Friday, October 9, 2020
Most of us make at least one or two – possibly more – moral judgments every day. They include everything from not eating meat, buying only a particular kind of coffee (organic, shade-grown), to not buying shoes made in China (you have to look inside the shoe). These private moral choices really don’t affect people who eat meat, buy whatever coffee, and don’t care where their shoes are made.
However, when our moral choices become issues of public policy, then not only do they affect people but we become distanced from people who don’t share our perspective. In fact, we often think of them as enemies, destroyers of our own moral compass.
There are certain lines that cannot be crossed, those that diminish the value of other human beings. And there are persons who use the language of approbation and hate to encourage actions that are beyond the pale. As people of faith, we need to find ways to counter the narrowness of political discourse that can destroy our Nation and society.
Prayer for the Day
Everloving God, whose care extends beyond all boundaries,
May we crumble our walls of exclusion and fear
So we include all peoples as part of the human family.
Help us to open our hearts in the hospitality you offer us
Enabling all to make their home in you.
May we have the grace to admit a fault, change an opinion.
We ask this in the name of him who cared for all,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Because power corrupts, society’s demand for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
John Adams, Second President of the United States (1735–1826)
Powerlessness and silence go together. We . . . should use our privileged positions not as a shelter from the world's reality, but as a platform from which to speak. A voice is a gift. It should be cherished and used.
Margaret Atwood, Canadian novelist
Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Psalm 90:1–2