Topic : Morality

I recently saw the story of a high school values clarification class conducted by a teacher in Teneck, New Jersey. A girl in the class had found a purse containing $1,000 and returned it to its owner. The teacher asked for the class's reaction. Every single one of her fellow students concluded the girl had been "foolish.? Most of the students contended that if someone is careless, they should be punished. When the teacher was asked what he said to the students, he responded, "Well, of course, I didn't say anything. If I come from the position of what is right and what is wrong, then I'm not their counselor. I can't impose my views.? It's no wonder that J. Allen Smith, considered a father of many modern education reforms, concluded in the end, 'the trouble with us reformers is that we-ve made reform a crusade against all standards. Well, we-ve smashed them all, and now neither we nor anybody else have anything left.?

Senator Dan Coats, Imprimis, Vol. 20, #9, Sept., 1991

• Relativism: what is right/wrong, true/false is determined by some group.
• Subjectivism: what is right/wrong, true/false is determined by each individual.

Source unknown

During a recent meeting of college educators at Harvard University, Cornell president Frank Rhodes rose to address the issue of reforms, suggesting that it was time for universities to pay 'real and sustained attention to student's intellectual and moral well-being.? Immediately there were gasps, even catcalls. One indignant student stood to demand of Rhodes, "Who is going to do the instructing? Whose morality are we going to follow"? The audience applauded thunderously, believing that the young man had settled the issue by posing an unanswerable question. Rhodes sat down, unable or unwilling to respond...Basic human nature dictates that when an individual is left to make moral decisions without reference to some standard above self, he or she invariably makes those choices on the basis of self-interest. Relativism results in radical individualism. As sociologist Robert Bellah concluded after an exhaustive survey, Americans have two overriding goals in life: personal success and vivid personal feelings.

Charles Colson, Jubilee, April, 1988

It's out, and it's hot: a discussion guide on sexuality for Lutherans. Released last month, it is sure to spark debate both in and out of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) between now and the next ELCA assembly in 1993. "Human Sexuality and the Christian Faith,? a 55-page document produced by the denomination's Division for Church and Society, was designed to prompt dialogue and set the stage for a future ELCA social statement on sex issues. The material urges readers to examine with an open mind different views about marriage, promiscuity, and homosexuality.

At it's core the document questions biblical passages concerning homosexuality and suggests that scriptural references to same-sex relationships? need to be re-interpreted in light of modern theories about sexual orientation. "We must distinguish between moral judgments regarding same-sex activity in biblical times and in our own time,? the report states. It differentiates "exploitative? homosexual activity from same-sex relationships? in which there is mutual love and commitment.? The document challenges ELCA members to evaluate prejudices against homosexuals, insisting that "what we personally find offensive is not necessarily sinful.'

Source unknown

Lon Grammer claimed some impressive credentials when he transferred to Yale from Cuesta Community College in San Luis Obispo, Calif., two years ago, including a 3.9 grade point average. He did well at Yale, too, playing rugby while earning a B average. But a bare month before he was to graduate with a degree in political science, Yale expelled the 25-year-old and charged him with taking $61,475 under false pretenses. School officials say he lied about his GPA and forged recommendations from nonexistent teachers. He will be arraigned on larceny charges next week. (In a TV interview, he pleaded that his actions were no worse than what happens every day when people lie on resumes.)

U.S. News & World Report, April 24, 1995, p. 20

A recent Barna Research Group survey on what Americans believe confirms what this brief scenario illustrates: we are in danger of becoming a nation of relativists. The Barna survey asked, "Is there absolute truth"? Amazingly, 66 percent of American adults responded that they believe that 'there is no such thing as absolute truth; different people can define truth in conflicting ways and still be correct.? The figure rises to 72 percent when it comes to those between the ages of 18 and 25.

Christianity Today, October 26, 1992, p. 30

In a 1989 L.A. Times poll, 61% said that abortion is wrong, and 74% said abortion should be kept legal.

