That's on the national scene. Closer to home:

A man slaps his wife because she doesn't keep the house clean enough.

A schoolgirl starts a nasty false rumor about another girl.

An office worker spends company time, using company telephones to make personal calls.

A college student copies a term paper from the Internet and passes it in as though it was his own writing.

A child takes lunch money from a special needs child who readily gives it up in order to make a friend.

A young man slips a drug into his date's drink so he can take advantage of her.

In chorus we all raise our voices to renounce these wrongs. After all, we are Christians, and we know right from wrong.

Today my intention is to do the very best I can to unsettle you, to see if I can get you to feel uneasy and perhaps insecure about your own ability to make moral and ethical decisions.

The question is, “What is the right thing to do?” It's a question of ethics - Christian ethics.

First, Christians start with affirming there is a right and wrong - we believe there are absolutes, some things we do are absolutely right, others are absolutely wrong.

Furthermore, Christians say, we can know - the knowledge of good and evil is not beyond us, although we admit that at times it is very difficult. The fact is, every day we are called upon to make moral and ethical decisions - every day we decide what to do or what to say based on what we believe to be the right thing to do or say.

In making these decisions, we reject outright certain ideas.

Most of us have rejected the idea, "If it feels good, do it." We fully understand that this ethical guide will likely lead us astray. Emotions can be artificially manufactured by substances and experiences which end up being dangerous to either body or spirit, or both. Something that makes us feel good now, can bring about harm in the long term: tobacco or drugs will harm internal organs, overeating or laziness may cause obesity and ultimately disease. Some activities which seem fun for a moment can become controlling, and ultimately harm relationships with loved ones or even drive us away from God.

We've also forsaken the rule that "If everyone else is doing it, it must be good." For example, we've come to understand that a lot of people follow cult leaders who end up exploiting them, or as in the case of Jim Jones and David Koresh, destroying them. We understand that merely "following the crowd" is an adolescent idea that we grow out of - we come to learn that sometimes it is best not to follow the crowd; a large group of people can be largely wrong.

In addition, while Christians reject it, we see that there are too many people in our day who seem to believe that, "Anything goes if it produces a profit - the ends justify the means." For a short time I once worked as a sales person for a specialized bed mattress company. During the training, it was clearly explained that if you lied about the product it would be “OK” because, if the person bought the bed, it would definitely be for their benefit. We all knew that the true motive was simply to get the sale and earn a commission.

So we agree that these three, "If it feels good, do it," "If other people are doing it, do it," and "If it helps the bottom line, it’s OK" are not satisfactory as moral or ethical guides and the question remains, how do we decide what is right and what is wrong?

Of course there's more than one level of moral and ethical decisions.

On one level are questions about personal choices.

For example, what is the right thing to wear? Are there clothing items that are not right for the Christian? Are there clothing brands or companies we should boycott because their manufacturers exploit poor sweat-shop laborers? Are there slogans we should not have printed on our T-shirts? What's right, and what's wrong?

Are there types of entertainment we should consider to be wrong? Are some types of music, television shows or movies off-limits for the Christian? And what about sports? Are there types of violent games that Christians should not support? What's right, and what's wrong?

There are even questions about the types of food and drink. Are there some things that would be wrong for the Christian to eat or drink? What's right, and what's wrong?

We also have questions about drugs, whether legal or illegal. Should a Christian partake in anything that artificially alters their physical or mental state? What's right, and what's wrong?

What is the right way for parents to discipline their children? Is "sparing the rod" wrong, or is spanking wrong?

How do we respond when someone criticizes or offends us in some way? Should we confront them, avoid them, or tell other people about the problem?

What are the right and wrong ways for husbands and wives to display affection whether in public or in private? In what settings are PDA’s acceptable? Are there any sexual taboos for married people?

What is the right way to respond when you're upset? Should you pound a hole in the wall, or your enemy’s face? Is it always just plain wrong to be angry?

How should you handle the situation when someone passes on to you a bit of gossip? Forgive them? Correct the false information or just ignore it?

Is it ever right to lie, for example in order to save another person’s life?

Is killing right if it’s during a war, if it’s capital punishment, or if it’s an abortion to save the mother’s life?

At work or in school, what is the right and wrong way of responding when asked or encouraged to do something that is somewhat questionable, like being told you can pad your time-chart? Is it right or wrong to cheat on a test or paper because you don't want those who practice cheating to have an advantage?

On the third level are questions having to do with God.

What is right and what is wrong in God's eyes?

Apart from having His approval concerning how we care for ourselves and treat His other children - what does he expect concerning our relationship with Him? What is the right thing to do? Is it sacrifice? Prayer? Tithing? Fasting? Kiss the Pope's ring?

Every day, and on multiple levels we are faced with numerous moral and ethical questions - what is right and what is wrong?

