Welcome to Our Faith In Action

You may have noticed all the buzz after all the votes were counted in our recent election. News reporters wanted to know what factors had turned the tide in President Bush's favor. So they turned to the exit pollsters, the people who question voters about their views once they leave the voting area.

The news people expected voters' top priority to be either the war against terrorism or the job market. Instead -- to nearly everyone's surprise -- it was " moral values " that topped the exit polls as "the issue that mattered most" in the election.

There have been serious moral issues at stake in other elections, but this time many more people took this into account. The high turn-out of voters in this election also seems to suggest that more people were concerned about the issues involved.

One reason seemed to be the concern many people have about preserving the sanctity of marriage. Protection of marriage was on the ballot in eleven states, and in every one of these states it won by a vast majority. This issue surely gave the voters another reason to pause and consider each candidate's positions on moral issues.

Another moral issue that people seemed to notice more this time was the attitude of the candidates toward pro-life issues.

A Chance to Help

Nevertheless, the issue of moral values was only a relative winner among the five priorities polled, not an absolute winner. 22% said it was the decisive factor, not 51%. If we are concerned about moral values, it is clear we still have much work to do. Young people have a key role in this work, since so much of popular culture is addressed to them, but we need to understand better what is at stake in order to take a stand ourselves.

What are moral values, really? And, when two people disagree on what makes one choice moral and another immoral -- as so many did disagree in the presidential election -- how can we know whose values are truly the most moral?

Right vs. Wrong

One definition of the word morality is "in accord with the principles of right and wrong ."

Another way to state that thought might be: Moral values are the deeply held beliefs that guide us when we need to decide whether it would be right or wrong to do something --or not do something.

It might help to illustrate the difference between a moral act and an immoral act by comparing two incidents that were recently in the news.

Morality Rocks

Last spring, a young lady from Redmond, Washington, wrote a short letter to the business executives who run Nordstrom department stores. Her name is Ella Gunderson, and she was concerned because she had a hard time finding modest clothing choices in their stores.

Ella wrote: "I am an eleven-year-old girl who has tried shopping at your store for clothes (in particular jeans), but all of them ride way under my hips, and the next size up is too big and falls down. I see all of these girls who walk around with pants that show their belly button and underwear. Your clerks suggest that there is only one look. If that is true, then girls are supposed to walk around half-naked. I think you should change that."

A lot of local and even national publicity followed, including an appearance on NBC's "Today Show" with Katie Couric. The most exciting development came when the Nordstrom executives promised to offer more modest clothing than in years past --leading other large retail-store chains to make the same pledge.

From Ella's experience, it's easy to identify two ways her moral values made a positive difference in her life.

First, she said "No" to the immodest clothing choices she found when she went to the store. Simply by refusing to purchase the clothes, she made a moral choice.

Then she said "Yes" to doing something to change the situation. It might not have seemed like much to write a short letter, but just look at the results that followed from that one small, morality-based decision.

Immorality Rankles

Contrast Ella's choices in a tricky situation with a choice made by Terrell Owens, the talented wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles who has become one of the most popular stars in the National Football League.

On Monday, November 15, just before the start of ABC's Monday Night Football game between the Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, Terrell appeared in a promotional advertisement for ABC's racy soap opera "Desperate Housewives."

In the ad, Terrell is in the locker room in his Eagles uniform, about to run out for the start of the game. Suddenly Nicollette Sheridan, an actress on the "Desperate Housewives" show , approaches him. Wearing only a bath towel, she tries to talk him into staying there with her rather than joining his team on the field. When he explains that he has a duty to his team, she jumps into his arms. With that, Owens changes his mind. "The team's going to have to win one without me," he says with a smirk.

Time to Speak Up

In the days after the ad ran, there was quite an outcry from the general public and from some influential people in the NFL. "When we turn on 'Monday Night Football,' you're expecting to see football," said Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. "I want my boys to watch football. I don't want them to see what they saw."

Lovie Smith, head coach of the Chicago Bears, added: "I'm a father. I have young kids at home, too. I'm a Christian man. I think it goes without saying that what happened was totally inappropriate."

And Art Rooney, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers, called the promotion an "out and out disgrace. This is NFL football. We don't do those things."

Did he miss something?

For his part, Terrell seemed surprised at the moral outrage the ad provoked. He apologized -- but not because he agreed that the ad was morally wrong. He said he was sorry only because some people felt upset about it. "I felt like it was clean," he said. "I think it just really got taken out of context with a lot of people and I apologize for that."

In other words, he believed the problem lay not in what he had done, but only in how people had reacted to it. This would be like smashing a neighbor's window, on purpose -- and then, when the neighbor came out and yelled at you, you say you were sorry about upsetting him even though you saw nothing wrong in what you did to his window.

You could say that this attitude points out that Terrell's moral compass is malfunctioning. He doesn't have a clear understanding of what is right and wrong. His moral values are not consistent with the full truth about God and man.

Tough Enough

Standing up for moral values takes courage. To clarify the morality (or lack thereof) of the choice Terrell made, let's imagine he refused to make the ad or insisted on making the ad in a different way. Imagine if he insisted on telling Nicollette:

"I'm sorry, Nicollette, but I can't do that. First, you are not my wife. Second , I have a job to do. Third, many kids who look up to me are watching."

"It is morally wrong for two people to be intimate when they are not married to one another.
"I have a duty to my coach, my teammates, our fans and everyone tuning in on TV. It's morally wrong to shirk my duties to others in order to satisfy my selfish desires.
"Being a man implies a responsibility . I have a duty to encourage people, especially young people, to be the best they can be -- not to live an immoral and destructive lifestyle."

Imagine if, after saying that, he turned away from Nicollette and ran out to the field to join his teammates. The ABC network would still have been morally wrong to show a scantily clad woman on TV, especially one who acted the way Nicollette acted with Terrell, but at least Terrell could have held his head high.

The Conscience Clause

Have you ever heard a car alarm go off? It buzzes, it whistles, it screeches like a fire alarm. You conscience is like that. It should go off when you are about to do something you know to be wrong in all circumstances (such as vote for a political candidate who strongly supports the right of people to destroy unborn babies).

But your conscience does not decide all by itself what is right or wrong. In order for it to guide you to doing the right thing, it has to be formed , because sometimes we can make mistakes, even big ones, especially when things get confusing. Only when your conscience has learned objective right from wrong will it be able to function as a reliable moral compass.

Proclaiming Morality

God does not leave us alone to be fooled by our selfishness or the passing fads. He puts his natural moral law into our consciences, and he further helps us with his teaching and grace.

Ever since God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, He has called on the Catholic Church to courageously stand up for what is moral and right in human society -- and stand against what is immoral and wrong.

What a tremendous privilege it is to be a part of that Church -- and what an awesome responsibility .

Of course, championing morality while challenging immorality won't always make us popular. But it will always be the right thing to do, and it will always help our friends and our world find the way to real fulfillment.

America Abuzz Over Moral Values November 2004