celebrating

  We have all said at one time or another, doesn't that person have a conscience? How do you get a conscience? Well, according to the experts one method is through training. We do get our foundational conscience from our parents, siblings and peers. As we grow and gain experience and our circle of influence expands, we build upon that. The majority of us will begin to reject the original precepts learned from our parents. We begin to believe, we know better. That's simply because we start to feel a bit smarter. We feel that way because we are told that. You have to get a good education! That is the mantra we hear since birth. It follows that we believe the more education you have, the smarter you become. And that notion is reenforced at every turn. Our conscience becomes whatever we have been taught "trained" to believe is the correct response.

 Our conscience is our morality. Our schools are not designed to teach morality. That is the function of those Catholic schools or other faith-based institutions. When I was small it wasn't uncommon for us to say a prayer in school at the beginning of the day. The acknowledgement of God was a common thing. It was a time when it was recognized that Christianity was the majority religion in the country. We also knew of our Jewish friends and neighbors, and they recognized the same God. The Muslims weren't really discussed much until we got to the point in history about the Barbary pirates. But even those people recognized God. 

 I wouldn't say we were trained to be Christians in our schools, but we were certainly expected to at least be familiar with the Bible and its' teachings. Oh, there was no doubt that the different denominations held different ritual practices, but we all believed the same thing. We did share a common conscience, a stricter view of what is moral. We certainly weren't pressed to go beyond those established moral guidelines as a matter of acceptance. That wasn't a part of the lesson plan! That was usually made clear with a simple declarative sentence, you know better. It was your conscience that restrained your reactions. Today we are seeing a removal of restraint because of the lack of acknowledgement for moral teachings. 

 In some cases, we are seeing the complete dismissal of all references to a God removed from the curriculum and completely secular in nature. I went some years ago to a high school graduation ceremony and noticed there was no invocation or benediction. That caught me a bit by surprise. It is true that, by law, all public schools in America are secular. That is because of the separation of church and state. But it is my belief that the dismissal or acknowledgement of God was not the intent of that legislation. The founding fathers made it clear that a firm reliance on God was paramount. Our constitution was only sufficient for a moral and religious society. 

 All religious teachings center around correct moral actions. Every religion comes with the promise of reward in the next life. The goal in life was to live your life in accordance with the moral guideline provided in your religious documents, regardless of what that religion was. Today we are seeing a rewriting, a new interpretation of those documents, to conform to our lack of moral guidelines. The message today becoming, the only moral choice is to allow immoral behavior, indeed, to support and defend those immoral choices. The new morality being completely nonjudgemental. 

 Judgement is the basis for justice. In our legal system, a secular institution, judgement lies with the judge and/or the jurors. We are instructed to not utilize our conscience in this instance. Justice is blind. Justice is free of conscience. The mercy of the court is exercised through the sentencing guidelines. Mercy is certainly considered a virtue. Virtuous behavior is moral behavior. Our judges are empowered to exercise that virtue, to act upon their moral judgement. With the absence of morality what option will be left to a judge? 

 It could be argued that our schools are now eliminating morality altogether. No longer allowing a simple prayer, no longer displaying any sentient of a higher power, what basis for conscience is being established? The churches are rewriting the book! Morality is about restraint. That is expressed by a very old instruction: "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" If there is no restraint, if all behaviors are simply allowed, there is also no basis for conscience. You act indiscriminately. Celebration should follow the reward. Celebrating the dismissal of reward may provide immediate gratification but certainly lacks that eternal peace we all seek. I don't care what anyone says, when faced with your mortality you will question what comes next. My advice being, don't celebrate too soon. It is also prudent to carefully examine just what it is you are celebrating!