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| The Global Freedom Institute |
| American Society: A need for Ethics. With the religious infighting among different groups, how much do they really have in common? Besides the similarity if the origins of them, which does not prove useful here, there are basic tenants of these religions that could greatly improve our society. Three basic, universal tenants to every major religion and moral system in America, and even the world, deal with the concepts of honesty, nonviolence, and respect for self and others. When one thinks about honesty, one must try to be honest and tell the truth. The questions arise when one asks, �what is the truth?� Part of honesty and truth telling is a willingness to search for the truth. If a democrat, for example, were to still say �Bill Clinton did not lie� today, they would not be fulfilling this obligation of searching for the truth. Especially considering that Bill Clinton has admitted wrong doing. Following the party line is not searching for the truth. Distributing the party line for political gain or damage control is also not searching for the truth or telling the truth. Expecting this of others, political figures, and most importantly, of yourself, is a necessary first step to creating a universal ethic that has common ground. Government has found many reasons to make new laws that border on, if not directly do, take away American freedoms in the name of American safety. Some have claimed that these problems are due to a lack of morality in America. Others claim it is a lack of respect for the rights of others. There are many groups that claim various reasons. The problem is multifold, in that, they either misidentify the problem, put a �band aid� piece of legislation over it to deal with the symptoms, or they create some overarching grand plan that the government must enact for Americans. The problem is complex and one that any one study would find near impossible to deal with. Do Americans seem to have less respect for others? Yes. Do Americans have differences in levels of �morality?� Yes. Must the government act to solve this problem? Yes and no. Will the current solutions solve the problem? No. There are clear indicators that America is having problems dealing with the ideas of morality. Listen to people daily during the elections. If one said �Gore lied�, there was another to say �Bush lied.� If you listened closely, you noticed that one was a response to the other. Republicans rarely said �Bush did not lie� and democrats followed suit. That is not to imply that one came before the other in starting the battle of lies, but to point to the idea that both parties participated in this behavior. Violence still continues to plague our nightly news. Gangs still continue to plague our cities. Phrases such as �road rage� are finding their way into our daily vocabulary. When thinking about it, is there really anything, short of being violent, that really deserves a violent response while driving on a freeway? Our society is full of morality in theory, but seemingly short of morality in practice. One need only look at society to see the claims of morality in our society. They range from Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Billy Graham, Jerry Fallwell, the Christian Coalition, and the recently hypocritical Reverend Jesse Jackson, to name but a few. Many of the civil rights movements have come out of Black Churches. The Jewish are considered more of a political group, even a racial group, more than a religion in the way the term is used in society. The Buddhist movement has gained support in America with the influx of Asians. Hispanics tend to be Catholics. The Mormon community has its own University, and seemingly has missionaries everywhere. And so on. With all that religion, how can there be a shortage of �morality� in America? How can America have so many problems that come down to a lack of honesty, respect, and that promotes such violence? Even at a time where religion has gained strength due to the end of the millennium, where politicians have tried to put the ten commandments back into schools, where morality has been openly claimed as missing in America, we still elect a president that is questionable to replace another president of questionable morality. George W. Bush has allegedly been a �party boy� who may or may not have done cocaine. He has been charged with covering up a DUI, covering up a possible AWOL by having his military records altered. Not the person one would expect people to vote in to office following the reaction to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was plagued with scandal after scandal, allegedly doing everything from dodging a draft, to doing cocaine, to raping Juanita Broderick, to perjuring himself in front of a grand jury. Is the solution some grand plan by our government? No. The solution is one of individuals taking charge of their lives in a positive manner. In America, where the Supreme Court has decided that religion and state should remain separate, as the First Amendment dictates, the state is not the solution. What can the government do? Can it legislate the morality of individuals? No. It tries to do so with its legislation of certain crimes that have no foundations in constitutional law or common sense. These attempts have failed. Morality has become a demonized term in American society. When one begins to talk about morality, others seem to see it as a way of dictating the morals of one person on another, thus infringing upon their constitutional rights to freedom of religion. With the arguments that people seem to make and the methods of argumentation they seem to use, this is not far off of base. Rather than trying to force one religious or moral vision over another, maybe we ought to be searching for commonality among those religions or systems of morality. If one were to stick to the basic tenants of many of the moral systems they claim to believe in, amazingly, many of these problems would disappear. 1 2 3 |
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