Morality is not hot. Infact, it has slipped to the box labeled “tabu-issues”. People don’t like to talk about morals and its easy to see why – whenever we talk about them, we subject ourselves to a playingfield, where we can be discovered wrongdoers. We rather not dwell in our mishaps. But this has polarized the field. The only time we engage in moral “discussion” is, when people shout moral codes from the safety of their personal bunkers. Afterall, its much easier to shout things and be done with it, than actually discuss about matters in some meaningful and rational way.
We need high-quality moral discussion.
There is a reason for the moral-discussion fading in the tabu-basket. (Please note, that I’m not trying to find “the one reason” for this, rather just find one insight for the matter.) Namely – spirituality has been detached from morality. This weren’t always the case. Spirituality and morals used to walk a very common path, until postmodernism started to fragment our religious package to different categories. The effect of this is, that we can do away with that pesky moral stuff, which we find so hard and problematic, while keeping the soothing spiritualism we so much like. Yoga is one great example of this – we get in shape, we feel some spiritual depth, but we don’t have to deal with any hard issues.
The alternative naturally, is to keep spirituality and morality attached. But its really not that easy. As years go by, we find ourselves in new situations, which constantly needs readjusting our stance. The ultimate core of morality doesn’t change. What was good 2000 years ago, is still good and likewise, what was bad then, is still bad. Deciphering manners from morals though, is the hard question. The former changes with us, the latter does not.
Christianity cannot live without morals. At it’s heart, it solves a very fundamental moral issue – our sinfulness. When we start to detach morality from spirituality, we undermine the very thing christianity stands on. Times are changing, and we constantly need to seek hard answers to our moral issues rising from the current situation. It may be heart wrenching and hard, but we simply cannot let the christian package fragment.
The alternative is to witness the destruction of christianity.