Theological Ethics of Conflict and Peacemaking. Essay Sample

Christians ought to live in a morally acceptable way and display Christian virtues in their doings. The way they believe and act should depict their Christianity. According to Shaw and Barry (3), ethics is a critical aspect that determines the behavior of a person. As a philosophical discipline of study, ethics is a systematic approach to understanding, analyzing, and distinguishing matters of right and wrong, good and evil, and admirable and deplorable as they relate to the well-being of and the relationships among sentient beings. (Introduction to Ethics- John and Bartlett Learning) From the book "EXPLORING CHRISTIAN ETHICS; BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS for IMMORALITY," Fedler takes us through a systematic guide to developing a strong foundation for ethics and living a moral life (54). Ethicists such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle divide ethics into three major branches; descriptive ethics, normative or prescriptive ethics, and meta-ethical ethics. Descriptive ethics is primarily concerned with how people in relation to morality behave, think, and feel. Normative ethics is concerned with the prescription of specific actions, behaviors, and thinking (Shaw and Barry 17). Normative ethics seeks to establish rules for acting, thinking, and feeling. Meta-ethical ethics deals with the investigation of how people use moral language and the ways they go about making ethical decisions.

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Ethics relates to our Christian living in that humans are taught how to live with others and follow the will of God (Fedler 37). Human beings are always thriving to do what is right as a way of obeying God's command. The God who enters into the disorderly life of human beings and demands justice: "For I the Lord Love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing" (The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Isaiah 61; 8). Jesus Christ did condemn those who tried to show off the righteousness and prowess understanding of the Mosaic Law; "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices- mints, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." (The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV, Mathew 23; 23). Jesus condemned the Pharisees for failing to practice virtues such as kindness, forgiveness, and humility, yet they claimed to be Christians. Christianity involves not only believing and doing certain things but also the transformation of oneself fully.

Several ethical issues exist in the society that we are living in today. They affect us directly or indirectly through our family members, our relatives, or generally people whom we relate with, our way of living, and relationship with fellow human beings. Our fellow creatures, at times, get involved in specific actions that affect us, and we are left in a dilemma wondering whether to be on their side to support them or be against them and report their wrongdoings. Then, you will have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of sharing with our friends. Some questions that will assist us in resolving the myth include-will our relationship be maintained? Shall we be able to confide into each other at any other given time? What motivated my friend into the wrongdoing? What if my friend had no other means, thus, did the action for a benefit? We get to be disturbed, mentally, and psychologically at times. However, with the study of ethics, one can weigh out the impact of being in support of a particular view as you can justify theoretically the reason behind you supporting a given proposition. One gets to be relieved of issues in life that otherwise would have caused damage either to oneself or to the people with whom we relate. These ethical issues may include; racism, religious prejudice, the healthcare system, moral issues at the campus, dignified death, access to clean water and food, social hierarchies, and sexuality concerns. Christians try to relate to these issues in such a way that they do not compromise their relationship with God. We shall discuss some of the ethical problems below.

To start with, moral issues at campus refer to any issue with the capability of harming a person, including oneself. At institutions of higher learning, we have students encountering various challenges. These challenges may be because of lacking people to counteract with about life experiences, frustrations in their academic performance as they progress with their studies, and absence of guidance. The challenges may act as motivators of involvement in immoral behavior such as drug abuse (Niebuhr 89). Students need to be engaged in activities such as team building and sporting, which ensures the students indulge in relevant events to curb the challenge.

For instance, we have students tending to fail to respect their teachers and fellow students. They claim they have freedom of expression in case of a misunderstanding between them and their teachers. They devote their efforts to ensure the subject gets much familiarity and attention from fellow students. Students violate the freedom to the extent of treating their teachers as their age mates. From the Bible, children are supposed to respect their parents. The teachers are the kind of parents to the students. By getting into an intense argument with their teachers, students fail to obey God's command, thus damaging the relationship with God. They cause pain to the teacher as their immediate parent while at the campus.

