A New Moral Code tagged: , ,

A New Moral Code

Posted by in News & Culture

Every year I attend at least one presentation on Counselor Ethics. The State of Oklahoma requires me to sit through three hours of continuing education specifically aimed at helping me become a more ethical person. Or at least to become an ethical-enough person who doesn’t violate our professional code of ethics. (Oklahoma’s legislators have actually incorporated the code into law; unethical behavior is also illegal behavior. Ethical used to mean adhering to a higher standard, now it is merely the lowest common denominator of acceptable behavior. But that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.)

Every time I attend an Ethics workshop I am amazed and alarmed. Amazed at how little my professional colleagues know about their own Code of Ethics; alarmed at the lack of a cohesive philosophy or critical thinking about what constitutes ethical behavior. Some try to understand and apply the law; a few think about the values that underlie their own behavior; most are merely trying to stay awake and feign an expression of interest. The idea of living a principled and examined life based on universally accepted values is simply not on their radar.

I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s the direction our culture has been headed for some time. The Barna Group recently asked a random sample of 1003 adults from across the US if they had engaged in certain behaviors in the week prior to the interview. The eight behaviors, traditionally thought of as immoral, were:

  1. exposure to pornography
  2. using profanity in public
  3. gambling
  4. gossiping
  5. engaging in sexual intercourse with someone to whom they were not married
  6. retaliating against someone
  7. getting drunk
  8. lying.

The report (Young Adults and Liberals Struggle with Morality) states:

“We are witnessing the development and acceptance of a new moral code in America,” said the researcher and author, who has been surveying national trends in faith and morality for more than a quarter-century. “Mosaics (ages 18 to 24) have had little exposure to traditional moral teaching and limited accountability for such behavior. The moral code began to disintegrate when the generation before them – the Baby Busters (ages 25 to 43) – pushed the limits that had been challenged by their parents – the Baby Boomers (ages 44 to 62). The result is that without much fanfare or visible leadership, the U.S. has created a moral system based on convenience, feelings, and selfishness.”

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not surprised when a lost world acts, well… lost. I would like, however, to make sure I (and my family and my church) am operating from a moral system based on biblical truth rather than “convenience, feelings, and selfishness”.

Believers have a moral code. When I put off the old nature (anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, and lying) and put on the new nature (compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love) then I am behaving ethically toward others.

I think the challenge is not to rail against the world, faulting them for their new moral code. The challenge is to show them how our code really is better. The key words being “better” – not merely different or traditional or “works for us”, but efficacious because it is based on universal truth – and “show”. No one will listen to a lecture on moral behavior from someone whose old nature is showing.