Friday, February 4, 2011
Homework and Morality
Just knocked out my Christian Education class and some Modern Church History. Looking at morality and how it might relate to Education in my Christian Ed lesson for this week. Many of the people in the text had morality all wrong. Morality isn't governed by what we do, it is what it is, God's Law. Moral law is prescriptive, meaning its how we should live, it isn't necessarily descriptive, meaning how we live. Moral law is not determined by the community nor is it by society, it is ingrained to the very fabric of who we are. It is why in every culture around the globe whether you know God or not that things like stealing, murder, and rape are considered immoral and illegal. One guy would use moral dilemmas to determine morality, for instance: "Suppose you lived in Europe during World War II. You are hiding Jews and Nazis come to your door and ask if there are any Jews in the house. Would you lie or would you tell the truth?" Or "A man's wife has terminal cancer, another man develops a cure just for that particular type of cancer and charges $2000 dollars for it. The 1st man doesn't have the money, he borrows as much as he can get from towns folk but i is only $1000. He pleas with the second but the second man won't budge. So, the 1st man breaks in and steals the cure and saves his wife's life." Which man committed an immoral act? So what do you think? Does the ends in these two stories justify the means? Is lying in circumstance #1 morally acceptable? Is stealing in circumstance #2 morally acceptable? Let me know what you think.
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Scott, you raise a couple of very good questions! Morally, lying and stealing are clearly violations of God's law. The Bible also states that God's ways are not our ways, so as humans I think we tend to look at things a little differently! Rahab lied to hide some men and was later considered to be of great faith. I guess my point is that God asks us to do things in our lives. When He asks, we must obey. We might choose the improper or immoral way of doing those things, but God can still use our shortcomings for His glory!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim! Rahab did lie but Rahab's lie did not set the standard of morality. Which is what these guys propose and the point of their dilemmas.
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