It's What We Believe But Is It Moral?

A lot of us confuse adhering to a belief with being morally upright. There is the assumption that if you are a believer of a widely held belief then anything you do in the name of that belief must be morally right. This is often seen in how people practice their religious faiths. There is the recent opposition to the ordination of female bishops in the Anglican Church for instance. We also have the Charlie Hebdo murders in France to draw upon. In the bible Jesus drew the distinction between morally right and lawfully right when he stopped the stoning of Mary Magdalene, asking the crowd to examine their own righteousness first. Whether you look at capitalism, democracy or jurisprudence; there are a wide variety of belief systems that would probably not be rightfully considered moral.

In our daily lives there are too many instances where we fail to do what is just and fair because we claim to be following a belief. Too many instances where we treat people badly but justify it on being true to a belief. There are times we sacrifice the wellbeing and feelings of others in order to feed our own need for piety. While it is difficult to close every ethical loophole in a belief system it isn't impossible to weigh up our own actions on the basis of what is morally right. Just as Pope Francis is attempting to do in stating that there is a place for transgender people in the Catholic Church.