Lost Moral Bearing

We as a nation seem to have lost our moral bearing. At best we no longer know which way is north and at worst we have decided that north is which ever way we want it to be. If things do not change soon we will collapse as a nation from interal rot rather than any external sources. At this rate the Islamic extremists that want to destroy us because of our unbelief and loose morals only need to sit back and watch us crumble. I had not planned on commenting on the Penn State issue again. I figured my two posts yesterday were enough. But then I heard about the threats against coach Mike McQueary. Apparently the threats are serious enough to prevent him from coaching in Saturday's Penn State game.

When I first heard the story I had no idea who Mike McQueary was. Turns out he is the witness. When he was a graduate assistant he saw Jerry Sandusky sodomizing a 10 year old boy in the showers at the Penn State football facility. He told Coach Joe Paterno who in turn told Athletic Director Timothy Curley. At that point the matter was "handled" internally and no one thought that it might be a good idea to contact the police. And this includes McQueary. And while this is extremely disturbing what I find even more so is the reaction by some people in this case.

While I do not know of the nature of these threats I am having a hard time believing that the threats are over the fact that McQueary failed to report the abuse in 2002. In light of the students rioting over the firing of Joe Paterno I am making an educated guess that the threats are because people are angry at McQueary for ruining the reputation of Paterno and seriously damaging the Penn State football program.

Let's be very clear here. Mike McQueary did not damage either Joe Paterno's reputation or the Penn State football program. Jerry Sandusky did not do these things either. Sandusky wasn't even on the football staff at the time.

Joe Paterno ruined Joe Paterno's reputation.

For all the good that he has done in running a clean football program from an NCAA rule standpoint, this one incident far and away exceeds all of that good. I would argue that Paterno didn't just cover up for a pedophile. I would also argue that he didn't just enable a pedophile. Rather Paterno in his decision to in effect turn a blind eye actually encouraged Jerry Sandusky to continue his behavior...just not on Penn State property.

Everyone that is saddened by the fact that Joe Paterno was forced out and not allowed to finish out the football season needs to take a very long and serious look at their moral compass. What we should be saddened by is the fact that Joe Paterno knew about a young boy being raped and basically did nothing about it.

Accountability and Judging Others

I can be a very impatient person. Unfortunately my impatience can get me into trouble and this past week was a good example. I ended up doing something that I should not have done. When I mentioned what I had done, a friend of mine immediately busted me. It didn't take much. There is a saying that “a word to the wise is sufficient.” He merely reminded me that what I had done was wrong.

Admitting that I have done something wrong can sometimes be very difficult. And sometimes the hardest person to admit it to is myself. (It's my Superlative-Self at its worst.) In this instance a fellow Christian held me accountable and I think that as Christians we sometimes fall down in this area. Far too often we want to sugarcoat sin and wrong doing. We do this through not admitting that even the smallest little thing that seems fairly inconsequential is still a major thing in God’s eyes. We also do this by saying that “we are all sinners and we all do things wrong” in such a way that minimizes the impact of any individual sin.

In this instance the system of accountability that God wants us to exhibit worked well. Unfortunately I don’t always see this happening on a large enough scale. Part of becoming a Christian means that we are to obey all of Christ’s commands which includes submitting ourselves to correction by fellow Christians. Jesus warned us to “Judge not, that you be not judged” which really seems to tell us the opposite of holding one another accountable. If we are not to judge then how are we to hold one another accountable?

But this interpretation is taking Matthew 7:1 out of context. Reading the full context of Matthew 7:1-5, we see that what Christ is warning us against is hypocritical judgment. In this particular case it would be as if I were trying to hold someone accountable but not allowing that person to hold me accountable for the same exact behavior. Jesus gives us some guidelines in Matthew 18:15-17 on how to handle corrections within the church. My friend followed these guidelines and directly called me out. I immediately saw where I was wrong and I took steps to correct my behavior. It is how accountability is supposed to work. We shouldn’t just welcome someone holding us accountable, we should expect it.

Can Non-Christians be Moral?

Can an Atheist or a Buddhist or a Muslim be a moral person? Do Christians have a monopoly on being moral? Are Christians more moral than people of other faith (or non-faith) beliefs?

There is quite the debate between Atheists and Theists over morality and how it is grounded. I do not mean to rehash those arguments. Rather, the idea that I would like to explore is if, as Christians, we believe that ultimately right and wrong comes from God then can those that do not believe in God be considered moral people? We need to start by defining our terms. The two that are important for this discussion are sin and morality.

Sin is when we do things against God’s Law. But there is more to it than that. Both the New Testament and the Old Testament convey the idea that sin is like missing the bulls-eye. Sin is what has lead to the corruption of our very nature and separates us from God. While sin may have entered the world through Adam and Eve, we are responsible for our own sins.

I find it helpful to imagine a glass of water and a vial of extremely strong poison. The poison is so powerful that a single drop in the water is enough to cause death. The water is considered corrupt as soon as that drop is added. Now that glass of water misses the bulls-eye of being pure water. In the same way, as soon as we commit a single sin we are no longer considered pure.

Morality is holding to what is right and wrong. It means following the rules. It can pertain to following the “religious” rules of Christianity as well as to the “societal” rules. If we take the Ten Commandments as a quick example we can see that the first 4 commandments pertain to the “religious” aspect of Christianity (and Judaism) and the last 6 pertain to “society” as a whole. As a matter of fact all societies regardless of their basis will usually contain laws regarding murder, stealing and bearing false witness. In those societies people who follow the rules are considered moral and those that consistently do not are considered immoral.

Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims and any other non-Christian can be moral people. In the way that we usually use the term morality, being a moral person does not require one to have a certain belief in God. Christians are not more moral simply because they are Christians. Christians are not even moral simply because they are Christians. And that is important for all Christians to remember – we are only moral when we are following the rules.

So how do we as Christians make sense of someone that does not believe in God, the ultimate source of what is right, being able to be a moral person?

The first thing that we need to remember is that from God’s perspective a single sin causes us to be corrupt. That glass of water with the single drop of poison causes the water to be immoral in terms of being pure water. We are the same way. We are all, from God’s perspective, immoral. We normally think of someone as being moral in terms of our standards. It is understandable for us to think this way in order to have a functioning society but we all fall short of perfection.

The next thing that we need to remember is that God has placed his law in every person’s heart. We as Christians believe that Atheists can be moral because they – by the very nature of being human – have the basic laws of right and wrong within them. It doesn’t matter why they think they are moral. So remember that whenever – as Christians – we are dealing with someone with different beliefs. They can be just as or even more moral than we are. And this means that we as Christians need to do a better job of being moral.