Ethics Class

I took a lot of notes during the ethics section of my leadership course. I think in order to really deal well with ethics I might need to take some college courses. This is some hard stuff. I’ll try to keep it as clear as possible.

The book assigned in the class is “How Good People Make Tough Choices,” by Rushworth M. Kidder. Kidder is the founder of the Institute for Global Ethics.

Defining ethics is a big problem. Kidder’s organization says that Ethics can’t be a precisely defined term and essentially means study of what is right or good.

I have read through most of the book, and participated in the four-hour seminar concerning ethics in the class. My first hesitancy about the whole mess is the premise we started with: Just about all people have a common set of values (or morals), which guide our formulation of ethics. I hope to discuss this in contrast with Christian perspective without going into huge detail.

The title of the book is hard to swallow. People are not good. At least in my experience. The Bible says the same thing. We are corrupted, and therefore can’t be good in any fashion. But that doesn’t condemn the whole book immediately. It is possible for a sinner to do good (something that serves God’s will in a positive way). This is not to say that a sinner can actually do things for God, only that it good can come out of an action committed by a sinner.

Worst of all is that throughout the course we were taught to assume that people know what is good and right. C.S. Lewis claimed something similar, that we all have that spark of the Divine in us that gives us a standard by which we know the difference. That’s fine, but does the existence of this pretty much instinctual knowledge do any good? What is good?

All people are selfish. They act in their own self interest. I know this is true for me. Good for one person is not necessarily good for another. When I do good on my own I am serving myself in some fashion. It is clear in the passages of I John that if I’m not Christian, I’m not going to love my neighbor in the Biblical sense. I may help someone, but there is something in it for me, or I’m not thinking at all. That’s the way I understand a sinner’s good works.

Only with Christ in my life, me being guided by the Holy Spirit, with a goal of glorifying God will my actions be good. Is that not what comes out of I John? Good, defined by the Bible is doing God’s will. If I do the will of God I will live forever (I John 2:17) — So by tearing this verse apart to if-then statements, is there any way the unsaved do God’s will? They can’t.

Also, maybe more clearly, according to Romans 3:10-18:

“As it is written:

There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands;

They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit;

The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways;

And the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

There is no clearer statement that people do not have the ability to do good. So I could chuck this whole discussion right now.

Christians, however, do have to deal with the world’s ethics systems. To do this we must first be fully aware that the ethics or morals of the world are skewed from the beginning. They are twisted in sin.

Let me stop here and be nice: The class got a few neat things right at least on face value.

1. When we justify our actions we are trying to make ourselves feel better for doing something wrong. This is compensation for sin. Christians do this too (I’m a pro at it).
2. We cannot change someone else’s values. Spot on. Only God can do that. It’s depressing, but a very essential fact that Christians (especially a Christian in a leadership position in or outside the church) must absolutely understand. I can’t make someone who works for me change their value system to comply with mine.
3. Everyone will agree on a moral standard (honesty, loyalty, freedom etc.), but they differ increasingly as goals, plans and tactics of achieving the standard are developed. The model we used in class was Honesty: Everybody votes for Honesty in school. Everybody votes that curbing cheating in schools is a great goal to build honesty. 1/4 of the class agreed with putting web cams in all classrooms to find cheating. 1 person agreed with awarding “CHEATER” teeshirts to people caught cheating on web cam.
4. Bad ethical practices in little things will impair our judgment in big ethical issues.

That was about it for the positive statements I could make out. The negatives were horribly far off in some places.

One value that apparently the Whole World agrees upon in this idea of global agreement is that of tolerance. I have a major problem with the term, tolerance, as it seems to be used today. Judgment of others is not permitted today in the name of tolerance (AKA diversity, acceptance, you name it). I firmly stand on the belief that this is the main source of the collapse of what passes for morality in our culture (yes, sin is the overall source. I’m speaking on specifics here-and-now). Tolerance is the active refusal to judge someone’s behavior. No one wants to make an evaluation on what is right or wrong beyond their own personal behavior.

I will claim that the opposite is true and that we must render a determination on the right or wrongness of another’s actions whenever that action intersects with our own. Does that make sense? What I see (countenance) and that with which I must interact both demand my judgment (Biblical Discernment). Romans 12:9:

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.”

So, that being said, what in the world do I do when I encounter a wrong action in my presence, whether it directly affects me or not? Based on that verse just above, it affects me. It doesn’t take much exertion to figure out that abhorring evil is not specific to evil that doesn’t appear to affect me. Evil does, by the way affect me whether it’s directly impacting my current activity or not. Ephesians chapter 5 deals with our association with evil. Now, what do I do specifically about the evil? That is determined by the Bible. Once again, looking at the overall idea here, both my ability to act and my ability to discern are flawed. The only guidance I have, and my sole frame of reference, is the Word of God.

I’m sure this is all disjointed and maybe I can come back and clean it up at some point. I wanted to get the thoughts out while they were fresh.

I’ll leave you with this:

• Society does not determine what is right. Society decides what it wants.
• We do not decide what is right. We decide what we want.
• Only God decides what is right. He already has.
• God has told us what is right. We do what He wants.
• Our Code of Ethics is pleasing God, glorifying Him in our thoughts, deeds and very lives.

2 Corinthians 5:18:

“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,”

2 Timothy 4:18:

“And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”