Christian Ethics: The Emperor vs Love

When reading The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics, I could not help but notice the similarities between the evolution of Christianity with my father's own way of raising me. Within this ethic, the relationship between God and his people was that of the superior-inferior. God was considered superior to all other beings and we as the inferior must strictly obey what he has set forth for us. This strict obedience to the covenant would prevent individuals from sinning and allow them entrance into the kingdom of god. This is the god of the Old Testament, one that was considered to be vengeful and that should be feared above all others. The relationship, to me, resembles that of an emperor and his subjects, with disobedience leading to the destruction of life as we know it.

However, this edict changed rather quickly with the coming of Christ on earth. He taught his followers that it was through love, repentance, and faith that one would enter the kingdom of God. God did not want his subjects to blindly follow his orders, like a storm trooper following Emperor Palpatine. Instead, his aim was a radical conversion of the mind that lead one another to love as God loved them. It is my belief that God realized that the way of the Old Testament was not growing true believers, and, in fact, was creating resentment towards him, even if no one of he time admitted it.


When reflecting on my own life, i see my father has changed his ways in a similar fashion. He is a former warden of New Jersey State Prison and he ran his household like it. He used to "bark" out orders and demand compliance. When I moved to Florida, he did not come with us because he had to continue working in New Jersey, which was during my adolescent years. During this time, i grew to resent my father and honestly hated him for how he treated me: never telling me that he was proud of anything I had done and treating me as another one of his inmates. When he moved to Florida, I think he realized how much his attitude effected my development (my mother had been warning him this would happen for many years) and so he changed how he treated me. I was no longer being ordered to do things, he trusted my judgement and showed he was proud to have me as his son. Now if my judgement was wrong, I definitely received a nice, long lecture, but it was having the ability to make the decision that changed my attitude and, in turn, allowed me to internalize more of his teachings. The path of the Old Testament leads to the makings of a General Grievous, while the path of love leads to the makings of Obi-Wan-Kenobi.

Family Traditions

Thanksgiving is a holiday that is surrounded by family traditions in the United States. It is a holiday in the fall were families come together and give thanks for what they have. 

Thanksgiving is believed to be traced back to a Pilgrim celebration in Plymouth, Massachusetts in the 1620's to celebrate and give thanks for a bountiful harvest. Some traditional foods associated with Thanksgiving dinner include a full cooked turkey, cranberries, and vegetables like carrots and turnips.

Every family has their own unique traditions that make this holiday a memorable one. This was made clear in class when we all discussed our own personal traditions. Each person had unique family traditions that made Thanksgiving special to them. My family has roots in Plymouth so we have a very traditional dinner with the same types of food served every year, similar to the ones typically associated with Thanksgiving.

These types of family traditions can be related to the deep rooted beliefs of the importance of family and tradition in Native American culture. Native Americans consider their whole tribe to be one big family even if they aren't related by blood. They also value tradition and even now in modern days they still perform traditional rituals that they have done for hundreds of years.

Less Judgment, More Love

In The Moral Quest: Foundations of Christian Ethics, it identifies the idea that we are human and make judgments. These normative, or everyday, judgments can be either made through moral obligation and value versus non-moral obligation and value. The book tries to decipher what is needed to follow an "ethical life". 

When comparing judgments such as "My room is painted the best color" versus "People are obligated to tell the truth" there really is no comparison. Judgments are based on personal morality gathered through experience. In the Bible, God is the one to make the final judgment. But how is that possible is everyone's idea of how to lead an "ethical life" is different or skewed.

So is God subjective or objective when making that final decision, that final judgment. Does God base it solely on judgments of moral obligation and value or does he too take into account non-moral obligation and value as well. If God is to make a "final judgment", it seems a bit hypocritical to me if we are not allowed to make any judgments on others. I only wonder if that then causes people to think it is okay to place judgment because it is modeled by God in the Bible.

I assume that if God were to make no final judgments in the end, that people wouldn't feel the need to do the same. 

Religion and the Western Mind

As Vine Deloria Jr explains in God is Red the western mind assumes that the change in personality in humans must take place for religion to effective.  Most of this includes major changes in ones life.  This, in my opinion, is not a way to change someone for the better as it just changes the person completely, his or her ideals and all.  These ideals have been adopted from European decent and eventually transferred into the minds of Americans.  To summarize, the Christian religion involves a major change in your own intentions and ideals.  In contrast to this, the Native American religion does not aim to change personality but behavior.  I believe this is a much more effective method of becoming a better person.  By changing personality you are essentially stripping yourself of who you are but by changing behaviors and actions, you can better yourself by being kind to others.  This is what all religions should be striving for.  Another major difference between these religions is how they view their Deity.  "When we turn from Christian religious beliefs to Indian tribal beliefs in this area, the contrast is remarkable.  Religion is not conceived as a personal relationship between the deity and each individual.  It is rather a covenant between a particular god and a particular community" (194).  This quote summarizes nicely how these two religions differ.  The Native belief is that your relationship with your god is not based on an individual level but a community level for all to share.  I believe that this is a great basis for religion as it allows people to rid themselves of greed and selflessness.  By adopting this method we can all strive to become better people as a community instead of on an individual basis

The role of forgiveness

The Bible has forgiveness as a prominent theme. Growing up as a Roman Catholic, forgiveness was always a topic we went through in religous class and I would here on Sundays at church.
Although hearing about forgiveness may sound like the practice is easy, the theory is really far from the reality.

My mother with my grandparents 

Being a person that doesn't change her opnions and thoughts easily and also has her pride high, forgiving was always something hard for me, admitting I was wrong, even harder.
My mother is half Italian, half Lebanese making her personality really strong and most of the times she is really stubborn and refuses to admit she is wrong. Multiple times I had a hard time connecting with her because of that. We would just get into huge fights and not give up on any side and things with time would go back to normal. My view of this changes a few years ago when my mother and my grandfather got into a huge fight. My grandfather being the Lebanese side of my mmother is also really hot headed and his proud is also really high. My mother bought him a dvd player and they got into a fight about the electronic and how he said he didn't want one and my mother bought anyways. They didn't talk for about six months until my mother finally gave in and apologized in order to have their relationship go back to normal.
After seeing the way my mother would be upset about not being able to talk to my grandfather I started to think how bad it was I felt ashamed of apologizing, I understood forgiveness is not something you should be ashamed of, on the contrary. It takes a strong person to understand their mistakes and redeem themselves about it. The fact that today I don't have a problem forviging or asking for forgiveness made me feel like a better Christian.

My mother and I 

Christian Ethics: Protestantism

"Entrance into the kingdom comes through repentance and faith." 

Through studying central themes in Christian ethics, I was able to better
understand and interpret the origins of my own religion.
The basis for Christian ethics support that the good life is not the quest for happiness but the pursuit of God's kingdom. Other components of the Christian faith include salvation through divine grace, devotion and obedience to God, a pure heart, treating others like family and God as the father, acting selflessly and generously, and maintaining a focus on the future.

Martin Luther/The Reformation

The traditional fundamental principles of Protestantism include the scripture alone, justification by faith alone, and the universal priesthood of all
believers. Protestant values clearly are built on the foundations of Christianity.
                                         

It was the Protestant Reformation however, in which Protestants examined what they believed to be errors within the Roman Catholic Church and eventually established a separate division of Christendom. Differences in interpretation or opinion of the Bible on which Christianity is based, split this western religion into the separate denominations we acknowledge today.
Despite the three major divisions of Christianity (Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism), all are united under the same general beliefs of the Christian faith.

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