Blog
Moral Inconsistency
As the current pandemic began its march around the globe, a moral dilemma developed: How far do we go in the curtailing of human and constitutional rights in order to contain the virus? If we know the most vulnerable will suffer pain and death, what shall be imposed on the majority for their sake? In this case, humanity – a broad spectrum of nations planet-wide – chose in favor of the potential victims, and they did so at great cost to the world economy.
But the “world economy” is made up of individual workers and the small businesses and giant corporations that employ them. Lest we think merely in monetary terms, consider the enormous damage that has been done to people’s lives by the lockdown: lost jobs; once-in-a-lifetime events cancelled or compromised (graduations, professional milestones, weddings with no one in attendance); retirements jeopardized; homes foreclosed; people unable to visit family in nursing homes or say goodbye to dying loved ones; etc.
There has been an enormous cost we have been willing to pay to save thousands of lives, and we have heard medical experts and politicians pontificating about our moral duties to our fellow man.
Don’t get ahead of me. I’m not saying saving lives is not worth it. What I don’t understand is the inconsistency.
In an earlier bulletin article, I noted the guesstimated million babies that are aborted in this country every year as a matter of convenience to the mother. The baby presents no threat to the well-being of humanity; rarely is it a matter of a mother’s health; rarer still is the possibility that the mother became impregnated beyond her will. Nope, she just doesn’t want it, and she doesn’t want to go through the birthing process for the sake of others who want to lovingly nurture it and care for it.
And the governor of Virginia, who has all but locked down the commonwealth, is on record favoring post-birth ending of an infant’s life. Go figure.
On a smaller scale, in the U.S., one person is killed every 39 minutes by a drunk driver; every day 36 people die and 700 are injured by drunk drivers; nearly half of all teenage fatalities are due to drunk driving; in 2007 alcohol-related deaths totaled 15,387, which was 37 percent of all vehicle deaths in the U.S. By comparison, as of this morning Virginia has had 75 coronavirus deaths; nationwide almost 13,000 have died.
All we’ve heard for three months is coronavirus, but the silence on these other issues is deafening. This inconsistency is to be expected when man rejects fixed moral standards. We end up with contradictory ideals, and this creates much frustration. Without God, man will remain hopelessly confused.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Is 5:20).