George Barna

Few executives can afford the luxury of a conscience. A business that defined right and wrong in terms that would satisfy a well-developed contemporary conscience could not survive. When the directors and managers enter the board room to debate policy, they park their private consciences outside. If they didn't they would fail in their responsibility to the company that pays them. The crucial question in board rooms today is not, "Are we morally obligated to do it"? but rather "What will happen if we don't do it"? or "How will this affect the rate of return on our investment"? No company employs a vice president in charge of ethical standards, and sooner or later the conscientious executive is likely to come up against a stone wall of corporate indifference to private moral values. In the real world of today's business, he is almost surely a troubled man.

Dan Miller, Chicago Daily News, July 29, 1970

What is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
- Ernest Hemingway

Source unkown

The early morning crash of a Brink's armored truck on a Miami highway in January held up a mirror to our nation's cultural decline. While the driver and a fellow Brink's officer lay bruised and bleeding, a festive atmosphere broke loose outside the truck as thousands of dollars blew n the breeze.

Motorists stopped in rush hour traffic, then scooped up cash before resuming their commutes to the office. Thousands of crisp bills and shiny coins rained down an overpass onto a Miami neighborhood. Below, mothers with babies grabbed coins and piled them into strollers. An elderly woman filled a box. A young school girl dumped her book bag and loaded it with coins and bills.

Onlookers and participants had plenty of justifications and rationalizations.

"Which is more moral,? asked one resident of the impoverished neighborhood, 'to return the money and leave your children improvised-or maybe send them to college and enrich the family for generations"'

"We deserve a little something,? said another.

"The Lord was willing for it to happen here,? one man commented. 'there's a lot of poverty. It was a miracle.'

Police estimated that more than 100 people helped themselves to money during the melee. Middle class on their way to work made off with thousands.

Was this a shocking event? It shouldn't have been. What happened in Miami was born out of a cultural drift that has left us unsure of absolute right and wrong or at least unwilling to live by such a code. We reward rule-breakers and ridicule those who extol morality. Life's ultimate reward is money and having it is the end to our worries.

Ralph Reed said that the 1996 presidential election was about the character of the American people. Maybe the Miami incident says more about that character than we care to consider.

There were some heroes on that day in Miami. Several people came forward and turned money over to authorities.

"I have children, and I needed to set a good example,? said Faye McFadden, a mother who earns $5.00 an hour at a department store. "It was important for me to do what I felt was right.'

Herbert Tarvin, 11, came forward after his teacher at St. Francis Xavier Elementary School lectured students about making the right decision. He went to police with 85 cents.

"I knew it was wrong for me to keep anything,? Herbert told a television reporter, "and I knew if I kept it I would have been stealing.'

Manny Rodriguez, a firefighter who recovered a bag containing $330,000 in cash, summed things up pretty well.

"People were almost killed in that truck and people are calling it a blessing from God. That wasn't a blessing; it was a test. The rich, the poor, the middle class-everybody should have a conscience.?

Source unknown

Consider the results of a survey conducted in 1988 by the Rhode Island Rape Crisis Center. Some 1,700 students between the sixth and ninth grade attended adolescent assault awareness classes conducted in schools across the state. Each boy and girl was asked if a man should have a right to force a woman to have sexual intercourse if he had spent money on her.

The results were shocking. Nearly 25 percent of the boys and 16 percent of the girls said "yes?! Then 65 percent of the boys and 47 percent of the girls in the seventh through ninth grades said it is okay for a man to force a woman to have sex with him if they have dated for six months or longer. And 51 percent of the boys and 41 percent of the girls said a man has a right to force a woman to kiss him if he spent "a lot of money on her"?which was defined by 12-year-olds as $10 to $15.

I must admit to being shocked by these findings, and yet, not really. These young students merely learned the lessons they were taught by the value-free educational system. Their teachers taught them in sex education classes that there is nothing right or wrong, no standard for moral judgment. "It all depends on how you see the matter, Johnny.? It turns out Johnny sees it rather brutally.

