Moral Courage (Part 1)

(cc) Walt Stoneburner - Flickr

(cc) Walt Stoneburner - Flickr

What do you think of when you hear the words “moral courage”?

Webster defines “morals” as: “moral practices or teachings; modes of conduct; ethics”. [1]

“Ethics” is defined as: “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation; a set of moral principles; a theory or system of moral values; the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group; a guiding philosophy; a set of moral issues or aspects (as rightness)”. [2]

So your morals can be defined as “what you believe about what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, what your moral duties and obligations are, and how you should conduct yourself”.

Abortion

Human fetus inside the womb

© Mopic – Fotolia.com

[PART 6 OF 6]

What are the implications of this concept of “the sanctity of human life”?

What about abortion?

First, let’s look at some statistics (Source: abort73.com).

In 2002:

1,082 American children died from violent assault.
2,347 died from car accidents.
32,867 died from disease.
1,310,000 died from legal abortions.

In America, abortion kills nearly 4,000 innocent human beings every single day.

That’s 25,000 each week.
109,000 every month.
1.3 million every year.

Day after day, week after week, year after year … the carnage continues. Innocent unborn children are quietly destroyed behind sterile clinic doors. Since 1973, 40 million American babies have been aborted.

I Wanna Be a Policeman

Police Officer

© John Roman - 123rf.com

[PART 4 OF 6]

What are the implications of this concept of “the sanctity of human life”?

Does that mean that it is wrong for a Christian to serve as a police officer?

If a police officer were to use deadly force and take the life of another person in the line of duty, would he or she be guilty of murder? Would he or she have violated the sanctity of human life?

What About Capital Punishment?

(cc) Krystn Palmer Photography - Flickr

(cc) Krystn Palmer Photography - Flickr

[PART 3 OF 6]

What are the implications of this concept of “the sanctity of human life”?

Does that mean that capital punishment is wrong?

Is it wrong for a government to take the life of one of its citizens in punishment for crime?

Is Human Life Holy?

Two Hands Two Generations

(cc) Dino Olivieri – Flickr

[PART 2 OF 6]

What exactly do we mean when we talk about the “sanctity of human life”? Is that even a valid concept?

Princeton University’s online WordNet dictionary defines sanctity as “the quality of being holy”. Holy is defined as “belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power”.

So the question arises, “Is human life holy?” Does human life belong to, or is it derived from or associated with, a divine power?