Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-122

ETHICS (2)

From ‘Sunrise Sunset’ (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco), Rowland Croucher’s book of daily meditations. Feel free to use or adapt it.

Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. Romans 14:22.

Ethics and morality, we noted [yesterday], is all about what is right and wrong. Some very big questions face us these days.

Should we give land – and more – back to aboriginal peoples? Should animals be cooped up in farm factories? Should it be a criminal offence for a building worker to ‘wolf-whistle’ a pretty woman? Is active euthanasia OK? How are we to frame a new ecological ethic? Should whales be harvested? Should a CEO be paid $1million with so many unemployed? What can we do about the immorality of unemployment? Is ‘sexual outercourse’ fornication, as well as ‘sexual intercourse’? What, specifically, is lust in marriage? What can we do about racism? Why are there sometimes vast reserves of grain in so-called Christian countries with hundreds of millions elsewhere starving?

Think about these things. Be part of a ‘passionate’ secular and church society concerned that right prevail. Research one ethical issue, write to the papers about it. Change something for the better. Be useful as well as decorative during your short stay on the planet!

Lord, who taught us that we should aim to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect, please guide me through the morass of complex issues like these. And when I arrive at the conviction that a wrong can be righted, that an evil can be stopped, give me the courage to do something about it. Amen.