Nearly every evening last week, Dad, Sarah, Leah, Anna, Benjamin, and I went to a Hunter's Education Class in our county. I had not initially had much of an interest in going...10 hours of my evening-time out of the week seemed a lot. But Dad desired me to go, and so I did, wondering what exactly I could get out of the class. It ended up being great for several different reasons, not the least of which was to rumple up my romantic mind to more out-doors-ish, adventurous things! :) I actually grew interested in tracking, archery, muzzle-loading guns, and other things! Who ever would have thought that? ;) It seemed a thing more in Sarah's line of giftings. Believe me. That girl keeps me going! I am the dreamy-eyed, romantic, creative sister, and Sarah's practicality, sensibleness, and common sense, keep my feet on the ground and my head aware of what's going on in the here and now! :) Thanks Ce-Ce! :) Any-whoo! There was one part during the last night of the class that almost made me laugh out loud in pity! That sounds contradictory, but it is not! I promise! You see, it was the section on ethics, and the poor guy up front was making things terribly hard by trying to be politically correct, and stumbling all around the meaning of the word when for me, a Christian, the answer was so easy. The question: "What are ethics?" Here are several of the answers the course came up with:- "Ethics is a concept that seeks to answer questions about what is good or bad, right or wrong, and what makes up a moral system."
- "An ethic is a body of moral principles or values associated with a particular culture or group."
- "The sum of our individual ideas of what is right equals a code of ethical conduct...."
"Therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord you God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess."
I don't know who you are, but that passage clearly states that God has commanded some things right, and some things wrong. His word is very explicit in telling us His ways. So I can only laugh at how hard some people make it to define "ethics". Jesus came to teach us the Father's ways, and standards, and all someday will answer to those. I think as Christians, we sometimes take for granted how easy some decisions are. We have been told what is right, and what is wrong. The world still struggles, each person on their own, to reinvent the wheel! Basically, that hunter's course was suggesting that ethics are relativism. I recall a friend speaking of a young man she had had a conversation with. This gentleman did not believe that was a real "right and wrong". My friend asked him, okay, so how do you know what to do and not to do? The young man answered, "Well, when I do the right thing, I feel good!" (emphasis added)
One major problem with this fellow's argument- in it, he acknowledged that there was a "right thing". Poor guy! He knows deep down that there is a "right" thing, but he just makes it difficult by ignoring the fact that there is already a written "moral code" in God's word Going back to the hunter's course, another point bothered me: each culture and group has their own ethics? Doubtless they meant well, trying to merely get the idea of hunting-ethics across. But really. If in my culture, I said stealing was okay, then when I went into your culture, and you said it was wrong, you couldn't prosecute me in any way because my idea of wrong was different than yours? Oh boy. That doesn't sound like any form of "correctness". That sounds like anarchy!
So I'm sorry if this turned out to be a bit of a rambling post! I just felt that I ought to share the cool lesson I learned while attending a class that had nothing to do with it! :) -Rachel
One major problem with this fellow's argument- in it, he acknowledged that there was a "right thing". Poor guy! He knows deep down that there is a "right" thing, but he just makes it difficult by ignoring the fact that there is already a written "moral code" in God's word Going back to the hunter's course, another point bothered me: each culture and group has their own ethics? Doubtless they meant well, trying to merely get the idea of hunting-ethics across. But really. If in my culture, I said stealing was okay, then when I went into your culture, and you said it was wrong, you couldn't prosecute me in any way because my idea of wrong was different than yours? Oh boy. That doesn't sound like any form of "correctness". That sounds like anarchy!
So I'm sorry if this turned out to be a bit of a rambling post! I just felt that I ought to share the cool lesson I learned while attending a class that had nothing to do with it! :) -Rachel
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