote that while many of us are tempted to promiscuity, "we choose not to pursue that not out of some religiously ascetic sense of self-denial, but because we've found something better." I find danger lurking in those innocuous words. If we can give to "duty" the pejorative label "religiously ascetic sense of self-denial", and persuade ourselves that there is a higher motive to be embraced while this lower one is dismissed, we may find that that exalted "something better" (say a warm, loving, mutually respectful give-and-take relationship) is quite unable to sustain a man's ability to care for his wife when she is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's.

Monday I heard a WMBI preacher tell us, "'The Word of the Lord is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword' - but be honest, is it like that for you when you read it? Don't you sometimes just read it out of duty? Well today we'll tell you how to change that..." and I started shouting at the radio "No! No! Not that stupid line of rhetoric again! Stop it!" Never make people feel sheepish or guilty or inadequate about submitting to the call of duty. Without it, lots of Christians would never read their Bibles at all. Duty is a good thing. Like the weird guy in that viral internet video who lamented the public abuse of poor Brittany Spears, I say, "LEAVE DUTY ALONE!"