Religion Morals & Everyday Life
December 25, 2019Blogs / Religion, Morals, and Everyday LifeFor everyone the holidays mean something just a little bit
different. Why can we not take the attitude we take toward our holiday
traditions and apply it to everyday life. There is no judging of what is the correct
or proper way to celebrate the holiday season. This a broad generalization about
family traditions and is not about religious beliefs or practices, that topic
would require more than a blog to delve into. For example, you could compare two Christian
families whom attend the same church. One family attends the Christmas Eve
service than bakes cookies while the other family goes out to eat on Christmas
Eve and attends the Christmas morning service. Neither family tradition is the same
yet they both attend the same church. As well neither family would judge the
others tradition as unimportant. Traditions serve a purpose and it is a purpose
that has great importance to family units. Generally, traditions are celebrated
or shared as a family unit so they help preserve families and bring families
together. Yet no one tradition is the same from family unit to family unit. Yet
a majority of families have a holiday tradition that they undertake this
holiday season. It is the one time of year when judgement of traditions is
withheld. If we could all apply that overall tolerance to everyday, society in general
would flourish. So, eat, drink and be
merry or whatever variety of traditions your family shares and keep that spirit
into the new year. Tolerance and patience to all.
Enjoy what you read? Follow
me on FB at Maria Ecrivain and on Twitter @M.E. Speaks1. Stay informed and keep
it real! -M.E. [...]
December 13, 2019Blogs / Religion, Morals, and Everyday LifeCount down to the holidays. Everyone is out shopping and
preparing for the holidays. What are you doing to prepare for the Holidays? Some
ideas to make your holiday special this year. Spend some time with your family
doing something together. Anything will do: play cards, a board game, do a holiday
scavenger hunt, watch a holiday movie heck even cook a meal together. Share your favorite holiday memories from when
you were children. Distance an issue then facetime while doing the same thing,
like stream or watch the same movie. While not all families are close it only
takes one to start a family tradition. Want to get everyone excited than try to
chose something everyone will enjoy. Paint night at someone’s kitchen table or old
re-runs of a show everyone loved to watch as children. Our family all has found
memories of my father’s eggnog and look forward to sharing a glass. This is the
only time of year my Dad makes it and it is his “secret” family recipe. It’s a
tradition no matter whose house the holiday festivities occur at Dad brings the
eggnog.
Create a holiday tradition of your own. Pass on whatever kindness and generosity you can this season. Donate to a food bank or a local shelter. Or perhaps, visit a local nursing home and drop off some homemade cookies or just hang out and chat. Every act of random kindness is multiplied exponentially so give the world your ripple of holiday cheer! Let that car merge happily or maybe allow the woman with 2 items to go in front of you at the grocery store all with a smile on your face. Being kind does not require you spend money. So, get out there and spend that holiday cheer generously on those around you!
Enjoy what you read? Follow
me on FB at Maria Ecrivain and on Twitter @M.E. Speaks1. Stay informed and keep
it real! -M.E. [...]
August 12, 2019Original Objective Articles / Religion, Morals, and Everyday LifeThe world
and the circumstances people face are always changing, and with that, the
people are changing. Therefore, it’s no real surprise the newer generations
can’t do some of the same things older generations can do. However, I named
this article “5 Surprising Things today’s youth can’t do” because many of the
things listed would come across as shocking to older generations, as they would’ve
been considered basic and essential skills in their life.
Millennials and Generation Z live
in quite a different world environment as youth than did Generation X, who
lived in quite a different environment than the baby boomers in their youth. Such
differences in environment required and encouraged different sets of skills for
each group. The advancement of technology has also impacted such skills because
as technology has advanced, people have not been required to learn certain
skills. For instance, the invention of the calculator no longer makes it
essential for people to learn and remember long division. Let’s take a look at the
world environment each generation grew up in and how such environment has
shaped each generation’s characteristics and skill set.
The boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 and had
experienced a great amount of prosperity, but also went through the Vietnam War
drafts, the Cold War, and the erection of the Berlin War. Through such
experiences the Boomers realized a need for social change and advocacy, and
witnessed and fought for Civil Rights. Financially, Boomers prefer going in a
branch to make transactions, but do not reject digital or mobile banking
methods.
