Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.
SIRACH 15:15-20
Trash TV is
forever giving some of the weakest people in our culture a place to show off
their ignorance. I must confess that I get sucked into watching it sometimes –
usually with a jaw dropped in amazement. Just when you think you’ve heard and
seen it all, the ante is usually upped in one form or another.
One of the
themes that get regular coverage is our inability to say “no.” Pathetic
examples of humanity tell the audience in a million different ways that if the
temptation is there, one must act on it because one is totally powerless to do
otherwise. Likewise, if the opportunity arises to commit adultery,
defraud the government or take something from work, we are told that a person
would be foolish to pass it up.
A person of
integrity knows right from wrong and has the strength of character to choose
what is right - even when no one is looking and even when it is possible
to choose what is wrong and get away with it. The opposite of a person
with integrity is a small, self-centered person, always on the make for
personal gain or pleasure, regardless of how it affects those around him.
If you are
interested in bucking this trend and becoming a person of integrity, let me
share a few thoughts with you from a favorite book called, Virtuous
Leadership: An Agenda for Personal Excellence.
The ability
to say “no” to opportunistic situations is one of the most basic abilities of a
person of integrity. A person of integrity declares his independence from the
terminal egoism of popular culture. He responds to life from well-defined
principles, not the basest of addictions. He is guided by a set of outside
principles, not by moment-to-moment, internal chaotic impulses.
A person of
integrity also says “no” to the cynicism that says that the end justifies the
means. When we buy into this perspective of “the end justifying the means,” we
are willing to use deception, manipulation and even death to accomplish our
so-called “good” goals. Consider Lenin, Hitler, and Mao who killed millions of
innocent people in the name of an ideology that promised a better way of life
for the masses and then consider much of the pro-abortion and assisted suicide
rhetoric. They all buy into the principle that "the end justifies the
means" - that one can accomplish some favorable outcomes by using evil methods
to attain them. These “solutions” are presented to us as "perfectly
reasonable” and “economically sound.” Killing off people in nursing homes would
indeed save us a whole lot of health care money, but does the lofty goal of
saving money justify the mass killing of old people? Not yet, at least!
A person of
integrity also says “no” to glorified materialism – that driving passion to “own,”
“possess” and “have” at any cost, even at the expense of other individuals and
the community as a whole. Our system of capitalism is a good thing (I am all
for it), but surely even it has its limitations. Slavery might keep down labor
costs, but that alone does not make it good. A materialism that sees other
persons simply as cogs in a machine, devoid of spirituality and transcendent
value, ceases to be a good thing.
A person of
integrity also says “no” to radical individualism. Radical individualists focus
on serving themselves, always taking and never giving back. We are social beings
by nature. We are interdependent. We are keepers of our brothers and
sisters. We were created to live in communities and therefore we never free to
do whatever we want in an absolute sense. Those who are wealthy and wise know that "to whom much
is given, much is expected."
A person of
integrity also says “no” to “group-think” and to what “everybody else is
doing.” Be your own person and respect what is unique in your own self. People
unable to love and respect themselves, are unable to love and respect others.
Unable to love and respect others, they cannot sustain life within their
families and, in fact, find family life and communal responsibilities
stultifying.
My fellow believers! We have a lot of
choices in front of us each day. Just because we have the freedom to choose,
does not mean that we will always choose wisely. A lot of the choices we make
are evil, not because we are basically evil, but because those choices are
presented to us in shiny new packages that try to convince us that they are
good when they are not! As a result of a dramatic expansion of personal
freedoms, we are now seeing more and more people being forced to live with the
consequences of their bad choices.
Yes, we have the right to choose, but with
that right, we also have the responsibility to choose wisely! Only a person of
great integrity can balance the freedom of choosing with that responsibility of
choosing wisely! Everyone else goes the way of the worst of opportunists,
grabbing, hording and defending no matter the cost to those around them.
My friends, if being a person of integrity
and principle sounds terribly counter-cultural, it is! Be counter-cultural!
Choose to be a person of integrity and principle, no matter how few follow your
lead! Be discerning! Look below the surface of things! Don't be fooled and
manipulated by popular culture! Choose, yes, but choose wisely!
