Moral Ambiguity

I remember talking to my Father when I was young about knowing right from wrong.   He told me that if I wanted wisdom that I should ask God for it and he would give it to me.   This is actually from a passage in the Bible, in the book of James.   It goes something like, if you don’t have wisdom just ask God and he will give it to you.   Pretty simple.   As I child this seemed like a no brainer and so I did it.   I asked God to give me wisdom.   The strange thing is that it actually worked.  After this seminal moment, I could look at any situation and think to myself, “Is this right?” and I would know.   This was cool.    Now that I’ve got this wisdom thing down I can get on with the other stuff I need to do.  

As I’ve gotten older my ability to tell right from wrong seems to have gotten weaker.  I now get situations every day where I look at them and think, “Is this right?” and I’m not so sure.   Things are far more complicated now.   I have times where I really feel like I need to know something.   How far should I go to find out?   Is it okay to do this seemingly bad thing in order to serve the greater good?   This is probably the biggest area of moral ambiguity.   Does the end justify the means?   Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?  (sorry for Star Trek reference in what is otherwise a serious missive)   I give these issues serious thought every day and I find I’m not sure anymore what constitutes right.   

The problem is, unfortunately, that I do still know.   I would just like to believe that it’s complicated.   I would like to convince myself that my situations are so complex that I can no longer discern what is right and wrong.   The truth is that I sometimes do things that are wrong and I don’t want to admit it.   I justify it in my head.    I still know the truth; I’ve just gotten a lot better at suppressing it.

This week is going to be full of strange occurrences.     I now think that my vision has been clouded by the happenings of this week.   I fear that none of our lives will be the same by next weekend.   I’m not suggesting something apocalyptic but there will be some big happenings.   Our perspectives will change.   Watch your money, watch your children, and most importantly, watch your own actions.