Moral, spiritual, ethical values not the same

THE EDITOR: Allow me space and time to clarify some present issues of concepts we seem to be having difficulty distinguishing re values education. The term values education is not new to us in Trinidad and Tobago as we are accustomed to terms such as morals, ethics, religious and spiritual values. What happens is we get the concepts crossed when we interpret a moral value to be spiritual and a religious value to be ethical, even though some values overlap we tend to accept the general idea that they all overlap and mean the same in all cultural context thus giving fuel to discord and intolerance. We keep saying moral and spiritual when it ought to be moral and ethical as these two concepts lie on the same plane of development. Spiritual and religious values, however, lie on a higher plane of development. Let me explain.

Morals deal with what a person holds for them to be responsible in light of their belief system. Ethics on the other hand is concerned with what is right or wrong, good and evil arising from a person’s awareness of the future combined with detailed knowledge about that future. Religious values hold to one’s belief system thus giving rise to cultural practice. All religions have one tenet that holds true for them; that being: do unto others as you would have done to you. Spiritual values come out of a practice under a spiritual guide and prayerful life while discerning the direction in which one is led. The level aspired depends on the charisms and theological elements. Thus we can see on one side we have the belief and the other what is practised. Let us look at a practical example with the concept of honesty. Moral values will tell us to be honest in what we say and do so as not to cause harm to another. Some people may hold to the belief that silence and part of the truth is honest enough since it does not require all information at the moment.

Ethics on the other hand will hold a person responsible for whatever in the perception of the person speaking is happening as this honesty depends on the person’s awareness of what is happening. Religious values will hold that yes is yes and no is no; giving a cultural practice between persons a level of trust. This brings us to the spiritual values whereby due to the practice of honesty at the moral and ethical level a spirit of trust is built among persons. At the individual level if someone has a problem trusting and is having problems with honesty heshe will not be able to speak what is expected of him at a moral and ethical level thus affecting what transpires at the religious and spiritual level. At the group level this will be compounded since the individual can influence others to believe or not believe based on what is honest. In a multi-cultural society such as we have here in Trinidad and Tobago we can see how this concept of honesty can play on the minds of people. Then we need to ask ourselves what is honesty? How do we define when a person is honest or not?

This brings me to the point where we accept as a group certain behaviour and attitudes. We may accept that honesty practised on the moral and ethical plane leads to truth on the religious and spiritual plane. This can also hold true for dishonesty since it is a person who through influence provides us with an honest act or an honest word to build on. As a society we build on those values passed on to us from one generation to the next. What becomes acceptable remains with those of us who form groups that we will like to share these values with. However the introduction of Human Rights may require forced entry of unacceptable behaviour in a group which may hold to certain values thus creating a standard to be set by its members. Trinidad and Tobago teaches its young about Discipline, Production and Tolerance but its adult practices teach otherwise. Am I wrong to conclude that we are holding strong to counter values while enforcing our young to hold fast to a perception of values that eludes them. It is little wonder they complain of feeling lost. The dialogue continues.

GALE OXLEY
Port-of-Spain