Students of … most of you are now 18 years of age, or soon will be – this gives a new responsibility which we call civic responsibility. Other being able to marry, purchase a home, go into debt and be sent to adult prison, you will be able to make appointments and visit your local member of parliament and you will have to vote. 

I think this gives you three responsibilities, for which I believe this school has been preparing you. As an adult the most important person in the world is no-longer you. I come back to Churchill’s quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Firstly you must vet anything the government does whether local, state or federal and voice your opinion loudly when they contradict what is right: this is your responsibility. The attempt to re-define marriage is one such state sanctioned action that true citizens of God must veto. Proof of the failure of people not opposing a government’s policy is Germany – leading to a systematic sanctioned murder of six million Jews.

Secondly, you have a responsibility towards anyone the state fails – and there are many of these – the minority groups, the homeless, children of abusive parents. We all have a responsibility to care for these unfortunate individuals. The Apostle James from the Bible calls this true religion and undefiled – he said true religion is visiting those without parents and the wives of those whose husbands have died. I believe this means caring for the unfortunate and it means giving to them – both time and money but also your intellect in order to convince the state it has failed at some point.

That is making those who are less fortunate than you, your focus. As an individual of our civic society I believe Dietrich Bonhoeffer was right when he said (and transliterated for this school) - you must act on behalf of any victim, even if they do not belong to the white Anglo-Saxon community – whether Asian or African or Hindu or Jewish. This is not a right, but a responsibility.

I take the third point, also from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man murdered by Hitler for doing just this. It’s not just good enough to give a hungry man a piece of bread, you need to involved yourself in righting the wrong that caused the person to go hungry.

To sum up, I and the Governors of this school want to you ponder your new freedom – you now have many choices which come with responsibilities. Choose wisely. 

I leave you with these words, from the wisest man ever to live:

God says to you my son and daughter, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her [wisdom] as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God. 

Part of a speech given to KBGS on 12 December 2012
David L Simon
Notes/Civic responsibilities