Johnny's older brothers learned their lessons well, too. In a classic study at UCLA, Malamuth and Feshback found that 51 percent of male sophomores said they would rape a woman if they knew they would never get caught. This is the legacy of moral relativism, just one generation removed.

Children at Risk, J. Dobson & Gary Bauer, Word, 1990, pp. 258-259

There was a time when most Americans respected the Bible, and could quote it with authority. In 1963, according to Gallup, 65% believed the Bible literally; today the number is only 32%.

There was a time when most Americans were familiar with biblical doctrine. You could say, "Believe in Jesus,? and at least they knew what you meant. But today most would be mystified. Newsweek tells of a child who saw a crucifix and asked, "Mommy, what's that man doing"? There was a time when most Americans accepted absolute standards. They might disagree on what those absolutes were, but they knew that some things are really right or wrong. Today 70% reject moral absolutes.

Chuck Colson, Christianity Today, November 9, 1992, p. 112

In his 1983 acceptance speech for the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn] recalled the words he heard as a child, when his elders sought to explain the ruinous upheavals in Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.? He added, "If I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, here too I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: "men have forgotten God."?

John Wilson, reviewing 'solzhenitsyn and the Modern World, in Christianity Today, Feb. 7, 1994, p. 57

Modern thinkers have rejected the very idea of objective morality: Darwin, who reduced morals to an extension of animal instincts; Freud, who regarded repression of impulses as the source of neurosis; Marx, who disdained morality as an expression of self-interest.

Charles Colson, Christianity Today, March 7, 1994, p. 80

It is no wonder that in 15 years of asking high school students throughout America whether, in an emergency situation, they would save their dog or a stranger first, most students have answered that they would not save the stranger. "I love my dog, I don't love the stranger,? they always say.

The feeling of love has supplanted God or religious principle as the moral guide for young people. What is right has been redefined in terms of what an individual feels.

Dennis Prager in Good News, July/Aug., 1993, quoted in Christianity Today, Oct 25, 1993, p. 73

Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg, a Harvard psychologist, has pinpointed six plateaus of moral development. Let's venture a guess as to where we're located.

Stage one: obedience and punishment. Right is what authorities command. The underlying motive is fear of punishment, not respect for authority or values.

Stage two: back-scratching. When people begin to seek a return for their favors. It's the "I'll-do-for-you-but-only-if-you-reciprocate? mentality. Kohlberg terms it 'the morality of the marketplace.'

Stage three: conformity. Good behavior is that which pleases or helps others, and is approved by them. The evaluations and expectations of peers are particularly strong.

Stage four: law-and-order. What is right is doing one's duty, showing respect for authority and maintaining the given social order. What the law commands transcends all other considerations.

Stage five: social contract. Right is defined in terms of the general rights of individuals, as agreed upon by the whole society (e.g., U.S. Constitution).

Stage six: universal principles. Morality is based on decisions of conscience made in accordance with self-chosen principles of 'right"?principles which are universal and consistent.

Courage: You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear, Jon Johnston, 1990, SP Publications, p. 89

In South Africa, naturist club owner Beau Brummell was irked by accusations from morals watchdogs that a shriveling Transvaal drought was brought on by the 'sin? of nude togetherness at his 1000-acre farm. So he asked his 370 visitors to get dressed. And, for the first time in two months, it poured rain. "It's enough to make me become a monk!" Brummell said.

Ingrid Norton in Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg

"I think it's fairly obvious why I was married. As strange as it may sound, I am a very moral woman. I was taught by my parents that if you fall in love, if you want to have a love affair, you get married. I guess I'm very old-fashioned.? Elizabeth Taylor after seven marriages, five divorces, in the San Francisco Chronicle

All across this country, the undermining and destruction of the values that children were taught at home is going on in public schools. One of the first things a family tries to teach its children is the difference between right and wrong. One of the first things our schools try to destroy is that distinction.

