America Abuzz over ‘Moral Values’

You may have noticed all the buzz after all the votes were counted in our recent elec­tion. News reporters wanted to know what fac­tors had turned the tide in Pres­i­dent Bush’s favor. So they turned to the exit poll­sters, the peo­ple who ques­tion vot­ers about their views once they leave the vot­ing area.

The news peo­ple expected vot­ers’ top pri­or­ity to be either the war against ter­ror­ism or the job mar­ket. Instead — to nearly everyone’s sur­prise — it was “moral val­ues” that topped the exit polls as “the issue that mat­tered most” in the election.

What Was Dif­fer­ent This Time?

There have been seri­ous moral issues at stake in other elec­tions, but this time many more peo­ple took this into account. The high turn-​​out of vot­ers in this elec­tion also seems to sug­gest that more peo­ple were con­cerned about the issues involved.

One rea­son seemed to be the con­cern many peo­ple have about pre­serv­ing the sanc­tity of mar­riage. Pro­tec­tion of mar­riage was on the bal­lot in eleven states, and in every one of these states it won by a vast major­ity. This issue surely gave the vot­ers another rea­son to pause and con­sider each candidate’s posi­tions on moral issues.

Another moral issue that peo­ple seemed to notice more this time was the atti­tude of the can­di­dates toward pro-​​life issues.

A Chance to Help

Nev­er­the­less, the issue of moral val­ues was only a rel­a­tive win­ner among the five pri­or­i­ties polled, not an absolute win­ner. 22% said it was the deci­sive fac­tor, not 51%. If we are con­cerned about moral val­ues, it is clear we still have much work to do. Young peo­ple have a key role in this work, since so much of pop­u­lar cul­ture is addressed to them, but we need to under­stand bet­ter what is at stake in order to take a stand ourselves.

What are moral val­ues, really? And, when two peo­ple dis­agree on what makes one choice moral and another immoral — as so many did dis­agree in the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion — how can we know whose val­ues are truly the most moral?

Right vs. Wrong

One def­i­n­i­tion of the word moral­ity is “in accord with the prin­ci­ples of right and wrong.”

Another way to state that thought might be: Moral val­ues are the deeply held beliefs that guide us when we need to decide whether it would be right or wrong to do some­thing —or not do something.

It might help to illus­trate the dif­fer­ence between a moral act and an immoral act by com­par­ing two inci­dents that were recently in the news.

Moral­ity Rocks

Last spring, a young lady from Red­mond, Wash­ing­ton, wrote a short let­ter to the busi­ness exec­u­tives who run Nord­strom depart­ment stores. Her name is Ella Gun­der­son, and she was con­cerned because she had a hard time find­ing mod­est cloth­ing choices in their stores.

Ella wrote: “I am an eleven-​​year-​​old girl who has tried shop­ping at your store for clothes (in par­tic­u­lar jeans), but all of them ride way under my hips, and the next size up is too big and falls down. I see all of these girls who walk around with pants that show their belly but­ton and under­wear. Your clerks sug­gest that there is only one look. If that is true, then girls are sup­posed to walk around half-​​naked. I think you should change that.”

A lot of local and even national pub­lic­ity fol­lowed, includ­ing an appear­ance on NBC’s “Today Show” with Katie Couric. The most excit­ing devel­op­ment came when the Nord­strom exec­u­tives promised to offer more mod­est cloth­ing than in years past —lead­ing other large retail-​​store chains to make the same pledge.

That’s a pretty impres­sive accom­plish­ment for an 11-​​year-​​old girl.

From Ella’s expe­ri­ence, it’s easy to iden­tify two ways her moral val­ues made a pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence in her life.

First, she said “No” to the immod­est cloth­ing choices she found when she went to the store. Sim­ply by refus­ing to pur­chase the clothes, she made a moral choice.

Then she said “Yes” to doing some­thing to change the sit­u­a­tion. It might not have seemed like much to write a short let­ter, but just look at the results that fol­lowed from that one small, morality-​​based decision.

Immoral­ity Rankles

Con­trast Ella’s choices in a tricky sit­u­a­tion with a choice made by Ter­rell Owens, the tal­ented wide receiver for the Philadel­phia Eagles who has become one of the most pop­u­lar stars in the National Foot­ball League.

On Mon­day, Novem­ber 15, just before the start of ABC’s Mon­day Night Foot­ball game between the Eagles and the Dal­las Cow­boys, Ter­rell appeared in a pro­mo­tional adver­tise­ment for ABC’s racy soap opera “Des­per­ate Housewives.”

