In my readings, I recently came across a reference to Plato’s four virtues which are: moderation, justice, wisdom, and courage. I want to discuss courage which is defined as “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, or pain without fear.” Fear is defined as “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain.”
One blogger comments that: “While it is easier to find examples of physical courage, moral courage is difficult to find in contemporary society.” [1] Why is this so?
“Moral” is defined as: “Pertaining to or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong.” So moral courage is the willingness to face difficulty when we make decisions on what is right and wrong. It seems that we are afraid of making difficult moral choices. Why? What is it about these moral choices that produces such a lack of courage within us? I can see a couple of reasons.
First, we are social creatures and we tend to go along with the norms of the society in which we live. If we do not, then society is able to employ very effective means to ensure our compliance—we are ostracized. The fear of being excluded from our group is very effective so we allow our culture to make our moral choices for us.
Second, our own selfish interests drive our moral choices. Money, position, or fame are more important to us and if right conduct gets in the way of obtaining these, then goodbye right conduct. However, the Bible tells us: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” (1Timothy. 6:10 ESV). It appears we are willing to sell our soul to gain what we want on this earth (Mark 8:36). Is that really what we want?
These days moral courage is in short supply. Will the moral choices each of us make add to or subtract from that supply?
____________________________________________
[1] https://blog.uvm.edu/pstanden/2012/03/13/the-4-virtues/