Similarly, an action such as abortion is a common occurrence at campuses. Out of their immorality, the female students conceive at an early age. Their male counterparts, at times, tend to abandon them or receiving such news. By engaging in promiscuous sexual activity, Paul says that we defile the temple of the Holy Spirit;" Or do you not know that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not on your own? For you have been bought at a high price. Glorify and carry God in your body."(1Corinthians 6: 19-20). The student thereby gets into a dilemma, 'Will I manage to finish my campus education?', 'who will assist me in raising the kid once it's born?', 'How will my parents react when I inform them?' With all these questions in mind, the student opts to carry out a morally wrong abortion. Even though the student may consider carrying out an abortion justifiable, it remains to be morally wrong. In a situation of being a Christian, the student wonders whether by breaking the commandment, "You shall not murder" (The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV, Exodus 20:13) alienates herself from his creator. However, through sanctification, a student repents and seeks reparation of the sins out of which the first relationship that existed between them and God is restored.

Another ethical issue faced at the campus is the racial challenge. In college, we have students from different regions, religions, and backgrounds. When they meet, each one has a perspective that is entirely different from what the others believe. They ought to live harmoniously and with love amongst themselves. The students ought to buy the idea of utilitarian, which states that "Do the greatest good for the greatest number" (Niebuhr 28). As actions are performed with a particular purpose, a student should first get deep into thinking and question oneself whether he is the appropriate person for undertaking the activity, is the action morally right, and what consequences will be as a result of the action regarding what deontologists argue. When it comes to the issue of how to treat the students, the administration should not act in favor of the students from rich and powerful families but rather should address all the students equally without discrimination. Failure to this, students may cause unrest, which may lead to the destruction of resources within the institution. Both the students and the administration should possess virtue, such as kindness, humility, and kindness.

To ensure that peace prevails on the campus, both the students and the administration should follow the set rules, do the right thing as expected, develop a set of character traits and do the right thing with the right intentions. A student should base much concern on the kind of person that he will become once he completes campus learning. The actions that one engages in are what determines what kind of a person the society is upbringing.

Many professionals in institutions of higher learning believe that teaching students to behave in ethical ways and develop core values that will influence lifetime decisions should a priority. The students also should play a part in changing their lives by involving themselves in activities considered morally upright and those whose consequences are not questionable. By the student knowing that participating in a particular action will have a negative impact, the student is most like to refrain from it.

Another ethical issue that may exist in society is that of division among Christians. Division occurs when a group of believers who were believed to have similar beliefs and concepts of various things break into two groups all of a sudden and act henceforth in their diversified ways. Each group now has its views and habits of doing things that differ from each other. Division in the society occurs in instances where maybe a group of people is divided along the baseline of the political leaders and parties. Out of a community that was living in unity, love, and harmony, they tend to isolate themselves according to the political leaders or parties they support, which may reach the point where hatred develops between the two parties involved. But the questions to ask yourself are,' Why change your behavior pattern and act otherwise for the sake of an individual?', 'What gain will you obtain by causing divisions amongst people?' 'What are the effects of division among people who used to belong to one group?' St Paul ascribes to the analogy of using the body of Christ to condemn division in the church; "... while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body but that its parts should have equal concern for each other."(The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV, 1 Corinthians 12: 24-25).

With the expectation to solve the problem above, we may figure out at some of the reasons, which are believed to be the cause of disunity among Christians and members of the society. First, we have the issue of women in ministry. Many churches have divided because of arguments around the proposition. Some churches believe that women are not supposed to lead the church as they wonder what kind of leadership skills they would portray." Women should be silent in the churches. For it is not permitted for them to speak, but instead, they should be subordinate, as the law also says." Some women have a belief that; 'What men can do, women can do better.' Upon being denied the position in their churches, they make a move to start their churches where they can preach freely without being criticized. Utilitarian would criticize this in the view that the action of breaking the church does not do the highest good and for the most significant number. Similarly, the deontologists would be against the division, and the consequence would be that the woman leader would move with her some of the followers with whom they were participating within worship from the former church.