In the ad, Ter­rell is in the locker room in his Eagles uni­form, about to run out for the start of the game. Sud­denly Nicol­lette Sheri­dan, an actress on the “Des­per­ate House­wives” show, approaches him. Wear­ing only a bath towel, she tries to talk him into stay­ing there with her rather than join­ing his team on the field. When he explains that he has a duty to his team, she jumps into his arms. With that, Owens changes his mind. “The team’s going to have to win one with­out me,” he says with a smirk.

Time to Speak Up

In the days after the ad ran, there was quite an out­cry from the gen­eral pub­lic and from some influ­en­tial peo­ple in the NFL. “When we turn on ‘Mon­day Night Foot­ball,’ you’re expect­ing to see foot­ball,” said Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indi­anapo­lis Colts. “I want my boys to watch foot­ball. I don’t want them to see what they saw.”

Lovie Smith, head coach of the Chicago Bears, added: “I’m a father. I have young kids at home, too. I’m a Chris­t­ian man. I think it goes with­out say­ing that what hap­pened was totally inappropriate.”

And Art Rooney, pres­i­dent of the Pitts­burgh Steel­ers, called the pro­mo­tion an “out and out dis­grace. This is NFL foot­ball. We don’t do those things.”

Did he miss something?

For his part, Ter­rell seemed sur­prised at the moral out­rage the ad pro­voked. He apol­o­gized — but not because he agreed that the ad was morally wrong. He said he was sorry only because some peo­ple felt upset about it. “I felt like it was clean,” he said. “I think it just really got taken out of con­text with a lot of peo­ple and I apol­o­gize for that.”

In other words, he believed the prob­lem lay not in what he had done, but only in how peo­ple had reacted to it. This would be like smash­ing a neighbor’s win­dow, on pur­pose — and then, when the neigh­bor came out and yelled at you, you say you were sorry about upset­ting him even though you saw noth­ing wrong in what you did to his window.

You could say that this atti­tude points out that Terrell’s moral com­pass is mal­func­tion­ing. He doesn’t have a clear under­stand­ing of what is right and wrong. His moral val­ues are not con­sis­tent with the full truth about God and man.

Tough Enough

Stand­ing up for moral val­ues takes courage. To clar­ify the moral­ity (or lack thereof) of the choice Ter­rell made, let’s imag­ine he refused to make the ad or insisted on mak­ing the ad in a dif­fer­ent way. Imag­ine if he insisted on telling Nicollette:

“I’m sorry, Nicol­lette, but I can’t do that. First, you are not my wife. Sec­ond, I have a job to do. Third, many kids who look up to me are watching.”

In other words

“It is morally wrong for two peo­ple to be inti­mate when they are not mar­ried to one another.

“I have a duty to my coach, my team­mates, our fans and every­one tun­ing in on TV. It’s morally wrong to shirk my duties to oth­ers in order to sat­isfy my self­ish desires.

“Being a man implies a respon­si­bil­ity. I have a duty to encour­age peo­ple, espe­cially young peo­ple, to be the best they can be — not to live an immoral and destruc­tive lifestyle.”

Imag­ine if, after say­ing that, he turned away from Nicol­lette and ran out to the field to join his team­mates. The ABC net­work would still have been morally wrong to show a scant­ily clad woman on TV, espe­cially one who acted the way Nicol­lette acted with Ter­rell, but at least Ter­rell could have held his head high.

Ter­rell and ABC, you just lost a chance to help peo­ple.

The Con­science Clause

Have you ever heard a car alarm go off? It buzzes, it whis­tles, it screeches like a fire alarm. Your con­science is like that. It should go off when you are about to do some­thing you know to be wrong in all cir­cum­stances (such as vote for a polit­i­cal can­di­date who strongly sup­ports the right of peo­ple to destroy unborn babies).

But your con­science does not decide all by itself what is right or wrong. In order for it to guide you to doing the right thing, it has to be formed, because some­times we can make mis­takes, even big ones, espe­cially when things get con­fus­ing. Only when your con­science has learned objec­tive right from wrong will it be able to func­tion as a reli­able moral compass.

Pro­claim­ing Morality

God does not leave us alone to be fooled by our self­ish­ness or the pass­ing fads. He puts his nat­ural moral law into our con­sciences, and he fur­ther helps us with his teach­ing and grace.

