There's a old joke about coming to church.
The curmudgeon says, "I won't go to church! That place is full of hypocrites!"
The church member replies, "No, come on, you'll fit right in!"
The current OUTRAGE over sexual harassment seems a tiny bit hypocritical. Most of America, and particularly Hollywood, are most often moral relativist. Many of my friends will aver, "What people do that is not illegal is their business, not yours. Don't go imposing your Christian morality on me or anyone else". Their position is Moral Relativism. the larger position is Cultural Relativism, wherein culture determines the norms and one culture, say USA should never impose our culture on any other people group.
Suddenly Moral Relativism and Cultural Relativism have been abandoned by some of their staunchest supporters. Now, let me be clear, sexual harassment is wrong, and I base this absolute statement on Christian principles, independent of public or cultural opinion. All others, females and males, are created by G^d, and worthy of respect, care, protection and concern.
So, from my philosophical foundation, what Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, and others have confessed to doing to women is absolutely wrong. But, if you are a Moral Relativist, or a Cultural relativist, though I am very sympathetic with your outrage, you have to abandon your philosophical foundations to condemn this definitely WRONG behavior.
Do you follow what I am saying? We cannot hold to Moral Relativism and Cultural Relativism 99% of the time, then abandon it the 1% when we feel moral outrage! But, that appears to be what is happening in the USA right now.
So, do you agree, or can you explain to me why I am wrong?
Awaiting your counsel!
The foundation for this post was derived from my friend Stan Wallace's blog post on 28 Dec. You can see it at:
https://www.stanwallace.org/blog/2017/12/28/when-it-comes-to-weinstein-et-al-no-one-is-a-moral-relativist-and-thats-a-good-thing-1-of-2
I recommend Stan's blog to you!
The curmudgeon says, "I won't go to church! That place is full of hypocrites!"
The church member replies, "No, come on, you'll fit right in!"
The current OUTRAGE over sexual harassment seems a tiny bit hypocritical. Most of America, and particularly Hollywood, are most often moral relativist. Many of my friends will aver, "What people do that is not illegal is their business, not yours. Don't go imposing your Christian morality on me or anyone else". Their position is Moral Relativism. the larger position is Cultural Relativism, wherein culture determines the norms and one culture, say USA should never impose our culture on any other people group.
Suddenly Moral Relativism and Cultural Relativism have been abandoned by some of their staunchest supporters. Now, let me be clear, sexual harassment is wrong, and I base this absolute statement on Christian principles, independent of public or cultural opinion. All others, females and males, are created by G^d, and worthy of respect, care, protection and concern.
So, from my philosophical foundation, what Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, and others have confessed to doing to women is absolutely wrong. But, if you are a Moral Relativist, or a Cultural relativist, though I am very sympathetic with your outrage, you have to abandon your philosophical foundations to condemn this definitely WRONG behavior.
Do you follow what I am saying? We cannot hold to Moral Relativism and Cultural Relativism 99% of the time, then abandon it the 1% when we feel moral outrage! But, that appears to be what is happening in the USA right now.
So, do you agree, or can you explain to me why I am wrong?
Awaiting your counsel!
The foundation for this post was derived from my friend Stan Wallace's blog post on 28 Dec. You can see it at:
https://www.stanwallace.org/blog/2017/12/28/when-it-comes-to-weinstein-et-al-no-one-is-a-moral-relativist-and-thats-a-good-thing-1-of-2
I recommend Stan's blog to you!
I agree.
ReplyDelete