Ethics & driving

Not too long ago, I wrote my Down Home newspaper column about getting stopped by a state trooper for driving nine miles an hour over the speed limit in southern Oklahoma. 

I didn't intend to drive nine miles per hour over the limit. I did intend to drive four miles an hour too fast, operating on the theory that police and highway patrol officers will "give" you five miles an hour. Fortunately, I have a clueless face. Officer Smith apparently realized I did not realize the speed limit in that part of the world is 60, and he gave me my anticipated four-miles-per-hour grace.

More recently, I wrote a blog, which I then turned into an editorial, about the sorry state of ethics these days. I've been dismayed by Olympic hero Michael Phelps, who betrayed  millions of young people who look up to him by smoking marijuana. And like you, I've been disheartened by the parade of politicians who—we've been finding out—dodge their taxes and/or bend other laws to suit them.

Connecting the dots

After proofreading the editorial page, my friend and Baptist Standard colleague George Henson came by my office and asked: "So, does ethics apply to speeding?"

I just hate it when someone connects the dots of my haphazard thinking.

Levels of sin?

But George's question got me to thinking some more about ethics and behavior and about criticizing others while excusing myself.

For example, is driving four miles an hour over the speed limit—the amount I intended to drive—a moral lapse (which, theologically speaking, we call a sin)? Or is five miles an hour of ignorance, added to four miles an hour of intention, a sin?

Where do honest mistakes end and sin begin?

And, if we sin in one area of our lives, does that disqualify us from criticizing any sin in the lives of others? (If so, criticism should disappear from the face of the Earth.)

When I was a kid, a summer youth minister or Sunday school teacher (I don't remember which) said sin is sin, and all sins are equal. At the time, I more or less agreed. We were talking about the broad concept of SIN, "missing the mark" of God's intention for our lives and actions. Even one sin is enough to separate us from God. So, sassing Mother or assassinating the president were "equal" in that they would stain a person with sin.

Of course, sins are not equivalent. Some are worse than others, much worse. Even if I intended to go nine miles over the speed limit on an open highway, that's not as bad as dodging more than $100,000 in taxes or smoking marijuana and tarnishing a golden role model.

Humble perspective needed

Still, George's gentle reminder that I, too, broke a law is on point. 

The world needs us to hold each other accountable. People must speak out against injustice, fraud, immorality and the like. 

But we must speak with humility when we criticize others. We must never forget we're broken, too. We all make mistakes. And we must be as quick to hold ourselves accountable as we are to call others to task.