When a society makes virtues (high moral qualities) undesirable, it’s in trouble. A culture that mocks virtues will gravitate toward anarchy. Virtue is continually under attack. It’s easy to abandon it. I need to oppose the evil inclinations within me as much as the evil I see around me.
Virtues are behaviors that show high moral standards. The word’s seldom used anymore. (Perhaps we don’t talk about virtue because we see so little of it.) Instead there seems to be a conspiracy of accusation–people bullying to get their way by boldly blaming others.
Virtue is moral cleanliness and a clear conscience. It is alignment with goodness and should be a lifetime pursuit. There’s something in humans that tries to stop us from thinking, saying, and doing bad things. It’s called conscience.
Virtues are morally excellent character traits. They are the opposites of sins. There’s no need to be offended because someone’s conscience is stricter than yours.
To be amoral isn’t freedom. It is surrender to dangerous whims, cravings, and desires. The desires you defend and develop, will gradually dominate you. You can’t be dishonest without detaching yourself from reality and diving into deception.
It’s easy to be majority-minded instead of moral-minded — to blend with the crowd instead of doing what’s right. If humans cultivated their conscience instead of silencing it, most of the world’s problems would fade away.
Virtuous reality is impossible by human effort. I see complete virtuous reality only in the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.
