Character, Virtue & Morals

Character, virtue and morals. Three words most parents would willingly admit exist on their agendas in child rearing. However, after recently reading an article in a popular Christian periodical about public school reform, I am somewhat distraught. I do not want to communicate to the reader that I am against reform in our public education system. I believe that our education system desires much change. My question, though, is, who determines what change should take place? If character, virtue and morals are to be taught in public schools, then I want to know what those three words mean. I would think that these words mean good things to most people, but what I am afraid of is that what one parent might think is a good thing may not be what I believe is good. So then we see our predicament. We live in a postmodern age where words no longer mean the same things to us all. During the 1960s, Baby Boomers revolted against the authorities in their lives. What resulted is, that when they had children, their teachings were of a "values free philosophy". Now, parents are beginning to see the hollowness in that and are reacting. But for people to attach words such as character, virtue or morals, does not merely make their teaching virtuous or moral. For example, Hitler had extensive youth programs in Germany teaching young people the character, virtue and morals of the Nazis. Do most of us think to question the teachings in public schools as to whether they are promulgating the same doctrines as Hitler? I doubt it. But think of the parents of those German youths. I wasn’t there, but I’m sure Hitler was careful to masquerade his teachings very carefully, as to appear attractive. This is an extreme example, I know, but read what A. W. Tozer writes, "As the excellence of steel is strength, and the excellence of art is beauty, so the excellence of mankind is moral character." Let us ask a question. By what standard do we determine that steel is strong? Well, I’m no expert in this field, but I would venture to say that there are some pretty strict standards by which it is determined if certain steel is strong enough. Would a shipbuilder except steel that was said to be strong, but bent with the slightest weights pressed on it? He could argue, "But they said it was strong!". However, when the ship wouldn’t float, he would be looking for a new job. So we should ask the same question about art. What makes art beautiful? Is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder? I would argue that if it were, the word beauty would be meaningless. Taste is in the eye of the beholder, but beauty is determined outside of the beholder. It must be for it to have meaning, as must moral character. I don’t want just any virtue being taught to my children. I want only true virtue to be taught. What Hitler believed virtuous, or what Bill Clinton believes virtuous, I would probably disagree. So, we can see that every man can have a different opinion about character, virtue and morals. Which one, then, is right? If we say that every one’s own perspective is right for them, then when another man like Hitler gains power, we could be in trouble. There must be some way to determine the right standard. In order to do this, we must first see that these things can not be determined by man. Other men will always disagree. Character, virtue and morals are determined by God, whether we like it, agree with it, or not. However, within Christian circles, there are still many different opinions about these three areas. God communicated very clearly through His written Word. He said that it was entirely His actual word (2 Timothy 3:16). So then, I want to make sure that students are being taught character, virtue and morals that are completely congruent with Scripture. I don’t want something that merely carries these labels. That means that I don’t want someone teaching my child that self esteem is virtuous, when Scripture says that no man "should think more highly of himself than he ought", and that we are to "die to self". We must be on guard to make sure that we simply do not allow our children to be indoctrinated by what someone else has determined as good. We must obey God’s command to "Test everything. Hold on to the good." (1Thess. 5:21)