Shifting Morality

The shifting morality of our times and throughout society has left me, frequently, feeling very unsettled.    I've been thinking more and more of what I can do to change my life and sustain a positive outlook.  It isn't easy.  

Tonight was a good case in point.  I went to a training meeting for booth work at our upcoming county fair and after the business part of the meeting was complete, the floor was opened for questions.  From there, the conversation spun off in a direction unrelated to the purpose of the meeting and I felt myself become more and more anxious about the world I live in.  

I left the meeting early, with a friend, and felt so upset and overloaded that all I wanted was to hug my grandsons or have a really big piece of cake.  Loving on the grands would have been positive but my Parking Lot Angel didn't come through and I ended up going for Plan B.  This was not positive; all it did was help me stuff down my feelings and reinforce a bad coping mechanism. 

We suffer from myriad afflictions in our world today:  The decline of community; the rise of individualism; consumerism; falling values; family breakdown; youth crime; drugs and alcohol abuse; poverty; immigration and racism; and crime.  Our modern-day sins are so common as to go almost unnoticed because, after all, “everyone” is doing it. 

Have you ever been the recipient of a threatening email, perhaps an email that even threatened death?

Have you ever been sued because someone saw you as having deep pockets?  Have YOU ever sued someone for that reason?

Have you ever passed on a lie that you knew was a lie, about a political opponent or perhaps about someone you perceived was standing in the way of your advancement?

Have you ever posted someone's phone number or address online in an effort to intimidate him or worse yet, in hopes that someone will try to hurt him?  Has it happened to you?  Do you know someone who has been harassed in that way?

How common it is, now, to earmark a bill in order to enrich friends, family, or self?  How even more common is it, now, for people to shrug and honestly believe there is no way to stop it, to hold politicians accountable?

Do you laugh when some witty comedian tells a joke about how dumb people are for doing the right thing?  Do you laugh at crude humor and not recognize real humor when it’s in front of you?  Still worse, does humor even exist anymore?  After all, people are always either taking offense or fearing to give offense.

Have you tried to convince someone to do something that's immoral, unethical, or just plain old wrong so that you'll feel better about doing it yourself?

Have you church-shopped for a pastor who waters down his Christian beliefs because Christianity often conflicts with political correctness?

Do you support the right of choice to abortion and refuse to acknowledge that in becoming pregnant, you have already made a choice, a choice that resulted in a child that is viewed now as an inconvenience, not a living being?

Have you disrespected the sanctity of marriage?

Are you an atheist trying to ruin other people's faith in God to make yourself feel better about your own unbelief?

Have you mocked someone whose politics you disagree with?

Have you knowingly accused an innocent person of racism?

I read these and I realize that I haven't even touched on war, famine, exploitation of 3rd world countries, and the neo-colonialism of attempting to impose 21st-century Western morality onto these societies.  I read these and find that more and more I withdraw from the world.  First I got rid of TV, then I left Public Radio.  Now I'm starting to moderate my relationship to Facebook.  I'm starting, as I write this, to narrow my reading, what I expose myself to, and also what I post.

I'm not putting my head in the sand.  I'm not entering a cloister but I AM building a fortress.  The fear and vulnerability I feel interfere with my relationship with God.  My prayer life suffers.  My ability to see the good in the world suffers.  How can God ask us to love the unlovable?  And yet He does. 

In one of the hardest scriptural passages to accept, we read in 1 Corinthians 13 that believers are to love the unlovable. We are to love people who do not appreciate our love, do not reciprocate in kind, are demanding, and think of themselves as entitled.

One of the true tests of one’s Faith is to love the unlovable.  After all, it’s easy to love likable people..  How much more deeply would we understand what God is calling us to do if we could offer love to anyone without reservation?  As a parent, we give unconditional love to our children.  God loves us unconditionally and He asks us to do the same for all of His children.  After all, they are our sisters and brothers.  It may be hard to recognize them as such, but God never said our way would be easy.