Generation X, born between 1965 – 1979, included the first
children exposed to television, and as youth were mostly left to fend for
themselves while both parents were at work. As youth, generation X witnessed the
hard work, layoffs, and lack of happiness their parents went through. Such
experiences led many in this generation to focus on family and free time more
than a career. Professional dress was also less important to this generation
because they had different priorities in career than did the Boomers.
Financially, this generation prefers to make transactions in person, but is
digitally savvy and will do some research and financial management online.
Millennials, born between 1980 and 1994, grew up surrounded
with computers, social media, and other technological advancements their parents
had not seen as youth. Such technological advancements granted more awareness
to this generation by bringing worldwide events into consciousness and allowing
quicker access to information via the internet. This greater awareness combined
with the witnessing of school shootings and terrorism, and many millennials
coming from divorced families contributes to the levels of fear and anxiety
present in millennials. Such fear and sensitivity have led millennials to be extremely
accepting of those different from the norm. Financially, millennials are
accustomed to a digital world and seek digital tools to manage their debt.
Millennials also view their banks as strictly transactional, unlike past
generations who view their banks relationally.
Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2015, is of course the
most technologically immersed generation. Individuals from this generation are
able to easily use technology to find information, and their technological
skills are further encouraged and developed through support of the school
system. Along with being technologically savvy, generation Z also easily
multitasks, gathers information quickly, and likes to learn through experience.
In terms of finance, after watching the millennials struggle generation Z has
adopted a fiscally conservative approach to avoid debt Generation Z has also
taken to completing all or most of their banking needs mobile or online in some
way. However, while generation Z possesses such valuable skills and adopts some
positive financial ideologies, the generation is also greatly desensitized to
violence through witnessing or hearing about accounts of violence almost daily.
As one can tell, each generation grew up in different
environments with different challenges that shaped each generations characteristics
and skill set. Each generation has such differing experiences and ideologies
that define them, that it’s actually not at all surprising that newer
generations lack skills generations of the past have. What seems essential for
one generation is in reality no longer essential for newer generations, and
therefore, newer generations lack some skills the older generations possess. It
works the same the other way around too, what seems essential to new
generations is deemed unnecessary by older generations because older
generations are accustomed to the way they’ve been living and aren’t pursuing
the same things newer generations are. While both of these things are
interesting to consider, this article is only going to cover the skills newer
generations lack and why.
Talking
on the Phone
As the world becomes more and more
digitalized and new communication technologies are released, newer generations
are drawn to these newer, quicker, and often times more efficient forms of
communication. Whereas, older generations remain accustomed to communicating in
the same ways they would when they were younger. This causes frustration when
older generations try communicating with younger generations by talking on the
phone.
There are a number of reasons why
younger generations don’t like communicating by phone, but one of the biggest
reasons is because of how time-consuming phone calls. Instead of spending a
bunch of time going through the niceties of verbal conversation with all the
greetings and small talk, younger generations prefer to send a text to get
information directly. Another reason younger generations favor texting and
other forms of communication over calling is consideration of one’s time. If
someone calls, the receiver is expected to answer according to the caller’s
availability, not according to when is best for them. Even voicemail’s are a
hassle because of calling back.
Due to the younger generations
lack of preference for calling, they are not skilled at talking on the phone,
and often avoid answering completely, giving millennials the nickname
generation mute. This causes frustration for older generations who primarily
communicate by calling. Even if the younger generation does take a phone call, it’ll
likely be awkward, as the individual is not accustomed to such communication
and doesn’t have as much time to think about things before they say them.
Meek, A.
(2018, December 9). A bunch of millennials explained in a survey why they
despise phone calls. Retrieved from https://bgr.com/2018/12/09/millennials-phone-calls-survey/
Reading
Analog Clocks
Being an individual from a younger
generation myself, I have witnessed many others in my generation asking the
time because they can’t read an analog clock. It seems the old skill of reading
analog clocks has become unnecessary to younger generations because clocks are
becoming digitalized. Younger generations would much rather pull out their
phones to read the digital time than spend time deciphering an analog clock.
