Thought for the Week
Something has changed. For most of its first two centuries, my country benefited from a unifying code of values. Most married couples stayed together because it was the right thing to do. Most adults strove to make an honorable living and model moral-social responsibility to their children because it was the right thing. I lived in an agnostic home; my parents didn’t consciously adhere to the religious values our culture was built upon. Nevertheless, they lived by them, because it was the right thing to do.
Did people consistently live that way? No. My father had too much to drink one night and struck my mother. She fled to her parent’s house. Deeply ashamed, Dad begged her to come home, promising never to get drunk or hit her again. And he never did. My pal Rick’s mother banged on our door one day, accusing Mom of having an affair with her husband. The woman was wrong; her husband was having an affair with the woman next door. Shameful things happened. But breaking vows and wounding others was wrong, so neighbors counselled the adulterous couple to stop. And they did.
Were wrongs sometimes overlooked? Yes. Minority rights were shamefully ignored during that era. But they were eventually addressed, and are still being addressed. Because moral-ethical practices always need addressing. Always.
But there was a difference: The culture then believed in tolerance, not pluralism. Tolerance says, “This is the right thing, but that will be tolerated.” Moral pluralism (which has been in the process of displacing tolerance for the last half century), says, “There is no ‘right thing,’ therefore all things must be tolerated.” (“Who are we to say others should not cheat on their spouses? Perhaps they live by a different-but-equally-valid standard.”)
When ancient Rome abandoned its longstanding moral-ethical code (based on the teachings of the Greek philosophers), it started down the path of cultural disintegration. Practices that would formerly have been unthinkable were now commonplace: the violent rape, torture and murder of prisoners in public stadia became the dominant form of mass entertainment under a system of pluralistic values.
Our culture is following the same template. It’s doubtful we can alter the de-civilizing of modern culture merely by legislation. But we can do what a small group of followers of a rabbi named Yeshua did in a remote outpost of the morally disintegrating Roman empire. We can demonstrate the alternative: an active love that dares to counsel and model, for those who have lost their way or never knew it…
The right thing.
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching, by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into the image of Christ himself.”
~Ephesians 4:14-15
Wow! I am the first one to comment. I feel special. LOL! As ususal, this post was so well said!! You summed up what we as Christians should be doing. Demonstrating an active love! Thanks for the post!
If enough of us would demonstarte an active love , it would do far more than any legislation can do. Legislation doesn’t change hearts, it only makes laws. We have the power to change hearts when we share God’s love and when hearts change, the world changes.
Amen, Carolyn.
Oh, a big amen to this, Mitch! We need to “do the right thing,” like being kind. There’s really no rational, scientific, evidence based reason for such things. It’s just “right” to do our best to be kind.
It’s so very true! I’m somewhat ostracized by “doing the right thing”. Needless to say, some coworkers call me antisocial because I don’t go along with the program. It just tells me something about their true character….
Hitting hard with this post, but I agree.
Well said, Mitch. Have you read Tom Holland’s “Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World” by chance? It’s amazing how much of what we regard today as “right” and “tolerance” itself was a revolutionary concept until Christianity began spreading throughout the Roman Empire and the world.
No, I haven’t, Dora, but I’ve heard of it. I’ll have to check it out.
Just ordered a copy.
Excellent information and thoughts… “speaking the truth in love!” May this be the code I live by! Truth without love tends to become legalistic, love without truth tends to become liberal… Together they truly ‘liberate’ us from the Law and manmade rules, to live by the Spirit of Truth AND Love, both found in Christ alone. As always, very thought provoking! You tend to do that… Thank you, Mitch! 😊
My privilege, Dori, and amen to your thoughtful comments as well.
A very needed message, Mitch.
I think it’s all too easy to view the collapse of past civilizations as to distant and dramatic to be reenacted today, which mentality only increases the chance that we will ignore the warning signs and go headlong back over the cliff!
Tragically true, Abe!
Amen! Thank you for sharing this, Mitch. Hope endures! ~Ed.
It does indeed, Ed!
Thank you for this.
Without the love of Jesus in our hearts, we cannot change anyone. Believers in Jesus will change society, when they share the love of God. We do what is right because we are transformed from the inside, out. Others will live this way, because it is right and things go much better for others, delivers in Jesus or not. Believers act as salt to society.
While I am sympathize with the perspective, I think this is an overly simplistic reading of history. Rome was not exactly founded on family values:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Sabine_Women
Rome (and frankly, America) was founded on partriarchy and shame. Both are wonderful tools for enforcing social compliance, and have many benefits. But they are also toxic. The very tools that pushed people (in many good ways) to live up to a particular moral code also excused and silenced horrific abuse and injustice by those in power.
