Arkansas Watch - Character an important and needed virtue

— “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” M. L. King Jr.

Monday, Jan. 18, was Martin Luther King Day and General Robert E. Lee day, I might add. Unfortunately, we don’t live in the world Dr. King dreamed of, and we are getting farther from that dream every day. I don’t mean the part about not judging people by their color. We have made great progress since the 1960s on that score. I mean the part about how he did want his children to be judged - by the content of their character. Unfortunately, moral relativism and political correctness have made “tolerance” some kind of new god that we all must bow down to. It is now considered “intolerant” to judge people by the content of their character.

The second part of King’s dream languishes. Even if his children made choices with their lives that displayed admirable character,it would be considered offensive to dwell on it. This is because it would cast a negative light on those who made other choices. If, for example, his children were sexually chaste until marriage, we dare not dwell too long upon that as a virtue for fear of offending the legions of those who were not. In these times you are open to attack if you criticize those women who never married and have children from several fathers. It used to be highly unacceptable to behave that way. Now it is almost unacceptable to speak ill about it.

Tolerance of evil is not a virtue, it’s another evil. It allows one to pass of their uncaring nature as a positive good. But hatred is not the opposite of love, apathy is. Not caring is the opposite of love. Sometimes,to love people you have to hate what they do.

What is the result of this new state-sponsored god of “tolerance” replacing the true God as our moral center? The biggest threat to the prosperity of black America is not racism, but “illegitimacy.” Seventy percent of black births are to unwed mothers. The rest of America is catching up and if we don’t change course soon we risk becoming literally a nation of what used to be called bastards. Now even the term “illegitimate children” is out of vogue on the grounds that “no child is illegitimate.” Fair enough, but can we at least use the term “illegitimate parents” to describe whoever won’t own up?

The PC crowd might be horrified at the use of such a label. But it is the parents who did wrong, not those who recognize it. And without a label that sticks for such wrong, more people on the margin will be tempted to act irresponsibly. This will then saddle even more children with a burden that is still hugeeven when society lacks the moral courage to put a label on it. We were better off when we had labels for destructive behavior, and cared enough about right and wrong to use them.

Dr. King’s dream is in trouble, but what else can we expect in a climate of moral relativism and “tolerance”? Marriage and commitment require so much character. Since we are no longer willing to “judge” people for lack of character, avoiding commitment is the easier route for many people. Children are the victims, until they grow up and give us a dose of what we let them go through in the name of not being “judgmental” of people’s character.

Editor’s note: Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch, and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, The Guide for the Perplexed. He writes a weekly column for The Times of Northeast Benton County.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 02/10/2010