The results from a Jimmy Kimmel
live! video demonstrate the youths lack of ability to read an analog clock
in the modern day. Several of the young people interviewed in the show
attempted to read the clock but got the time wrong, either by confusing the
hands or not understanding the roman numerals. Such results show that with the
advancement of technology, young generations are no longer needing to learn the
same basic skills older generations were required to know.
Nelson, D.
(2019, May 29). Kimmel Asked ‘Young People’ to Read a Clock & It Was Not
Impressive. Retrieved from https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/jimmy-kimmel-millennial-read-clocks
Jimmy Kimmel
Live. (2019, May 29). Can Young People Read a Clock? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=53&v=ZvLKbhXqEKw
Maintaining
Their Own Vehicles
In the past, maintaining and
taking care of one’s car on their own was something to be proud of, but it
seems such has changed as younger generations care less to know how vehicles
work than to use them. Younger generations are so used sophisticated technology,
they’re accustomed to expecting stuff to work rather than to know how something
works. Therefore, the youth have no desire to study the inner workings of
vehicles so they can fix them, especially when they can just take their cars to
a shop.
Another factor that contributes to
the youth’s lack of knowledge and care to maintain their own vehicles is
technological advancement in vehicles. More and more mechanical parts in
vehicles are being enhanced with more complex electrical components. This makes
taking care of a vehicle far more difficult than it was in the days of the
older generation’s youth, where one didn’t need a professional degree to
rebuild parts of a vehicle. However, many individuals from today’s youth are so
negligent they can’t even do simple tasks like popping the hood.
Faw, L.
(2012, November 20). Does It Matter If Millennials Don’t Know How Cars Work?
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/larissafaw/2012/11/20/does-it-matter-if-millennials-dont-know-how-cars-work/#4b3f08e14d58
Writing
in Cursive
In today’s world cursive is only
really necessary for signatures and schools have even discontinued teaching
cursive because it has no necessary application anywhere else. On top of that, children
struggle to learn and read cursive, and most forget all the cursive they were
taught when they were younger because they don’t need to use it. Some could
claim not learning cursive in school is a problem because of signatures, but
all you’ve got to do in this day and age is look up the cursive alphabet and
spell out your name with it. Therefore, it’s not like the youth are doomed
because they can’t write in cursive fluently.
Daugherty, A.
(2018, May 11). Cursive is dying, kids can’t sign their own names ? and that’s
a huge problem. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/cursive-is-dying-kids-cant-sign-their-own-names-and-thats-a-huge-problem/article12811846/
Burning
CD’s
Technology used to store
information is constantly evolving. First we had floppy disks, the VCR’s, then CD’s,
and now we have flash drives, online storage and downloads. With all these
innovations in storage, learning to use older technology isn’t necessary.
Therefore, younger generations no longer have the need to know how to burn
CD’s. This comes as a shock to older generations for some reason.
Older generations look back on
their young days of music with lots of nostalgia, and for many, those days
included burning songs onto CD’s and playing music through CD players. So to
these older generations, the idea of not being able to burn a CD is upsetting
because it highlights the days of their youth. A seventeen-year-old girl had
posted on twitter asking how to burn a CD and many individuals from older
generations had responded in disgust and shock because of how much the CD had
defined their youth. But the simple reality is that technology is evolving,
making older technology like CD’s outdated in today’s world.
Snapes, L.
(2018, October 24). The CD-R is dead ? and Generation Z are lucky to have
avoided it. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/24/cd-r-generation-z [...]
March 5, 2019Original Opinionated Articles / Religion, Morals, and Everyday LifeBy: Gittan Alicia | Contributing AOJ Journalist
Puzzles are
quite an interesting subject. All one is doing is putting pieces together in
the right place to form an end result of some sort, yet one can find immense
joy in doing so. From an outside view, puzzles sound dull and simplistic, but
once one sits down and tries solving a puzzle, one tends to be dumbfounded and
overcome with frustration at so great challenge. Why is this so, and why are some
people better at working out puzzles than others?