Actually there are a number of possible ways to discover the answer to this question.

1. Do what your parents tell you.

Sounds good, but do they always know what is right? I once knew a 14-year-old girl whose mother continually had men in the home and the young girl thought there was nothing wrong with having relations with a variety of men. If this daughter did what her mother told her to do, she would have had multiple sex partners before she ever turned 16.

Besides, what if your parent tells you to lie, as often happens when the phone rings and your father instructs you to say, "Tell him I'm not here"?

What about when an ambitious parent does the science project and tells his son to turn it in as if he did it himself?

Of course it's good to obey your parents, but is that the sure way to make moral decisions?

2. Simply obey the law of the land.

One problem with this is that we have gotten very good at finding ways to get around the law. How else can you explain that there are 35 pages of advertisements for attorneys in our rural Sussex County? Just because a person cannot be found guilty by a judge or jury doesn't necessarily mean they have done no wrong. At the same time, hasn’t the law judged some to be guilty only to find out years later they were innocent?

Again, we all know that obeying the law of the land is the right thing to do, but isn't it quite possible to obey the law and still do wrong?

Besides, what if the law is wrong? The law told Rosa Parks where to sit on the bus - did she do the wrong thing by sitting in front of, instead of in back of, the sign with the "N" word on it?

What if the law says you cannot pray in school, should you stop praying?

What if the law forbids you to publicly share your faith? The early disciples seemed to think that at times God's commands overruled man's - were they right about that? But just because someone claims, "God told me to do it," does that prove that it is right? Are abortion doctor killers doing the right thing? Didn't the 9/11 hijackers believe they were obeying God?

3. How about this: while on the job, do what the boss says, and if it's immoral or unethical, it's his responsibility, not yours? Some people believe that if you're in the military, as long as you're obeying orders you can't be held responsible for any wrong doing - your commanding officer will be held accountable, not you.

4. Some may think that if you do what the church says, you will be doing the right thing.

But how long did the church tell its members it was wrong to eat any meat other than fish on Friday?

How long did the church teach that any form of jewelry was sin, or playing any kind of sports on Sunday was wrong? Are these questions of morality or ethics?

On the other hand how long has the church been involved in promoting gambling - does that make it right just because the church does it?

So perhaps parents, laws, employers or even churches cannot be relied on as moral guides. So what are we to do? Let’s examine some additional guides to moral and ethical living.

5. "Let your conscience be your guide." If you feel guilty about something, don't do it. But can't that be tampered with? I once worked in a church were the Pastor's conscience would not allow him to go bowling, so he would not allow the youth of the church to bowl. Is bowling really a sin? Is it possible to feel guilty when you've done nothing wrong? On the other hand, today you are doing things and going places, watching programs on TV or in the theater that you used to think were "wrong," but if you are honest about this, your conscience no longer bothers you.

6. "In every situation, do the most loving thing." This is called situation ethics, founded on the command to "love your neighbor as yourself." But what if you don't love yourself very much? Besides, we can't divorce the second command from the first, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart." Certainly loving God affects the way we express our love for others.

7. Closely akin to the love guide is the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Really? But what if you loved riding with someone who drove 100 mph, would that justify taking all your friends on a 100 mph joy ride? One person was scolded for calling someone nasty names, and was asked, "How would you like it if someone called you those names?" The person simply answered, "I wouldn't mind it at all." In such cases, the golden rule doesn’t work at all.

8. More popular among Christians is the idea that we should simply do what the Bible says. But there are problems here too. What if it doesn't say anything about the situation you're faced with? What does the Bible say about crystals, or "myspace.com" or Harry Potter, or movies, or books, or even marijuana - doesn't the Bible say that God created all things for our benefit?

Besides, most people agree that you really can't take the entire Bible literally - if we did, most of us would be operating without any hands or eyes left to offend us! We understand that the Bible requires thoughtful interpretation.

9. Pray about it and the Lord will tell you what is right or wrong. However, isn't it possible to believe God is speaking when in fact it's you're own desire? Whenever you have heard what you think is God speaking to you, hasn't it ever occurred to you that perhaps it's really Satan, or your own flesh doing the talking?

10. Finally, there are those who instruct us to simply imagine and imitate what Jesus would do - WWJD.

I'm sure you've heard about the young man who had just gotten his driving permit and asked his father, who was a minister, if they could discuss the use of the car.

His father took him to his study and said to him, "I'll make a deal with you. You bring your grades up, study your Bible a little and get your hair cut and we'll talk about it."

After about a month the boy came back and again asked his father if they could discuss use of the car. They again went to the father's study where his father said, "Son, I've been real proud of you. You have brought your grades up, you've studied your Bible diligently, but you didn't get your hair cut!"

