I explained how somebody in Jesus’s audience got the bright idea to ask him the question, “And just who is my neighbor?” and how he responded with this famous story. I suggested that when we hear the story it is easy to condemn the priest and the Levite for leaving somebody by the side of the road. But they were technically just obeying the law. They were fulfilling, as they saw it, their responsibilities to their prescribed roles. They were both supposed to stay “clean” in order to fulfill their duties. Touching the bloody body would make them “unclean” and cause problems for them once they got to Jericho. Responding to the injured man could also take too much of their time or put them in a risky or dangerous situation. My job, they said, is at the end of the road. I can’t get involved in the mess by the side of the road. It would only slow me down on the way to my responsibilities in Jericho.
Then I asked, what if someone in Jesus’s audience today had the same bright idea to ask him the same question—now? “And who is my neighbor?” What might be his parable today? In that room filled with activists and policy makers, CEOs and heads of nonprofit organizations, I asked them to all hold up their cell phones. I said, let’s be honest, cell phones have become the “significant other” for lots of people today. Many spend more time with them each day—thumbing away on the keyboards or having long conversations from anywhere and everywhere—than with any person in their lives. But what was the road that brought our cell phones to us? It is worrying to think that it may be a far more dangerous one than the Jericho road.
Do we know or really understand, for example, that many of the key materials in our cell phones come from minerals that are at the heart of violent conflicts in places like the Congo? Brutal militias are selling those “dirty minerals” to buy the weapons they use to kill and destroy thousands of people in Africa. What are we going to do about that? What about the revelation that some of our favorite gadgets, such as the iPhone and iPad, are made in China by people working under horrendous conditions that cause some to lose the use of their hands? The stories go on and on: on the side of the road that brings us all our technical devices, clothing, delectable chocolates, and more are the many victims who have literally been beaten, robbed, and left to die. Whoever is involved in making your cell phone, I told the conferees, who were all now holding their smart phones in the air, is your neighbor! Does the meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan today, I asked them, suggest that economic supply chains should also become value chains?
People stopped eating their lunch and you could have heard a pin drop. Imagine Jesus holding up our cell phones, I suggested. Your neighbor, he might say, is every man, woman, and child who touched the supply chain used to make your phone, or the clothes you wear, the computers you type on, the food you eat, and the cars you drive. Your global neighbors in these supply chains are all God’s children. The theological reality that people of faith must try to live out is that our neighbor is not defined by geographical proximity. Our neighbor is the person in need. So it’s time to look at what is happening along the bloody road of our consumer supply chains.
Turning Supply Chains into Value Chains
Sometimes, caring for our global neighbor might mean a change of plans or maybe a change in products. Sometimes, caring for our neighbor means we have to slow down a little bit and think about what we are doing and buying. Sometimes, caring for our neighbor might cost us some time and even some money. There are many people who haven’t wanted to get involved in the mess by the side of the road. They walk by it and say that it’s somebody else’s responsibility. My job, they say, is at the end of the road in Jericho. I’m just being faithful to my shareholders by maximizing profit. My job is just getting the products people want into the hands of those that want them. I can’t be worried about those who get left by the side of the road of my supply chain. If I stop to help clean up the mess along the way, it might cost too much time and money.
It’s not my job; I’m just responsible to the consumer. It’s not my job; I am just a consumer. It’s not my job; I’m not breaking any laws or rules. It’s not my job; that’s why they have boards of directors. It’s not my job; it would be too inconvenient or expensive to stop and help. And hey, if a few people do get hurt along the way, are there not some Good Samaritans around who will take care of them? Isn’t that why we have faith-based and charity organizations?
