Series on ethics based on 'Doing the Right Thing' Study guide at Christian worldview teaching Ed van Ouwerkerk, ISI campus staff, Ames (IA)

Every student who has been in high school and college has been taught in: mathematics language(s) physics history geography etc. We, Christians, know what is right or wrong from what we learn from God, the Bible and our upbringing. But is there anyone in this group who has ever taken classes in ethics?

Ethics are standards of behavior, presumably derived from some objective source or transcendent authority, whether it is natural law or God. Morality is a sense of behavioral conduct that differentiates intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good (or right) and bad (or wrong). A moral code is a system of morality (for example, according to a particular philosophy, religion, or culture) We need to start with some major definitions. What are the differences between ethics and morality?

Today many people turn away from the notion of universal absolute truth and divine ethical standards. Even Christians, influenced by worldly thinkers, sometimes practice relativism. Moral or ethical relativism is based on the view that ethics are not based on objective or transcendent truths, but are dependent on the situation and the people involved. What is relativism?

What is integrity? Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of hypocrisy; it regards internal consistency as a virtue, and suggests that people holding apparently conflicting values should account for such discrepancy (or change their beliefs).

This series on ethics may help you to revitalize your moral life, behavior and integrity, challenge you to contribute to a renewal of culture in your own environment, and ultimately restore ethical sanity to our society.

We, Christians, who believe in the infallible Word of God, obtain our ethical standards from the Bible. In fact the Bible is our ethical standard, and our moral behavior is based on, influenced and corrected by God’s revelation and teaching. God has given His ultimate ethical standard in the ten commandments, which can be seen as ‘higher law’ than any human law, and which is (at least partly) the basis of many civic laws we know today. “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Ex. 20:13-17)

Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, describes God’s righteous judgment in the New Testament in Romans 2. The non-Jews, who don’t have the Law of Moses, also have, by nature a conscience built in, as Paul states in verses 14 and 15: “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” This means that non-believers don’t have any excuse of not being able to discern right from wrong, and morally acting accordingly.

Watch video (35 min.) of Session One (disk 1) Students, make notes on the handout during the video: 1. Ethical failures and the economic collapse 2. The dictatorship of relativism a. Business schools b. Creating a culture without ethics 3. Criminality 4. "Borrowed capital" and ethical erosion 5. Resolving ethical disputes After the video we will divide into two discussion groups: a.One group (Randy) with African students in adjacent room b.One group (Ed) with non-African students here.