Sunday, August 2, 2009

Conflict of Conscience?

The title of this post really defines the struggle I am going through on a daily basis in this profession of Social Work. On one hand, I have faith that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and that I, nor anyone else, could ever hope to be whole and live a fulfilled life without Him, and on the other I am entering a profession that is humanistic in nature, hoping that man can live a fulfilled life if he just believes that he is good enough. That is not to say that I am going to stop doing Social Work; I am convinced that God has equipped me for this task, both mentally and emotionally, and I am going to continue to wade through these muddy waters until God decides otherwise.
The most recent issue that brings this struggle to the surface is an opportunity that I have to go with the College of Social Work to Azerbaijan to help University students teach a family camp for 8 days. It sounds like an amazing opportunity on the surface, but the conflict is not with my desire to go (believe me, I want to go!), but with the things that we will be teaching to the villagers in the family camp. The core belief of the model we will be using is that man is basically good, and that if you boost your self-esteem, you will be able to function better in your community or family unit (this is a very gross interpretation of the
Satir Growth Model). This humanistic idea really flies in the face of my belief system and my motivation for being in this field. I believe that man is inherently broken and flawed and that the only way we can hope to function well within our communities is if we ask Jesus to fix our brokenness and put His Spirit in us to make us good. I think the growth model is good once you start in the right place, not with man but with God. I’m not sure that I can participate in teaching something that I do not believe, no matter how much I want to go. This is a matter I am going to continue to pray over and I hope that God will give me some sense of peace about this decision because right now my head and my heart are not in agreement.
This leads me to another area that has surprised me since I started this program, I have seen that many of my peers and professors separate what they believe from their actions and that concerns me. Maybe it’s just a product of this postmodern age. I find it very difficult, personally, to act in a manner that would conflict with what I believe. For example, I believe that abortion is wrong because life begins at conception and in my mind that is murder. If a pregnant female client came to me asking for help to get an abortion, I would explain to her other options and if she was still insistent on having the abortion, I would have to refer her to another professional because I would not be able to support her decision without violating my conscience. When I brought up this example in class, the majority of my classmates disagreed with me, saying that I should support the client regardless of my beliefs. This is simply something that I cannot and will not do, since my belief is what fuels my desire to practice social work. Remove faith from the equation and everything falls apart.
What do you think about this? What is the professionals’ duty when faced with a conflict of conscience?

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