bishop's perspective:
Morality really matters
Morality is more than personal piety. Attending church or praying or professing faith does not translate into morality. And morality is not just the absence of lustful behavior.
Morality has to do with integrity. Integrity is the honest integration of thinking and acting – of words and deeds. A member of a church I once served professed an evangelical experience of faith. She was a pious soul. She boasted conservative values. She condemned every expression of sexual misconduct. She extolled the virtues of personal morality. But she had maids, lawn workers and other employees for whom she never paid Social Security. She offered them no health insurance. She used workers to her advantage and discarded them when they were no longer useful to her. She violated true morality.
True morality is walking the talk. It means we intentionally live out our lives with justice, honesty, and integrity.
Jesus despaired of people who appeared so religious yet did not practice what they professed.
Both the church and society yearn for and urgently need far more than our praying. Integrity is Christianity 101. It means we pay appropriate wages. It means supporting a respectable living wage for workers. It means being committed to providing decent health care for all. It means we resist every form of oppression and violence.
Morality matters. And it means more than simply being sexually pure.
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