Many of us have a very black and white approach to ethics.
BLACK AND WHITE? Context, says Paul Clark, leaves room for shades of grey. PICTURE: Ryoji Iwata/Unsplash
That is; gambling is either wrong or right. Drugs are good or bad.
I want to suggest that ethics is all about context; there are few things that are absolutely good or evil. Opiates are very useful in medicine, we need fat in our diets, and even hugs can be very icky.
Context. As humans we have trouble with that. If we say ‘yes’ to drinking, we feel, to be consistent, we have to say ‘yes’ to all forms of drinking. That someone’s a hypocrite to criticise a casino but buy a ticket in a kindergarten raffle.
Context is everything. It leaves us with shades of grey that are messy, but context is the essence of ethics.
It means we have to think, and pray, and listen
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.