Ever since God became man in the per­son of Jesus Christ, He has called on the Catholic Church to coura­geously stand up for what is moral and right in human soci­ety — and stand against what is immoral and wrong.

What a tremen­dous priv­i­lege it is to be a part of that Church — and what an awe­some respon­si­bil­ity.

Of course, cham­pi­oning moral­ity while chal­leng­ing immoral­ity won’t always make us pop­u­lar. But it will always be the right thing to do, and it will always help our friends and our world find the way to real fulfillment.

It’s 2004. Do you know where your moral com­pass is?

Vocab­u­lary

Duty – Con­duct based on faith­ful­ness to one’s responsibility.

Con­science — knowl­edge of right and wrong and the con­vic­tion that one should do what is right.

Mod­est — clean and proper in thought, con­duct and dress.

Moral com­pass — a metaphor for the “inter­nal pointer” in our heart that shows us the way to go in a sit­u­a­tion with moral implications.

Moral val­ues — the deeply held beliefs that guide us when we need to decide whether it would be right or wrong to do some­thing -- or not do something.

Nat­ural moral law — the stan­dard of right and wrong that can be dis­cerned using human rea­son and logic, even by peo­ple with­out reli­gious faith or beliefs.

Pri­or­ity —some­thing com­ing before another in importance.

Priv­i­lege — a right or lib­erty granted as a favor or benefit.

Respon­si­bil­ity — the force that binds a per­son to his or her oblig­a­tions; accountability.

Bible Blurbs

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a moun­tain can­not be hid­den. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel bas­ket; it is set on a lamp­stand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before oth­ers, that they may see your good deeds and glo­rify your heav­enly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

“Let no one dis­re­gard you because you are young, but be an exam­ple to all the believ­ers in the way you speak and behave, and in your love, your faith and your purity.” (1Timothy 4:14)

“Behold, I am send­ing you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as ser­pents and sim­ple as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

Cat­e­chism Quotes

1798 A well-​​formed con­science is upright and truth­ful. It for­mu­lates its judg­ments accord­ing to rea­son, in con­for­mity with the true good willed by the wis­dom of the Cre­ator. Every­one must avail him­self of the means to form his conscience.

1802 The Word of God is a light for our path. We must assim­i­late it in faith and prayer and put it into prac­tice. This is how moral con­science is formed.

Saints and Heroes

St. Maria Goretti was just 12 years old in 1902, when she was attacked by a 19-​​year-​​old farm-​​hand named Alessan­dro Serenelli. He tried to rape her, but she refused to sub­mit to his advances. She told him what he was try­ing to do was a sin and warned him that he would go to hell if he did not call off the attack. He stabbed her 14 times. She sur­vived for two days in the hos­pi­tal, where she for­gave Alessan­dro and asked God to for­give him. She died hold­ing a cru­ci­fix and a medal of the Blessed Mother. Even­tu­ally Alessan­dro repented of his sin and even tes­ti­fied at her cause for beat­i­fi­ca­tion.  (Note: the pic­ture is from a movie about the life of Maria Goretti made by RAI, an Ital­ian tele­vi­sion net­work. The movie broke all records for audi­ence num­bers in Italy.)

Bishop Clemens Augus­tus von Galen (1878-​​1946).

Bet­ter known as the “Lion of Mun­ster”. Dur­ing the whole Nazi period in Ger­many, Bishop von Galen raised his voice in defense of the rights of the Jews, the poor, the sick, and the Church . He ener­get­i­cally opposed the spread of Nazi paganism.

His hom­i­lies of the sum­mer of 1941 became famous, which brought him to the brink of being arrested and con­demned to death. He will soon be beat­i­fied by the Holy Father.

Von Galen’s resis­tance to the Nazi euthana­sia pro­grams was kept up by other priests, among them the priest in charge of the Berlin Cathe­dral, Father Bern­hard Lichtenberg.

Fr. Licht­en­berg was arrested, tried and con­demned in Octo­ber 1941. He died in 1943 on the way to Dachau. John Paul II raised him to the honor of the altar on June 23, 1996.

Dis­cus­sion Questions

Do you tend to view the pop­u­lar cul­ture through the eyes of the Church — or are you prone to view­ing the Church through the eyes of the pop­u­lar culture?

In what areas does the pop­u­lar cul­ture tend to agree with the moral­ity of the Church? In what areas does it disagree?

