Berkley Center

Faith is the only sure foundation for values in personal and public life. Social consciousness has grown exponentially throughout the world in the last century, with civil rights being granted and respect being given to women and minority groups that previous generations would have laughed at. There is no doubt that, as a human race, we are breaking through the walls that have long separated one gender from another, one ethnicity from another, and even one race from another. We should definitely be proud of that and continue the work.

However, because of the fact that these rights have changed so much since the world began, and that they will continue to change, I don’t think we can trust ourselves to be a constant force of good. We have such an incredible mixture of motives and values stemming from our past experiences and own trains of thought, and they result in a constantly fluctuating value system for every person. When we are children, we might value school recess, food, funny jokes, and television over everything else. When we become adults, we might value a stable career, family, good health, and financial security over everything else. Finally, when we are well-along in our years, we might value the sounds of nature, grandchildren, and history over everything else. Is there anything wrong with these values? I don’t really think so, but some might not think so.

The fact of the matter is that everyone is different, and thus we can never all agree on a set system of values that will guide the entire human race to be “good”, no matter how socially progressive we become. We can thus never be “good”, and therefore we cannot trust ourselves to make the “good” choice at all times. However, we can put our trust in faith. For example, in my faith, Christianity, I believe in God, who is perfect in love, grace, mercy, and power to a point that we cannot even comprehend with our own minds. I believe that God is also the perfect judge, that He is the root of all things that are good, and, since He is everlasting, that His truth is constant over time. Thus, the values that He gives to me through the Bible are perfectly good, and if I try and align my life with the truth He gives me in that book, then my actions and words might just result in some good in the world. So, I believe faith in someone or something that is higher than you in wisdom, love, justice, grace, power, and mercy will result in a truly good set of values that we, as a human race, can rely on in both the public and private parts of our lives.