That said, I am in agreement with your larger point. Religion and rules (#Law) can help preserve a society, but ultimately the contradictions within them will destroy it. The only way out, to be blunt, is a cross. Where we no longer depend on an outside-in legalistic framework to push us to do the right thing (at the cost of overlooking many wrong things), but a profound experience of being deeply loved by our creator that pulls us inside-out into healthier relationship… #Grace
Thank for your thoughtful obsevations, Dr. Ernie.
You continue to hit nails on their heads, Mitch, in your writing and your living. If we could all do the same thing, imagine what we might build!♥️✝️
Thank you, Gail. (I am very much a work in progress, btw.)
Aren’t we all (works in progress)?
Mitch,
Jesus is the only anchor or the soul. Right and wrong is so messed up. Will our country make it through? I don’t know. But Believers will. Thank you, Gary
Gary Avants Forbear Productions * *garyavants66@gmail.com garyavants66@gmail.com
Packed a punch for how much things have changed.
Active love…in the face of the de-civilization of modern culture. I’m with you all the way, Mitch. Thank you. 💕
My privilege, Vicki.
🤗
Amen, brother.
You’ve laid out the blue prints for restoring our foundation so hopefully, we can save our old home…I don’t like the new one some want to build.
Situational Ethics – first taught by an Episcopal Priest, I believe…
Situational ethics certainly qualifies as a subset of moral pluralism. Sounds like you’re thinking of Joseph Fletcher.
Situation ethics was most famously championed by Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991). He believed that we should follow the rules until we need to break them for reasons of love. It is based on agape love (Christian unconditional love), and says that we should always do the most loving thing in any situation.
Situational Ethics will anagram to the following:
I US chattelisation
IE Satanic lout shit
AI Stalinist touche
AI lot unchastities
atheist lunatic OSI
that is a licentious
All of which indicate the problems with Situational Ethics.
Agreed-we each must be a beacon of His light. 🙂
Amen. 🙌
Great message Mitch.
Amen!
Praise God He changes our hearts and helps us to except correction.
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philippians 1:6
Thanks for your well-worded insights into what is happening in our world today. As Joy so aptly commented, I don’t think I like the new home others are trying to build for us today either.
I would like to share a short excerpt from one of my books on prayer. It follows a short prayer asking the Lord to change me into the likeness of Jesus. It starts out with humility, coming down from our high horse, so to speak, to our knees so we can be changed in order to make a difference.
Change my altitude and my attitudes will change.
Change my attitudes and my motives will change.
Change my motives and my thoughts will change.
Change my thoughts and my words will change.
Change my words and my actions will change.
Change my actions and my life will change.
Change my life and my world will change.
Change my world and the lives of others will change.
Change the lives of others and the world at large will change.
There is a process we all have to go through to get to the place where our lives are a real and positive influence on those around us. When we begin to live out this process, allow the Lord to change us, then we will see changes all around us. If all Christians yielded themselves to this process, imagine what the new house might look like! A heavenly mansion.
So very true, so very scary of how bad it will be before we get called home.
Thank you, Mitch for a very thought provoking post. And thank you to those who have commented in the conversation. This conversation has led me to introspection of my own history, what I have considered right vs. wrong, moral vs. immoral, how these concepts have changed through out my life and history. Also, how have I actually lived based on my own concepts? What can I say other than, introspection is good for the soul.
I do not understand how we’ve managed to ignore or even condone such characterological failings, but I guess it isn’t new…“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
The perfect quote, Rita.
It’s been a while since I’ve visited. Crazy times in my world, but I love your insight and the way you write, sir. Thank you for being a conduit of the love and light of our Savior.
Aw, thank you, Linda.
Good word, Mitch.
Thanks, Steven.
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Welcome on my blog chapitrelumiere.wordpress.com if you are interested in light subject!
Yes, it seems that in the quest to free ourselves from outdated restrictions, we’ve thrown out all moral values as well. By trying to accept everything, we’ve ended up accepting and expecting nothing. We’ve been trained to believe that morals mean following unnatural restrictions, when in truth, morals are how we value one another. Well said, Mitch!
Good stuff, Mitch, especially in regard to what happened to the Roman empire. I wonder if that will happen to the U.S. Regardless, as you alluded to, we who are believers can and should live out love in both word and deed.
Beautifully written and well stated! I was not raised in a religious home either, but choosing the right thing was encouraged and expected. Thanks for sharing!
My privilege, Peggy.
Well said, my friend.
And entirely too true….
i’ve learned His true (dual names) Yahweh Yahuwshua.
Yeshua is a “near miss” and “Jesus” is not even close.
i only sometimes tell you, but i Always appreciate your words.
Thanks for doing what you do.
Hear, hear!