Tag: Moral

Be Obedient

Theme 1: Why should I obey my parents or anyone else in my family?

Outcomes
Students will

  • explain and interpret the fourth commandment as it applies to families
  • express the value of obedience and name the challenge of and limits to the Christian call to obedience
  • identify duties, roles and responsibilities that are shared within Christian families
  • explain how family life is the original cell of social life

Key Concepts

  • A Christian family is a communion of faith, hope and charity. It is the domestic Church.
  • The fourth commandment calls us to live in charity, starting with honour and respect for our parents, and for all whom God, for our good, has vested with authority.
  • Jesus himself recognized the authority vested in his parents, and was obedient to them (see Luke 2.51).
  • “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right…” (Ephesians 6.1; Colossians 3.20).
  • Family life is the original cell of social life.

Theme 2: Whom should I obey in society?

Outcomes
Students will

  • recognize legitimate authority within various sectors of society: school, civic community, Church
  • explain what makes authority legitimate (i.e., the common good)
  • identify, explain and affirm the duties they have as subjects of legitimate authority

Key Concepts

  • Human society requires that some of its people be vested with legitimate authority to work and care for the good of all.
  • The authority required by the moral order derives from God.
  • The duty of obedience requires all to give due honour and respect to legitimate authority.
  • The fourth commandment calls us to hon- our not only our par- ents, but also those who for our good have received authority in society from God.
  • The dignity of the human person requires the pursuit of the common good. Everyone should be concerned to create and support institu- tions that improve the conditions of human life.
  • Christ himself is the source of authority within the Church.

Be Loving

Theme 1: What is love?

Outcomes
Students will

  • examine and evaluate their understanding of love
  • analyze Scripture pas- sages where Christ models love
  • explore the Christian dimensions of love within the context of popular notions of love
  • analyze ways they love others because they love themselves
  • articulate what it means to be loved and to love unconditionally
  • listen prayerfully to the call to be loving

Key Concepts

  • We are called to love as Jesus loved.(Since we have been loved, we also must love – 1 John 4.10- 12.)
  • Love that is rooted in Christ will never fail, even when it seems to be the most foolish, unreasonable or diffi- cult choice.
  • Love is not just an emotion. Love is willed. Mature love is a call to action which fosters the good of others.
  • Giving and receiving love is the most important dimension of our lives, bringing out the best in both the lover and the beloved.
  • To truly love others, we must love our- selves.

Theme 2: What is the loving thing to do?

Outcomes
Students will

  • reviewandapplythe decision-making model (see, judge, act, evaluate)
  • demonstrate an understanding of the role of the magisteri- um, Scripture and tra- dition in moral deci- sion making
  • identify times when it may be difficult to do what is loving
  • define conscience and name its role in moral decision making
  • explain the relation- ship between Christian moral deci- sion making and love

Key Concepts

  • Christian moral deci- sion making is based on love.
  • People are bound by their conscience in determining the loving thing to do.
  • The magisterium, Scripture and tradition guide Catholics in moral decision making.
  • Doing the loving thing may mean doing what is difficult or unpopular.

Theme 3: Why wait?

Outcomes
Students will

  • explain how our sexuality can help us to love
  • identify acceptable Christian expressions of love
  • explain why having sex is not the loving thing to do outside of marriage
  • define chastity and understand why it is a Christian virtue
  • analyze sexual issues in relation to the virtue of chastity

Key Concepts

  • “All Christ’s faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life” (CCC #2348).
  • “Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self- mastery which is a training in human freedom” (CCC #2339).
  • God created us as sexual beings. Our sexuality draws us out of our- selves to relate with others.
  • Genital sexual expression becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one per- son to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. (see CCC #2337)
  • Sexual feelings are neither good nor bad in themselves; they sim- ply are.
  • There are many chaste ways of expressing our love for others.
  • The sixth commandment protects the sacred bonds of committed love.

Theme 4: How does love go wrong?

Outcomes
Students will

  • use 1 Corinthians 13.4-8a for identifying the signs of manipulative, coercive and abusive behaviour in relationships
  • value the basic dignity of every person within relationships
  • understand and demonstrate skills of appropriate assertive behaviour
  • use Scripture for developing Christian attitudes towards loving others

Key Concepts

  • “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5.9).
  • In Scripture we find direction and inspiration for healthy, lov- ing relationships. (e.g., 1 Corinthians 13.4-8a, Romans 13.10)
  • People in healthy relationships recognize the equal dignity and basic rights of all involved.
  • Love goes wrong when it becomes self- centred.
  • Not all relationships are healthy. Manipulation, coercion and abuse are signs of unhealthy relationships.
  • Assertiveness skills are necessary for developing and maintaining healthy relationships.

The Great Debate

 

THE CRAIG-NIELSEN DEBATE: GOD, MORALITY, AND EVIL
William Lane Craig and Kai Nielsen
with annotations by William Lane Craig
February 1991, University of Western Ontario

 

This debate is presented on the Internet as a project of Leadership University. Leadership University is dedicated to providing the best information in the world informed by a biblical worldview.

Tradition

The fundamental source of human knowledge is encounter with the world and its history through experience. The guiding intent for the curriculum is to educate people to become fully alive and free human beings. In a Catholic context this source and this guiding intent both point to the experience of the community, an experience where Jesus Christ is encountered and the values of the Reign of God direct human action and being. Simply put, we learn through life.

Catholic education brings a focus to learning to discover, evaluate, interpret the human experience, which is always in transition, in ways that enhance and deepen appreciation for the gift of creation and provide insight into how learning can lead to fullness and freedom for all people.

Strategies to develop a respect for the life-giving dimensions of tradition:

  • Provide access to the tradition of human culture–works of art, literature, etc.–as a way of engaging learners in conversation with the past
  • Invite learners to bring the symbols and artifacts of tradition into their own lives with a questioning and interpreting attitude
  • Invite learners to come to know for themselves the wisdom, knowledge, or beauty, of the tradition
  • Allow for the occasion for moral discourse and provide access to models of responding to the moral questions raised by the study of the past
  • Invite learners into a critical assessment of experience so they may discern what is life-giving and life-enhancing
  • Celebrate the hope that comes with recognizing God’s continuing action in the life of the community

How can tradition be life-giving in Catholic education?

The Commandments: A Moral Code

When Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, they crossed the Sinai Desert. God called Moses to the top of Mount Sinai and gave him the Ten Commandments. These commandments formed the moral code for the Jewish people. Some were injunctions – things the people were told to do. Some were prohibitions – things they were told not to do.

Injunctions included keeping the Sabbath day holy and honouring one’s parents. Prohibitions included worshipping other gods, making idols, taking God’s name in vain, killing, committing adultery, theft, bearing false witness, and wanting things that belong to other people

Do you think these Ten Commandments are a good foundation for a code of conduct?