Puzzles can range from putting
together actual tangible pieces of a variety shapes to form the end result of
an image, to recording numbers in boxes so all rows and columns equal a
particular sum. Yet all of these puzzles, regardless of their type, require a
certain skill, this skill is known as problem solving. Puzzles force an
individual to take several different approaches to solve a problem, and
eventually these approaches will be perfected and evaluated through trial and
error. For example, when solving a standard picture puzzle, one could simply
grab random pieces one by one and start sticking them together, or look for
only corner pieces, or sort through the pieces and put them into sections according
to where they might belong based off the picture. An individual could also use
a combination of these approaches in several different orders to determine what
they think works best, but to do so requires trial and error, which is problem
solving. This means that to solve a puzzle efficiently, the individual needs
problem solving, and therefore, problem solving is developed through the art of
solving puzzles.
The benefits of solving puzzles can
easily be seen in the real world. Jobs require problem solving in a variety of activities
ranging from creating theories, forming and testing hypotheses, and changing
the approach when something doesn’t work out. This might sound like something
that can only be applied to scientific work, but it can be applied to any job.
For instance, an individual could use the problem-solving methods by testing
out different schedules, amounts of sleep, and activities to maximize their
efficiency at work and overall mood. Problem solving is also useful to make an
individual more innovative and adaptive when changes occur or things come up at
work because they’re able to effectively come up with an approach with a greater
chance at working. Problem solving can also give a company an advantage over
competition through critical thinking that maximizes company performance.
Therefore, solving puzzles can be
greatly beneficial for improving an individual’s problem-solving skills. These
skills can be useful in work and everyday life in several ways and by
possessing them, one can be more efficient and valuable as a worker. This means
that one should try developing problem solving skills whether it be through
solving puzzles or not, because it will help them later in life and possibly
lead to a higher paying job or position.
Citations:
What
are problem-solving skills and why are they important?. (2017, June 13).
Retrieved from https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/what-are-problemsolving-skills-and-why-are-they-importantThe
Surprising Benefits of Puzzles for Adults. (2018, August 23). Retrieved from http://classifieds.usatoday.com/uncategorized/the-surprising-benefits-of-puzzle-solving-for-adults/ [...]
February 24, 2019Original Objective Articles / Religion, Morals, and Everyday LifeBy: Gittan Alicia | Contributing AOJ Journalist
Time management, it’s one of those things everyone is aware of, but most don’t pay attention to or seriously consider. Most think time management isn’t a problem they have, because they think only seriously disorganized people struggle with it, however, this is a false assumption. Anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed with what they need to do, stressed about a deadline coming up soon, or worried about a test the next day, has struggled with time management. If one were to break down all the things in the list I just mentioned, one would notice that all of them are related to being unprepared, and the reason for being unprepared would be not setting aside time to prepare. For instance, if one is worried about a test one has the next day, the odds are that person feels he/she didn’t study enough, and the reason for this would be that he/she didn’t set aside enough time to study. Problems like these could be significantly reduced if one set aside enough time for everything they did and planned everything out so one wouldn’t miss anything while setting aside extra time in case something does come up.
There are several reasons people tend to struggle with time management. One of these reasons is that, people tend to underestimate the time it will take them to complete a task. For instance, one might think writing a paper for a class will only take 2 hours, so he/she plans to hang out with a friend after those two hours they planned, but in actuality, the person had struggled with the first paragraph and didn’t finish the essay in the time given. Another reason people struggle with time management is due to time perception and control. Those who don’t plan out their activities and make lists and reminders, feel more overwhelmed and stressed about what needs to get done. This is because these people don’t feel like they have control over the time and because of this don’t know how to fit in what needs to get done. Someone who plans his/her activities does feel like he/she has control over the time because he/she knows exactly when to complete each activity and have planned to fit the activities to be finished in time.
