Which is “good” from an ethical perspective?
Objectively always-knowable truth; certainty in always being right and having a perfectly right source from which to derive wisdom? Subjective truth that can morph & change from situation to situation and person to person?
Right is right even if no one is right; wrong is wrong even if everyone is wrong?
What’s right for me may not be right for you; live and let live?
It is comforting and even seductive to espouse what we tout as objective truth. Why? Because we can simply take action and speak it without wrestling with it because… well, because we know it’s right. I have wanted (and often still want) to be able to espouse objective truth and wrestling the angels be damned. It is so EASY to be sure of something, like being secure in the knowledge that the earth revolves around the sun, 2+2=4, I have 10 fingers and 10 toes. I’d never fret over the truth of those statements because there is no denying them. They are facts.
What about moral truth?
Killing is wrong; what about abortion or killing in self-defense? Sex outside of heterosexual marriage is wrong; what about committed LGBTQ+ marriages and polyamorous families? Transgenderism is a mental disorder, what about the scientists, doctors, psychiatrists, and other-than Judeo Christian cultures that acknowledge more than 2 genders as being legitimate and beautiful?
It’s be nice to just say, “I know what’s right and I can tell from Church teaching & Scripture.” It’d be so easy to dismiss people who have abortions for whatever reason, sexual deviants, and freaks of nature. I could dismiss all this out of hand as wrong;
Except I was party to an abortion that I know was the right thing to do at the time.
Except I am in a loving polyamorous marriage and a committed partnership.
Except I have discovered very recently that I’m Queer.
Except several people I have accepted as family are happily transgender, have fulfilling lives and have made MY life fuller and more joyful.
See, it doesn’t matter what my personal feelings are about any of these or a million other ethical dilemmas. It might be easy to “pick a side” and denounce someone’s identity or the way they love from the rooftops. But that sure doesn’t look like the behavior of Jesus to me. Jesus loves and accepts people where they are, who they are.
Not “in spite of” who they are but BECAUSE of who they are.
Angels are meant to be wrestled with. And everyone I meet needs to be welcomed as Jesus. Whether it’s easy or not.
End of song.
Thursday in the Octave of Easter
Acts of the Apostles 3:11-26
Psalms 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9
Luke 24:35-48
