Volume 3, Issue 5, May 1995


WAY TO GO

When Edmund was 16 years of age the pair of us set out on a daylong canoe trip in the interior of Algonquin Park. We remember getting lost and finding our way again. We were handicapped because we didn't have a compass.

There is the story of a woman who was in a store seeking to purchase a compass. The clerk told her, "We have compasses for drawing circles, but not for going places."

So ofter we use our moral knowledge like a compass for drawing circles, but not as a compass for finding direction and advancement.

All of us need, even as humanists, in today's complex world, moral integrity and direction to find our way through the ethical wilderness of our contemporary society.

Here is the way to find our moral compass for living. Like a regular compass it can spin in any direction, and spin back. We need it constantly to keep our bearings in life, for morally we are compelled to search for our personal north, south, east and west. This is not easy. As well there is a lot of "junk" in life which can pull our compass out of true alignment.

Yet, directions begin someplace. I suggest the mental image of a compass to help us find our moral directions.

A regular compass consists of a magnetized needle, mounted and balanced on a pivot. It will seek to always point in the one direction. Our moral compass may have its north and south poles as knowledge and experience. The pivot point is love.

Knowledge

You can't live a faith or religion you don't know; you can't find realism in a faith you don't live. The history of humanity is a story of the efforts of people to find right answers: trying all sorts of formulae, regretting some, adopting others, rediscovering yet others, reaching everywhere for the fullest expression and meaning.

The Bible must be read as a religious book, not as a book of science, or even of history, but as a book about human morality. All of life is learning and re-learning. We have to develop minds that are capable of coping with everyday problems in the here and now, to better know what is right and wrong.

Experience

The other pole of our moral compass is experience. The richness or paucity, the fullness or weakness of our lives depends greatly upon experience. I test what I learn from the Bible, from the teachings of Jesus, from my faith, in my life. The spiritual path, the narrow road that leads to the virtuous life, the knowledge of right and wrong, is not always a smooth one. Experience can be a hard teacher but its lesson may be invaluable.

Love

The pivot of the moral compass needle is love. When we have the necessary poles of knowledge and experience, the facts and acts of living, then we must develop our ability to love. It is not enough to know; it is not enough to experience; love must balance and give us point in their use.

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.