Despite
the fact that time management can seem overwhelming and impossible to deal
with, there are several ways to deal with it and each person is different, so trying
several different methods may be necessary to find what works. One method to
deal with time management is to make a to-do list. This list should include everything
that needs to be done with certain things marked as prioritized more than
others. Deadlines should also be included in the list to ensure the item is
completed by the necessary time and once the item is completed, it should be
checked off. Another way to help deal with time management is to reduce
multitasking. While multitasking may seem more productive because more than one
thing is getting done at once, it’s not. The human mind works better when it
can completely concentrate on one thing. One other method to help with time
management is to make a plan for distractions. While one can have a perfect
plan to get everything done, it’s no use if one becomes distracted or is thrown
off by an unexpected event. To solve this, one should add extra time in one’s
plan in case something comes up, and one should try to minimize the
distractions around oneself. For instance, while studying phones can be distracting,
so one could power of one’s phone before studying to avoid these distractions.
One could also avoid doing homework near a television someone else is watching
so one isn’t drawn into the movie. These are just a few of many methods to help
with time management.
As one can tell, time management is more of an issue than most people think. There are several reasons for poor time management, and lack of good time management can lead to being overwhelmed, anxiety, and stress. However, these problems can all be avoided if time management methods like creating a to-do list and avoiding distractions are put into practice. One could even ask others to for help if one struggles with time management skills on one’s own. For instance, a friend could send a reminder to remind one to do something. It’s very important for everyone, to have good time management skills to lead a healthy life, and therefore people should try different methods to find a time management method that is suitable for them.
Citations
Harman, J. J.
(2014, March 13). Time Management for Students: a Psychological Explanation of
Why We Struggle. Retrieved from http://blog.online.colostate.edu/blog/online-education/time-management-for-students-a-psychological-explanation-of-why-we-struggle/White, D. M.
(2018, October 8). 6 Tips to Improve Your Time Management Skills.
Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/6-tips-to-improve-your-time-management-skills/
Top 3 Time Management
Techniques for Students | europace.org. (2016, July 10). Retrieved from https://www.europace.org/top-3-time-management-techniques-for-students/ [...]
February 9, 2019Original Opinionated Articles / Religion, Morals, and Everyday LifeBy: Gittan Alicia | Contributing AOJ Journalist
Age limits are found virtually everywhere, but for
what reason. Most people will argue that the age limits are there for safety
reasons on account of maturity. However, age limits may not actually be the
best way to judge an individual’s maturity. Walk into any modern-day high
school and you will see a diverse range in the maturity of the students there.
You’ll find some teens who are totally wild and out of control, and other teens
who are perfectly behaved and focused on their schoolwork and future. Why
should those focused and ambitious young students have to wait to be a certain
age to achieve their goals? Why should they be held back due to a stereotypical
age standard for maturity? Hasn’t society been preaching against stereotypes?
Why should the age maturity stereotype be considered valid while every other
stereotype is considered discriminatory?
According to Tim Elmer in his article The Marks of Maturity on Psychology today, “Students today are consuming information they aren’t completely ready to handle. The adult part of their brain is still forming and isn’t ready to apply all that our society throws at it.” The article also goes on to explain that teens aren’t prepared to make healthy decisions and teens are in between the stages of a child and an adult. It is with based off this that movie ratings are set. After reading this article it can be determined that age does have an impact on maturity because of the development of the brain, but that doesn’t explain why the certain ages are picked for when teens can do something or why some teens are more mature than some adults. According to this article, “The frontal lobes of the brain which are responsible for high level reasoning and decision making aren’t fully mature until the early 20s, according to Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, a neuroscientist at Harvard’s Brain Imaging Center.”. Based on this information, it would make more sense for all age limits to be set at about 20, for instance, driving, being considered an adult, and drinking, should be set at the age of about 20. But if this were to happen it would be unfair for all the teens far below that age who are more mature and who would be held back from achieving their ambitions due to a maturity standard based on age. How then could limits be set that don’t discriminate on age, but ensure proper maturity of an individual?
According to the same article there are certain
qualities that define a mature individual, including, the person keeps
long-term commitments, the person is unshaken by flattery or criticism, the
person possesses humility, the persons decisions are based on set values not
feelings, the person frequently expresses gratitude, the person prioritizes
others before themselves, and the person seeks wisdom before acting. These are
all qualities that are certainly not found in most adults or teens. These are also
all qualities opposite of the qualities associated with being childish. For
instance, the quality of an individual prioritizing others before themselves is
literally just that the person isn’t selfish, which is often associated with children.
