Part 2: What is Moral Today?
Before one can determine what Christians and congregations can say, one must determine three things: 1) What is the moral code of conduct for Christians and 2) What is “normative” or conduct considered moral for the majority of people in the U.S. today and 3) What is the conduct that considered immoral by Christians, but considered moral by the majority of people in the U.S. Another question that needs to be answered is the difference between ethics and morality.
Let’s take the last question first. Ethics are “the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group or culture.” Something is ethical “because society says it is the right thing to do.” Morals are “principles or habits with respect to right or wrong conduct. While morals also prescribe dos and don’ts, morality is ultimately a personal compass of right and wrong.”[i] In today’s world something is moral to a person because to him it is right thing to do.
What morals today are “normative?” . It is instructive to initially define something moral as the opposite of immoral. Since no one agrees 100% on anything, for our purposes, let’s define “normative” as those that agree on 60%% on what is moral i.e. only 40% think it is immoral. Gallops Annual Values and Beliefs for 2023 is Figure 1 [ii] By this criterion only pornography, suicide, cloning humans, and those married having an affair are immoral acts. Others acts considered generally wrong are certain illegal acts like murder, rape, fraud, thief, and particular acts of lying.
The question becomes: “What makes people think an actions is morally wrong?” You might assume all Christians use the bible as their guideline, but not all do. What, then, is used to determine moral actions? Harm-based monists think that people see actions as morally wrong when they cause someone harm—in the sense of causing pain or suffering. Actual testing of this theory shows that other factors are more important. The following Figure 2 illustrates this fact. Injustice is the most prominent factor people use. Much of the divisiveness between groups stem from this fact. There will be more on fundamental ideals of morality in Part 3.[iii]…
[i] Ethics vs Morals – Difference and Comparison | Diffen
[ii] Fewer in U.S. Say Same-Sex Relations Morally Acceptable (gallup.com)
[iii] What Makes People Think That an Action is Morally Wrong? | SPSP
