For instance, my cousins see the world in black and white: Right and wrong. Rules help in their walk of faith. They both just graduated and married nice christian boys & have babies on the way. they express their devotion to God by playing out a story that culture says is God’s love story. Part of me wishes i were that simple. Part of me wants to be cynical and judge them using rhetoric gained through years of education. But are my motives any more pure? Who am i to judge someone else’s expression of faith, just because i seek God through the mist of shades of grey?

Amen. Wow, that’s a whole other post within itself.

Steph–> Thanks! Isn’t it funny how we try to so complicate everything when the foundation of everything is love? For some folks love just seems too simple of an answer, but maybe its because they’re confusing simple with easy.

Esther–> You offered such thoughtful reflections to this conversation but I would do a disservice to offer any comments to what you shared at this late hour with the amount of sleepy fuzz in my brain. I look forward to reading it again in the morning after my coffee!

Several years ago, around the time I was first coming out to myself, I was a member of a church that is more conservative than the one I attend now. One Sunday night the pastor mentioned the book Situation Ethics by Joseph Fletcher in his sermon. He was disparaging the book, but being the quiet rebel that I am, I thought it sounded like something I might agree with. I also thought “I think I have that book at home.” Sure enough, I did have it on my shelf – one of my late grandfather’s books that my father had recommended I take and read someday. It came off the shelf and I read it cover to cover. And it’s pretty much this – the law of love above all else.

So then later, when I was working on my master’s in education and studying Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, it came up again. This level of moral development is the highest – we are not governed by rules, fear of punishment, or maintaining the social order – we are living by a higher governing principle. And as Christians, that higher principle is love. Makes sense to me – sounds just like what Jesus said!

The troublesome part to me is this, though – Kohlberg’s stages of moral development are closely tied to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. And, as a teacher, I know that many people never get to the highest levels of cognitive reasoning, so they’re also not able to get to the highest levels of moral reasoning. Does that mean that people with less intelligence are intrinsically less moral? I don’t believe that – I just don’t quite know what to think of it. You really do have to be able to think and reason in order to live morally by principles instead of following rules. You can’t just give children “guiding principles” – they need rules. And some people just never get past that — some because they’re afraid to challenge it, but others really don’t have (or have not achieved) the intellectual capacity for such reasoning. How do I live in community with people who are not going to think about morality the same way I do? How do I keep from feeling superior? And how do I explain my choices and actions to them? It’s been in the back of my brain for years – can’t quite figure it out.

“I think I’m becoming convinced more and more that true wisdom is ultimately found by those who hang everything on Jesus’ law of love.”

I couldn’t agree more. I think every little thing should be tested against this one law alone. I try to test my words and actions with this one law, often finding myself falling short…….but growing beyond belief.

Thanks Anita, I love this.