However, there are many adults and teens in the world who are very selfish and
care less about others than themselves. It can also be seen in the world around
us that there are many adults that don’t fit these qualities, yet according to
age limits, these adults are more mature than all teens. So why then create a
system where determining factor for one’s maturity is based on age, which then
determines whether or not an individual can do something? Many don’t question
this system or advocate against it, but such a system can be very limiting on
the abilities of aspiring young people to achieve their goals.
As a young person myself, I can say from personal experience
that had my parents not been willing to help me with legal stuff, I would not have
been able to do half the stuff I’ve done. This made me think about other young
people who may not be as fortunate as I to have parents willing to help them.
Because of the stereotypical age limits determining maturity idea, these young
people are at a disadvantage. They aren’t able to legally do a lot of stuff on
their own. For instance, parental assistance is required for teens to do stuff
like take classes at a college, volunteer at many places, and start a business.
If a teenager’s parents aren’t willing to assist them with this, they can’t do
any of it. Instead, the teen is forced to delay their path to their dreams
until they’re finally considered old enough to do this on their own, which isn’t
fair. There are many adults themselves who never mature enough to be able to do
these things, yet they can while younger people more mature than them aren’t
allowed to do these things because they’re younger.
Driving is another argument in relation to maturity,
but is commonly misunderstood. There are many older drivers on the road who
drive rather poorly dashing between cars, speeding, not paying attention to
anyone around them, and not caring. These drivers, while they are considered adults,
are immature. Whereas, while many young drivers tend to get into accidents, many
are trying their best to drive well and pay attention, but because they’re new
drivers they’re still learning like everyone else once had to, they make
mistakes. It doesn’t matter how old a teenager is when they drive, no matter
how mature they are, they are going to mess up driving and get into an accident
because they’re learning, the same would apply for an adult learning to drive.
The accidents from young drivers aren’t going to change by changing the age,
because new drivers are in the process of learning.
As
one could tell age limits are a commonly used and poor way to measure maturity.
It doesn’t matter how old someone is to determine whether or not they’re
mature, rather it depends on how developed the person is emotionally and
personality wise. However, according to society and law age is what determines
maturity. This is unfair to young people and delays them from achieving their
goals. One could recommend changing this system and replacing it with something
else, but what could it possibly be replaced with. A test could be given to
determine an individual’s maturity, but it’d be hard to create an effective
test that measures maturity and makes lying to appear more mature difficult. Therefore,
while age limits are an unfair way to judge the maturity of people and while they
hold back ambitious young people, the system of age limits the best system
society has come up with to determine an individual’s ability to safely take
part in certain activities. [...]
October 7, 2018Original Objective Articles / Religion, Morals, and Everyday LifeBy: Gittan Alicia | Contributing AOJ Journalist
Christianity, one of the world’s largest religions, has a great impact on people’s morals. As discussed in the previous article, Christianity defines what is considered right and wrong through written scripture and by doing so, shapes peoples morals. The book of scripture for Christianity is called the bible, which uses stories of Jesus, and his disciples and their knowledge of God to create an outline of what people should and shouldn’t do and what will happen if people disobey. Unlike other religions, the punishments for disobedience aren’t severe and violence is not typically a recommended course of action. That being said, there have been some violent events promoted in the name of Christianity, and such events will be discussed later in this article.
Before discussing the ways Christianity shapes morals, it’s important one understands a brief outline and history of Christianity. Christianity dates back to between 2 and 7 BC at the birth of Christ (Jesus) from the virgin Mary, and evolved from the religion of Judaism. Jesus is considered the messiah and lord and savior in Christianity, who was the son of God raised by a Jewish family and sought to reform Christianity. He had 12 disciples and traveled performing miracles such as curing a blind man, and walking on water, and spread his teachings to people along the way. Jesus’s teachings were told in parables and had the main themes of loving God and others, forgiving everyone, asking God for forgiveness of sins, repenting sins, not judging or being hypocritical, etc. Eventually Jesus was arrested and crucified and it’s believed that his death cleansed all humanity of their sins. Shortly after Jesus’s death, Jesus was resurrected from the dead and ascended to heaven. The first church was then organized 50 days after the death of Jesus, when the holy spirit is said to descend onto Jesus’s followers. Jesus’s followers then continued to spread and teach the Gospel, establishing many more churches throughout the Roman empire. Many Christians faced persecution for their beliefs in the Roman empire until 313 AD when Constantine lifted the ban on Christianity. That’s just a brief description of Christianity to help better understand what’s being discussed.
