MDM4M - Modern Disciple Magazine for Men - Daily Dose

Abu Ghraib prison has become synonymous with moral decay. Anyone with half a conscience must be offended, saddened, and even outraged at the prisoner abuse photos that have filled the newscasts. After all, one of the chief planks on President Bush's war platform was the moral corruption of Saddam. American and allied forces entered Iraq to liberate abused Iraqis and restore freedom to the oppressed citizens. Enter the abuse photos. How in the world could a "liberating" force commit such atrocities?

The problem is only compounded by the retaliatory execution of Nick Berg. His killers claimed that prisoner abuse was the direct cause of his slaughter. In an instant, the problem was brought home. This was not a remote issue in a foreign war: there were acute consequences.

These events tell us a lot about morality. Morals are not some elusive commodity that some nations have and other nations do not. Morals are the way that people view right and wrong.

For the most part everyone operates under the same moral ideals. We like to take pride in our Canadian morality: we value things like human dignity and personal freedom. I am thankful that we are able to live without fear of governmental persecution. Still, on the main tenets of morality, we stand united with every other conscience-following human in the world.

For example, every society believes it is wrong to murder-and every society determines when it is permissible to break those ideals. We are rightly abhorred by acts of terrorism: suicide bombers, plane hijackers, and retaliatory executions. Yet we are quick to justify the extinguishing of human life under the rallying cry of, "a woman's right to choose," or "weapons of mass destruction."

It is clear that our country's formation was strongly influenced by Christian values. The following scripture is inscribed on the entrances to our parliament buildings: "Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from river unto the ends of the earth" (Psalm 72:1, 8, KJV). In choosing that scripture, our country's founders showed that they wanted God to inform the wisdom of Canada's leader.

This leads many of us to think that Christianity is nothing more than the best possible moral system. We read Bible stories to our children and ask, "now what was the moral of that story?"

Take the story of David and Goliath for example. The moral? You don't have to be big in stature to defeat the giants in your life. It is a fine message. The difficulty comes when you realize that you could teach that same moral through a number of different stories.

We could also look at the Golden Rule: "do to others what you would have them do to you" (Matthew 7:12, NIV). Jesus did not invent this-it is stated in various ways in every major world religion. Search Google for "Golden Rule", and you will see what I mean. Morality is not unique to the Bible. We need to realize that morality is only a byproduct of Christianity.

Christianity's centre is not found in morals-it is found in a decisive act. You may have watched Mel Gibson's The Passion recently. Those few hours of Jesus' life, chronicled graphically by Gibson, are a picture of Christianity's core. Christians are those who realize that no matter how high their morals are, they cannot meet the standards of a perfect God. The death of Jesus-God's Son-paid the price we owed God for our failures. Christians are those people who have asked God to forgive them for their failures.

To be sure, Christianity promotes good moral living-but this is a byproduct... ----> continued