Our Moral Compass

Last Thursday’s episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ended with a discussion among the CSI team on what is wrong with young people today. Several offered opinions—too much free time, hanging out with the wrong crowd, not having a grandma to whoop ‘em when they need it. Sara thought that those kinds of explanations were “blaming everyone but these kids” who were “perfectly capable of telling the difference between a wild night out and beating somebody to death.” She said that “you don’t get a bye just because you grew up here or your parents are on drugs.” Grissom ends the episode with the kind of sermon you don’t really hear much in prime time--

The truth is, a moral compass can only point you in the right direction, it can’t make you go there. Our culture preaches that you shouldn’t be ashamed of anything you do anymore. And unfortunately this city is built on the principle that there’s no such thing as guilt. “Do whatever you want, we won’t tell.” So without a conscience, there’s nothing to stop you from killing someone. And evidently you don’t even have to feel bad about it.

The Las Vegas tourism board uses the slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” That has become words to live by for many, whether they are in Vegas or not. There’s no such thing as guilt. No conscience. And so the CSI guys and gals will never run short of crime scenes.

So what is the point for us? We live in a culture that is up to its eyeballs in moral ambiguity. As Christians, we need to make sure that we do not add to that ambiguity. There is darkness and there is light. We need to make sure that what we do in our personal (and private) lives adds to the light and not to the darkness. We must live as people of light who reflect the light of God into a world of shadows. We need to have that moral compass and follow it toward the presence of the God of light, and lead as many people there as we can.

There is another point, here… but I’ve save that for tomorrow.