What are the poten­tial costs of “going with the flow” of the pop­u­lar cul­ture in decid­ing what val­ues to live by? What are the ben­e­fits of stand­ing with the Church’s val­ues even when those choices make you unpopular?

Per­sonal Reflection/​Writing

One of the ways to con­sider the basis of our own moral val­ues is to think about those times when it would be wrong not to do some­thing. For exam­ple, if you came across a lost tod­dler in the city, it would be wrong not to help the child in what­ever way you could — try­ing to find his mother, call­ing the police or what­ever seemed most help­ful and appro­pri­ate to the par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stance. Have you ever found your­self in a sit­u­a­tion where it would have been wrong not to take some kind of action? Describe the sit­u­a­tion. Tell what you did then, or what you now wish you had done, look­ing back.

Write a let­ter to Ter­rell Davis. Tell him why you think his appear­ance in the ABC pro­mo­tion for “Des­per­ate Wives” was wrong. Explain why it was wrong regard­less of how he feels about it. Also tell about how morally loose behav­ior by admired sports celebri­ties encour­ages many young peo­ple to make bad deci­sions that can affect their lives in neg­a­tive ways for years to come.

Res­o­lu­tion Idea

Go through your music and movie col­lec­tions. See which of the record­ings cel­e­brate immoral­ity as though it’s “cool” or “inevitable.” Con­sider get­ting rid of such record­ings. With friends develop a col­lec­tion of music and videos that pro­mote coura­geous moral or Chris­t­ian values.

Con­sider the TV shows you like to watch on a reg­u­lar basis.  Review the pro­grams from the eyes of moral­ity.  (For exam­ple, does the pro­gram show non-​​married peo­ple in bed with each other?  If so, con­sider not watch­ing this pro­gram again.

Fur­ther For­ma­tion: Cat­e­chism Tips

Con­science is man’s most secret core, and his sanc­tu­ary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.

Con­science is a judg­ment of rea­son by which the human per­son rec­og­nizes the moral qual­ity of a con­crete act.

For the man who has com­mit­ted evil, the ver­dict of his con­science remains a pledge of con­ver­sion and of hope.

Faced with a moral choice, con­science can make either a right judg­ment in accor­dance with rea­son and the divine law or, on the con­trary, an erro­neous judg­ment that departs from them.

A human being must always obey the cer­tain judg­ment of his conscience.

Con­science can remain in igno­rance or make erro­neous judg­ments. Such igno­rance and errors are not always free of guilt.

Quotable Quotes

“The talk­ing heads are rush­ing to inter­pret the 2004 elec­tion as the year of the ‘val­ues voter.’ A lit­tle skep­ti­cism is in order. Twenty-​​two per­cent of the elec­torate iden­ti­fied “moral val­ues” as the “most impor­tant issue” shap­ing his or her vote. No other sin­gle issue gar­nered an equal or higher per­cent­age. But that hardly yields the inter­pre­ta­tion that val­ues were the most impor­tant elec­tion issue. Even if we assume that the exit polls were com­pletely accu­rate, the num­bers do not add up to a moral-​​values election.

“I’d love to see the Amer­i­can peo­ple say with one voice that they are dis­gusted with the trash-​​mouth Hol­ly­wood types, the porn indus­try that invades our com­put­ers and our cable chan­nels, the uneth­i­cal busi­ness­men, the foul real­ity shows, the abor­tion mills, kids killing kids over sneak­ers, the drugs, the child abuse, the shock jocks … well, I have only 750 words so I’ll stop there.

“The point is: We’ve got a long way to go before that day dawns.”

Related Web­sites

http://www.catholiceducation.org/ The Catholic Educator’s Resource Cen­ter, a resource clear­ing­house for Catholic teach­ers and school administrators

http://www.heritage.org/ The Her­itage Foun­da­tion, a research and edu­ca­tion insti­tute (a

“think tank”) stress­ing the prin­ci­ples of tra­di­tional Amer­i­can values

http://www.catholicyouth.org/ The Catholic Youth Foun­da­tion, a Catholic source of youth-​​ministry

resources

http://www.catholics-in-action.org/ Catholics In Action, a group based in Louisville, Ky., that works to restore the pri­macy of tra­di­tional fam­ily values:

http://www.sexnot4letters.com/ Sex Is Not A Four-​​Letter Word, a site of arti­cles, tes­ti­monies and links all aimed at encour­ag­ing teens to reach for the beauty and right­ness of chastity.