Morals can be a fickle thing nowadays, especially when lines
are being blurred by the media. Moral
Issues and Christian Responses tries to tackle the way we respond to
morals, especially with regard to violence, media influences, consumerism, celebrity
worship (the new idolatry) and countless others. Patricia and Shannon Jung have
written this book so that we can discuss two modern dilemmas. The first one is the
media, which influences us, and the second one is violence, which tests our
ability to forgive.
Forgiveness gets a
full chapter in this book, with special regard to the Nickel Mines school
massacre. For those of you that don’t recall, a non-Amish man took a school
hostage, killed several Amish children, and then killed himself. The
astonishing result was that the Amish community was quick to make their peace with
the killer’s widow and parents. It was something the Amish had been taught all
their lives, to forgive and move on, never letting grudges or anger get in the
way of their lives. Perhaps their willingness to forgive other is one of the
reasons for their success as a community? However, a spokesman for the Amish said
that they would not have asked for leniency had the killer lived. It would have
been necessary, in their view, to confine him so that he couldn’t kill again.
The Jungs are not unsympathetic
to people who are angry for having been wronged. They give an example of a
worker who want a promotion, and goes out of his way to defame another in order
to get it. They use the term “reasonable blame” when referring to an act that
was deliberate and that the transgressor knew was wrong. Primo Levi and Simon
Weisenthal are an example; both are Holocaust survivors who’ve written books
about their lives, and they have not been lenient in forgiveness. Unlike the
Amish at Nickel Mines, they expected transgressors to understand their errors before
asking for forgiveness.
One of the issues
discussed later in the book is rape. The chapter begins unusually, with a letter
to Dear Abby from 1995, complaining about a friend who’s charged with the rape
of a girlfriend. The writer of this letter doesn’t deny anything; he admits the
events happen as the accuser says. His complaint is that they’d had sex before,
and this time round he wouldn’t hear the word “no,” and because the woman was
no longer a virgin it shouldn’t be considered rape. But I have to ask myself,
would he want this man around his wife and kids? What if it were his daughter
that had been raped? In terms of morals, should we be forgiving and
non-judgmental if our friend harms others and not us? How would we feel if we
were the victims?
The chapter Sexual Ethics continues to discuss this,
with regard to sex trafficking and how faith-based organizations deal with the
problem. There are shelters, hotlines, and counseling services, all badly
needed because the victims may be reluctant to go to the authorities. The women
may be afraid of being prosecuted for prostitution, though in reality, it’s not
prostitution at all. Under most state laws, a minor is incapable of giving
consent in a sex case, so she can’t consent to exchanging sexual favors for
money. Without much help from the government, at least the religious charities
are striving to help the victim. But in earlier times, there wouldn’t have been
much support; the best a teenage runaway could expect was to go into the
Magdalene laundries, and for those of you that saw the movie, you’ll know it
replaced one kind of abuse with another.
The Jungs have done
a marvelous job with Moral Issues and
Christian Responses, which is detailed, unbiased, and informative.
It is the perfect guide to answering today’s moral problems, and most important
of all, it teaches us how the power of forgiveness is the basis for overcoming
tragedy.
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