The young man waited a moment and replied, "You know Dad, I've been thinking about that. You know, Samson had long hair, Moses had long hair, Noah had long hair, and even Jesus had long hair."

To which his father replied, "Yes, and they walked every where they went!"

Think about it, if we did what Jesus did, there would probably be a lot of churches with overturned tables because that’s what Jesus did. Do you think it would always be good to overturn tables whenever you get upset about what's happening in church?

Or, to give another example, any time someone says something you think is not of God, and you want to be like Jesus, turn to him or her and command, “Get thee behind me Satan!”

Again comes the question, “What is the right thing to do?” It seems that all of these moral guides, by themselves, can be faulty guides - parents, governmental officials, employers, teachers and even preachers can all lead you astray. Even your conscience, the law of love, the golden rule, the Bible, prayer and WWJD are not totally reliable.

So what are we to do? The answer to the question is this, “Don't follow any of these guides; follow all of them.”

Proverbs 11:14 tells us, “Where no counsel is, the people fall but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” (KJV) “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure.” (NIV)

What is needed is that we stop to ask the counselors - not just one, but many.

Making moral/ethical decisions is like coming to the RR crossing - the lights are flashing, the bells are ringing and the sign says, “Stop, Look, Listen.” If you ignore this precaution, at times you may get across safely, but on the other hand it may mean your death.

Stopped at the crossroads, here are the questions to ask:

If I asked a parent, officer, teacher or preacher - what would they say? Does this go against what I have been taught; does it leave me feeling uneasy?

Who will benefit from what I'm about to do, only me?

Is this the way I would want to be treated?

Is there a Scripture that comes to mind?

Have I prayed about it?

WWJD?

Our tendency is to try to find simple solutions to complex problems. We want one-liners; we want to take a pill rather than change eating habits; we want everything to be just a click away. The fact is, moral decisions usually don’t come so easily, and perhaps this is why the Scripture says, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:12, 13)

To become a moral/ethical person is hard work, it requires hard effort sustained over a period of time, in fact, a lifetime.

When Paul says to work out "your" salvation, in the context he means to do it in his absence - learn to do it yourself, take responsibility for your own moral/ethical behavior.

In this case, “salvation” means doing the right thing in order to curry favor with God and thereby receive His blessing.

Then there’s the phrase “with fear and trembling.”

This "fear" may be the fear of God; remember, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10)

On the other hand, it may be the fear of consequences, which always must be taken into consideration when making moral decisions.

It may be the fear of an enemy; our enemy the devil will seek to destroy us with immorality.

Or, it may be the fear of losing the prize. Paul had this in mind when he wrote, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (I Corinthians 9:24-27)

It’s also interesting to notice that Paul no doubt took the phrase "fear and trembling" from the Old Testament book of Psalms, "Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling." (Psalms 2:11) This may seem odd to us; service, fear and rejoicing all in the same sentence.

The prophets of the Old Testament were deeply concerned about morality and ethical behavior. One favorite passage is that found in Micah 6:6-8:

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O man, 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.

To ask what the Lord requires is to ask what it is that God searches for in us. Notice the three-fold answer:

Do the right thing - what the most righteous judge would declare,

Do the kind thing - that which shows tender love, and

Do it all while walking humbly (lowly) in the presence of God.

May the Lord grant to us wisdom and strength - wisdom to know what is right, and strength to do it.

1. What are some of the prominent news stories that point out wrong doing by both public and private citizens?

2. What are some wrong behaviors between family members behind closed doors?

3. If it is true that there are absolute rights and wrongs, does it also hold true that everyone has the ability to know right from wrong?

4. Why are the following statements unacceptable as moral or ethical guidelines?

"If it feels good, do it."

"If everyone else is doing it, it must be good."

"Anything goes if it produces a profit - the ends justify the means."

5. What are some of the day-to-day choices that the church has often regarded as moral choices?

6. What moral/ethical choices are faced by parents with respect to their children?

7. What moral/ethical dilemmas are presented either in schools or work places?

8. Is it wrong to be angry?

9. The question, "What is right in God's sight?" may have a variety of answers. What are some of them?

10. Why is it that parents, laws, employers or even churches cannot be fully relied on as moral guides?

11. Sometimes our conscience should not be trusted - why?

12. What is the good, and what is the bad in "situation ethics"?

13. Many Christians believe that all that is necessary to know what is right or wrong is to read the Bible and pray. Why are these not perfect paths to knowing what is right or wrong?

14. How does Proverbs 11:14 apply to the subject of making moral decisions? “Where no counsel is, the people fall but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

15. Paul pointed out that gaining salvation involves work. (Philippians 2:12, 13) What part does fear have to play in this work?

16. In three phrases, the Old Testament Prophet Micah (6:8) summed up what God is looking for - what are they?