Editorial December 13, 1993 Issue

Staying alert to moral blind spots

Russ Gerber

I glanced over and happened to see a woman at the far end of the store just as she was about to leave. She'd completed her purchases, took a quick look around, apparently concluded that no one was looking, then grabbed a handful of shopping bags and hastily walked out the door.

Some would say it was a minor violation. It doesn't compare to tax evasion or burglary or stealing on a larger scale. Yet, doesn't this miss a significant point? It brushes aside as unimportant the moral disorder behind any such act.

While some might still argue that we're not talking about walking off with someone's precious possessions, that we're talking about shopping bags, the point is that we really shouldn't close our eyes to what underlies any moral transgression. Isn't this one of the lessons that comes through strongly in Christ Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, when he calls attention not only to the obvious moral offense of killing but to anger, which underlies such an act? (See Matt. 5:21, 22.) To not recognize and correct the thoughts that lead to unlawful actions might be called a moral blind spot.

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