Making Ethical Choices Shouldn’t Be Hard

We live in interesting times when we split hairs over what is legal and what is moral. One Presidential advisor responded to a question from an interviewer in this way: “Oh, now you want to discuss what is moral? That’s a different matter entirely.”

No matter what role we find ourselves in, we have a responsibility not only to obey the law but to be honest. My friend Jerry Gaither has passed but he provided some good advice about ethical decision making. Jerry was a county superintendent of schools in Tennessee during a highly politicized and divisive period. He shared with me what he called “an administrator’s ethics test.”

Here are some key items in the list that Jerry wrote almost thirty years ago.

Can I look in the mirror and feel good about myself?
Will it make me proud?
Will it stand the light of day--tomorrow as well as today?
Would I feel good if my family knew about it?
And, the supreme test--Could I kneel beside my bed and pray, “Dear Lord, I have done my best. Give me what I deserve.”?

I think that these questions are a good commentary on Micah 6:8:

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”.

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