People of Christianity base their morals on how life should be with Jesus at the center. This means Christians try to lead a life and act like Jesus would. Because of this, Christianity is shaping Christians morals by defining right and wrong through what Jesus would and wouldn’t do in certain situations. According to The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission there are six principles on how Christians should live a life centered on Jesus. These six principles are to find oneself by discovering truth outside oneself and in Jesus, loving others doesn’t always mean staying silent, joy isn’t found in our own desires but giving of ourselves to bless others, life’s main goal is giving glory to God, God gives people the freedom to believe whatever they want and such beliefs always affect society, and God created boundaries for sexuality so humans could flourish. In essence, Christians believe in the greater good of glorifying God, instead of self-fulfillment.
When it comes to the idea of glorifying God instead of tending to one’s own self-fulfillment, an outsider to Christianity can be quite intimidated. But the reality is simply that Christians believe happiness doesn’t come focusing on one’s own well-being, but instead comes from working to glorify God so they can live in eternal well-being and happiness after death. So, if one really thinks about it, Christians are basically saying they’d rather spend an eternity in abounding happiness, than spend their entire lives chasing the things they want that may or may not actually make them happy at the expense of others and then spending an eternity in abounding misery. When put in this perspective, the idea of glorifying God over one’s self-fulfillment doesn’t sound all that crazy or bad. Christian beliefs on how to glorify God are also generally beneficial for all people, Christian and non-Christian. For example, Christians believe in loving their neighbors and enemies as their selves, and they believe in forgiveness for any wrongs anyone may have done. However, sometimes Christians can get the wrong idea of glorifying God, which ends up coming at the expense of other peoples well-being.
The Christian Crusades are one powerful example of how Christians attempted to glorify God in a rather counterproductive way. The Christian Crusades were a series of wars launched by the Christians against the Muslims to regain the holy land of Jerusalem. There are several reasons for which the Christian Crusades were unchristian like and didn’t glorify God. First of all, the participants were murdering civilians, conquering land, and destroying civilizations, which are all violent things Christians are supposed to be fighting against be setting an example of peace, as stated in Peter 3:9 from the bible, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing”. In the Crusades, Christians are obviously not doing this, rather they let their hearts become so filled with hate over the capture of their holy land that they turned to violence and claimed their actions were in the name of Jesus to get away with it. Hate and revenge is yet another thing that the religion of Christianity is against, as stated in Luke 6:27-28, “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” So, The Christian Crusades are not really representative of the religion of Christianity, but they do represent a very important factor on the influence of religion on peoples morals.
The influence of Christianity on its followers’ morals is influenced by not just the principles of the religion, but the other people of the religion. Christianity is a religion that focuses largely on community and being in the presence of other Christians. Christians spend time every Sunday going to church together and organize a great number of events to help a community. This means that Christians in a community have a strong connection with one another and definitely have an influence on each other’s morals. This is likely why so many Christians participated in the Christian Crusades. Their fellow Christians were fighting for the holy land and they’re Christians, so it must be the right thing to do, or so they thought. It’s easy for people to think something is ok just because their friends are doing it and they trust their friends, even though what their friends are doing may not actually be right. This kind of thinking has a great impact on people and their morals.
To sum up the religion of Christianity and its morals, Christianity is a religion centered on living to glorify God. This means spreading goodness and serving people around oneself, instead of seeking one’s self-fulfillment. Christianity is also largely a community-based religion, meaning Christians participate in a lot of activities together and generally trust each other. The influences Christians have on one another help shape their morals. The shaping of a Christians morals based on the writings and people the Christian lives around, determine how good of a person a Christian really is. Just being Christian does not make someone a good person, or someone characterized by the actions that Christians in the past or Christians in other areas have taken. [...]
Suggested External Reads
https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/08/killed-god-family-community-now-killing-us/