{"id":711,"date":"2021-11-12T15:25:05","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T20:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/?p=711"},"modified":"2021-12-07T10:59:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T15:59:56","slug":"the-common-good-do-we-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/?p=711","title":{"rendered":"The Common Good. Do We Believe?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the past few months, we\u2019ve published a review of sorts on the founding principles of the Stewardship Foundation\u2014Our Credo. Each starts with the words, \u201cWe believe\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe\u2026 in transformational giving.<\/em>
We believe\u2026 that giving is a collaborative act between the donor, the charity, and their God.<\/em>
We believe\u2026 that transformational giving is not about the bottom line, but about the heart.<\/em>
We believe\u2026 that transformational giving creates partnerships that impact entire communities.<\/em>
We believe\u2026 in the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexual morality, and religious freedom and the rights of conscience.<\/em>
We believe\u2026 that it is our responsibility to care for the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged, and to use our talents for the betterment of mankind through education, opportunity and freedom.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is not on the list is believing in the common good<\/em>. Why is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We do believe that leaders should think beyond their own interests and work toward a better society \u2014 a better world. Some may say that leaders should always seek results in the greater good<\/em><\/strong>. But is that really the right thing to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greater good<\/em> is often referred to as social responsibility vs profit, or a moral obligation to give to the poor. In either case, it involves organizations or individuals making value decisions on what is preferable in society. Virtue-signaling is a recent example of attempts to sway those decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The common good<\/em>, on the other hand, is a bedrock concept in Catholic Social Teaching, dating back centuries. The concept takes into account the natural worth of all human beings and focuses on guiding our decisions towards actions that promote justice and goodness for all<\/em>. Leave no one behind. Some people are not\u2014temporarily or permanently\u2014in a position to voice their concerns, express their opinion, or lobby for their own good, e.g., the unborn, the poor, the sick, the disabled, children, the destitute. Catholic Social Teaching defines ways of putting the common good into action in concrete ways. It is our Christian duty to be the voice for the voiceless as well as our own, to be the hands for the powerless as well as our own, to lobby for God\u2019s justice for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us focus not so much on the \u201cgreater good\u201d but rather the \u201ccommon good\u201d\u2014the justice and righteousness of the Lord, Our Almighty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe\u2026that the common good is manifested in life and dignity, given freely to us because we are all made in the image of our Creator.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past few months, we\u2019ve published a review of sorts on the founding principles of the Stewardship Foundation\u2014Our Credo. Each starts with the words, \u201cWe believe\u2026\u201d We believe\u2026 in transformational giving.We believe\u2026 that giving is a collaborative act between the donor, the charity, and their God.We believe\u2026 that transformational giving is not about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[285,284,287,286],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moral-values","tag-catholic-social-teaching","tag-common-good","tag-justice-and-righteousness","tag-voice-for-the-voiceless"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stewardshipworks.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}