The up-to-date way to carry on the destruction of traditional values is to claim to be solving some social problem like drugs, AIDS or teen-age pregnancy. Only those few people who have the time to research what is actually being done in 'drug education,? 'sex education? or 'death education? courses know what an utter fraud these labels are.

For those are courses about how right and wrong are outmoded notions, about how your parents? ideas are no guide for you, and about how each person must start from scratch to develop his or her own way of behaving.

Thomas Sowell, Creators Syndicate, quoted in Reader's Digest, March, 1993, p. 178

One of the most famous trials in history was that of Benjamin Francois Courvoisier in London in 1840, who is now immortalized in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Courvoisier was a Swiss valet accused of slicing the throat of his elderly employer, Lord William Russell.

What made this trial notorious was the argument for the defense. The police had bungled the investigation. The evidence against Courvoisier was entirely circumstantial or had been planted. One of the officers had perjured himself, and the maid's testimony brought suspicion on herself. The defense attorney, Charles Phillips, was convinced of the innocence of Courvoisier and cross-examined witnesses aggressively.

At the beginning of the second day of the trial, however, Courvoisier confessed privately to his lawyer that he had committed the murder. When asked if he were going to plead guilty, he replied to Charles Phillips, "No, sir, I expect you to defend me to the utmost.'

Phillips was faced with a dilemma. Should he declare to the court that the man was guilty, or should he defend Courvoisier as best he could? Should he break the confidentiality of the client-lawyer relationship, or should he help a guilty man to possibly go free? Which is more important'truth or professional duty'

Phillips decided to defend the guilty man. But despite Phillips's efforts, Courvoisier was convicted. When the dilemma was later made public, Phillips's decision to defend a murderer horrified British society and brought him a great deal of criticism.

Between Two Truths: Living with Biblical Tensions, Klyne Snodgrass, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, pp. 11-12

Allan Bloom writes:

"Openness-and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings-is the great insight of our times. The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all.?

Against the Night, Charles Colson, Page 84

As Dorothy Sayers observed, "In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair " the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.?

Against the Night, Charles Colson, p. 93

Members of a 24-member United Methodist Church (UMC) panel could not agree on whether homosexuality is a sin, so the committee's 14,000-word report on the subject was referred to the denomination's national policy-making body, which will convene in Louisville, Ky., in May. The report contains a majority statement, signed by 17 committee members, recommending the removal of an assertion in the church's book of rules that homosexual practice and Christianity are incompatible. A minority report, signed by four members, argues for retaining the current language. The panel agreed that biblical references to sexual practices should not be viewed as binding "just because they are in the Bible.? Fierce debate is expected at this year's General Conference because at least 35 of the UMC's 72 regional bodies have approved resolutions calling for preserving the traditional stance.

Copyright 1992 by Media Management, P. O. Box 21433, Roanoke, VA.

I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to have a moral community or nation without faith in God, because without it everything rapidly comes down to "me,? and "me? alone is meaningless. Today Americans have stopped acting in terms of their own moral, ethical and religious beliefs and principles. They-ve stopped acting on what they knew was right-and the "me? has become the measure of everything. However, moral societies are the only ones that work. If anyone thinks there is not a direct and invaluable relationship between personal integrity in a society and that society's prosperity, that person has simply not studied history. And this should not surprise us. Great moral societies, built upon faith in God, honor, trust, and the law blossoms because they are harmonious; because people love or at least respect their fellowman; because, finally, they have a common belief in something beyond themselves. It simplifies life immensely; you do not waste and spend your days fighting for turf, for privilege, for money and power over your fellowman. Alexis de Tocqueville said it best when he realized even at the very beginning of our national life, "America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.?

Georgia Anne Geyer, Bits & Pieces, September 17, 1992, pp. 23-24

In Charles Swindoll's new book, The Quest for Character (Multnomah), 'sociologist and historian Carle Zimmerman, in his 1947 book Family and Civilization, recorded his keen observations as he compared the disintegration of various cultures with the parallel decline of family life in those cultures.

