Editorial June 19, 2017 Issue

When you reach morality, keep on growing

Tony Lobl

“Not for nothing is the youth culture characterized by sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll,” a venerable British magazine famously pronounced during my formative years (The Spectator, October 16, 1971).

Over the following decade I played my own modest part in furthering the “youth culture” disparaged by the writer. In all honesty, it never occurred to me not to, such was the moral ambivalence surrounding me and my peers during my teen and twenty-something years. Indeed, many of us wore such criticism as a badge of honor.

But whether in the name of “youth culture” or the “culture of greed” often associated with big business—or whatever type of “me first” thoughts and behavior tempt us—amorality and immorality tend to complicate things. If we read our lives with any degree of self-awareness, we begin to realize our choices have ramifications for ourselves and others. In my case, it became clear the ramifications weren’t good. But it also became clear that course correcting our human nature is by no means a breeze, either.

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Bible Lens—June 19–25, 2017