If someone is truly moral and has good values, won't it show?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

I've always wondered this about republicans. They make a BIG DEAL out of their MORALS and VALUES. They beat their chests about it, bang the pots and pans so everyone knows. They make it the centerpiece of campaigns, conventions, the very party. As if they have the copyright on morals and no one else has them.

Yet......the voice of my grandmother pops into my head. She used to say "Who you tryin' to convince? Me? Or YOU?"

In other words, if you really are a moral human being, if you really do practice good values in your life, won't it SHOW? I mean, why the need to constantly beat people over the head with it if it's true?

I always get suspicious of people when they insist on telling me:

1. how honest they are

2. how religious/Christian they are

3. how moral they are

4. what great values they have

I look at a person's actions. When their actions show them to be greedy, selfish, immoral, dishonest, hypocritical, and cruel, (all things I can apply to today's "elected" republicans) well, they can beat their chest all day about how "moral" they are, and I'm going to listen to their actions first.

Question to your republican friends, coworkers and family members: if republicans in office are so moral and have such great values, why do they feel this strange need to remind people all the time? Maybe because they really aren't and if they stop screaming about being so moral, people might focus on their actions instead of their words?

Plant the seed of suspicion and doubt that their party loyalty blinds them to. Encourage people to look at candidates' and elected officials' ACTIONS.

[JaneEyrez]

1. I agree wholeheartedly

That's why I call them Resmugs or Rethugs... because they're either smugly confident that they're right and everybody else is wrong or willing to beat you to a pulp if you don't agree with their agenda.

Thank God I'm a liberal!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. "I'm not racist, but..." or "I'm not sexist but..."

Always make me think of that.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

3. Yep

that's another good example. As soon as they say "but" you should translate it to "but I'm about to say something racist/sexist/otherwise hateful."

It's as if saying that disclaimer negates the racist or sexist thing they are about to say.

I don't let ANYONE get away with that. If someone says "Hey I don't mean to hurt your feelings but.." I stop them and say "Then DON'T."

It's just a smarmy way of trying to get off the hook.

[napi21]

4. Your opinion is exactly correct! I've found many "do what I say, not

what I do" southerners! I moved from Pgh. Pa. to SC in 1987, to Tx in 1992, and to Ga. in 2000. Believe me, there are a lot of hypocrits in all of them! I remember talking to the trash man in SC about all the people being so against drinking. He said "yea, but you need to check their trash bags!" They are so against sex before marriage, and my next door neighbor's son was a student at Bob Jones, but his sister got pregnant at 17...and NO she didn't get married!

[noonwitch]

5. These self-proclaimed paragons of morality have emphasized the wrong part

of the Bible. They take one condemnation out of Leviticus about homosexuality and forget about the Sermon on the Mountain (Matthew 5-7), which stresses the very points you make about having to show off one's virtue.

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.
Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly."

Matthew 6:1-6

Direct teaching from Jesus himself.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

7. I love that passage

and I follow it.

Ooops, I shouldn't have said that, should I?

;)

[izzie]

6. It is always how or what the word really means.

A moral man at one time would have owned people. So it back to just what the meaning of all those words are. The 'right' is telling us they knew and set the meaning. I do not go along with them. I feel I am a moral person. So who is right if there is a right on this. Life is not, I said, not black and white.Their are no moral ifs on the right.

[Nag Champa]

8. My fundie mother-in-law

said recently, "I'm sick and tired of being called a 'bigot' just because I don't think gay people should have the same rights that normal people have."

She then proceeded to explain to me that anyone who has been married more than once is immoral.


If those are the values of "real Americans" then, yeah.... maybe I am unAmerican.

[izzie]

11. Married more than once? Crazy not immoral.

But I really do not care if you do it. I have had people in my family married 4 times. They are great people but maaaybe a little on the crazy side.

[VioletLake]

9. I like your ideas :)

It also works to give them their own medicine.

Brag a little about your values. Defend them when you have to. I think you'll find that most of them will eventually cede the moral ground to you whenever those issues come up.

My brother in law now talks about black people around me as if I were black. He gets nervous and apologetic, and looks at the floor a lot. It's kinda funny.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

12. White people don't talk about minorities

around me anymore even though I'm white. I shamed them into not spewing their racist crap around me because I let them know I wasn't going to sit still for it.

Good for you!

[forgethell]

10. is there a difference between

saying how honest you are, and saying 'honesty' is a good value? If you are not actually honest, does that make honesty bad? I'm not defending the *ies. what I am asking is: if a person does not live by the values he espouses, does that make the values wrong? If so, what about those of us who preach love and tolerance and practice neither. Does that make our liberal values wrong? If not, then why not? Do the values have to stand or fallon their own, without reference to their adherents?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[AntiCoup2K4]

13. If you claim to stand for values that you do not practice.....

....you would be a hypocrite. And why would you take a hypocrite's word for anything?

The values may stand or fall on their own, but those who promote those values better damn well practice them, or their defense of such values is totally useless.

[forgethell]

14. Well, you may be a hypocrite.

But we are all hypocrites about something. Let me as another question. If you once were younger and more foolish, and did things that you now disapporve of, things that from your own experience you tell people not to do, things you would never do again, does that make you a hypocrite?

Or another quesstion. If, say, lying is wrong, does it matter what you lie about? I will eliminate from consideration "white lies" told about trivial things to spare another person's feelings. You may not, but stick with me here. We all agree that lying to take us into an unjustified war, blah-de-blah, is wrong. what about lying to protect yourself from legal and/or professional harm? what about lying about a rival to eliminate him from your path to success? What about lying to advance a political agenda? Both Dems and Repubs have been guilty of the last. why is it bad for them, and not for us?

Suppose that you think stealing is wrong. Yet you've lost your job ane have stolen to feed your children. Is stealing now right? Suppose someone in that situation had done it to you, and suppose the loss of whatever they stole caused you immense pain, loss, maybe bacnkruptcy. Maybe then your spouse left you. Now is it wrong?

suppose you think adultery is wrong. Yet in a drunken moment you have a one-night stand. Does resolving never to get in such a situation again and giving up drink mean that you can't tell your children that adultery is wrong without being a hypocrite?

What about drugs?? should you refuse to talk to them about drugs becasue you indulged once?

[libra]

15. Everytime I heard someone talk. . .

about how moral they are, or how "Christian," they are, or bash someone else about being less upright than they are, I make sure I know where my wallet is.