Eight specific patterns of domestic behavior typified the downward spiral of each culture Zimmerman studied:

• Marriage loses its sacredness ... is frequently broken by divorce;
• Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost;
• Feminist movements abound;
• There is increased public disrespect for parents and authority in general;
• An acceleration of juvenile delinquency, promiscuity and rebellion occurs;
• There is refusal of people with traditional marriages to accept family responsibilities;
• A growing desire for, and acceptance of, adultery is evident;
• There is increasing interest in, and spread of, sexual perversions and sex-related crimes.

Confident Living, November 1987, p. 34

Some years ago, when the news broke out that Joseph Stalin's daughter had defected from Communism and Russia, many people were startled. Her statement given to reporters who met her plane in New York, told why she defected:

"I found it impossible to exist without God in one's heart. I came to that conclusion myself, without anybody's help or preaching. That was a great change because since that moment the main dogmas of Communism lost their significance for me. I have come here to seek the self-expression that has been denied me for so long in Russia.'

That woman's struggle was a terrible one. To leave Russia, she had to leave two children in Moscow and realize that it would be, as she said, "Impossible to go back.'

Pascal said there is within every person a "God-shaped vacuum.? He's right. Historians Will and Ariel Durant observed in their summery volume, The Lessons of History, that There never has been a significant example of morality apart from belief in God.?

Morning Glory, 2-5-94

• Two-fifths of self-identified Christians say do anything you want, just don't hurt anyone. - Community Impact Seminar, Focus on the Family
• If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute. - Francis Schaeffer

What does the cheating scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy say about military honor?

Last week, Navy investigators reported that 81 midshipmen had obtained a copy of a 1992 engineering exam before exam day and that many of them then lied during an internal investigation, some to protect classmates. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage, who chaired a review of the academy's honor code, blames the widespread cheating on the Navy's emphasis on skills like technical proficiency over character development.

A 1967 Annapolis graduate, Armitage notes that one point of honor is still pounded into all midshipmen from Day 1: "Never bilge (endanger) a shipmate.? That credo cuts two ways, says James Q. Wilson, author of The Moral Sense. It explains why some midshipmen betrayed their personal honor by lying to protect their classmates; but, says Wilson, those same people will never let their buddies down during times of war. He adds, "I wouldn't worry that this indicates a decaying moral fabric of the next generation of military officers.'

U.S. News & World Report, February 7, 1994, Page 12

Lying, cheating, and stealing are becoming an "acceptable norm? among high-school and college students, says Ralph Wexler, speaking for the Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics. In a recent survey, the Institute reported that 61 percent of the high-school and 32 percent of the college students polled admitted to having cheated on an exam during the past year; 33 percent of the high-school and 16 percent of college students said they'd stolen something in the last year; and 16 percent of the high-school and 32 percent of the college students said they'd lied on a resume or job application.

National and International Religion Report, quoted in Signs of the Times, June, 1993, p. 6

The haunting story of fourteen-year-old Rod Matthews serves as a warning to a culture gone adrift. Rod was not interested in the things that normally interest teenagers. Neither sports nor books were enough to quench his insatiable boredom. Only one thing excited him: death. He spent hours watching the video Faces of Death, a collection of film clips of people dying violently. Rod's curiosity about death led him to want to see death personally, not just on the television or movie screen.

Eventually, he found a way to satisfy his curiosity. One winter afternoon he lured a friend out into the woods and proceeded to beat him to death with a baseball bat. During his trial for murder, the most telling remark was made by a child psychiatrist who was asked to give a clinical evaluation of Rod's condition. The doctor's assessment was that Rod was not insane in the conventional sense but that he simply didn't "know right from wrong....He [was] morally handicapped? (emphasis mine)...'

Mark DeVries, Family-Based Youth Ministry, (Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 1994, p. 53