A Vacuum of Virtue

This week I celebrated my 17th wedding anniversary. When I proposed to Andrea I did not give her an engagement ring with diamonds. I gave her a ring with rubies. As I placed it on her finger I quoted Proverbs 31:10 says, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” I wanted her and everyone who saw the ring to know that I believed she was a woman with a rare quality--virtue.

I define virtue as the internal moral character that fuels right choices and empowers uncompromising integrity. Virtue is a moral compass that always points the way we ought to live. Virtue is the strength to stand when the winds of compromise are blowing against you. It is not a sissy word. The root of the word conveys heroic courage to stand strong especially in the face of moral relativism. For Christians it is the first thing we are commanded to add to our faith. (2Peter 1:5).

Virtue is rare these days. In fact, the news headlines declare America is becoming a vacuum of virtue. Whether it is a child-sex scandal at Penn State or voyeurism in the boys locker room at Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana, it is obvious that we are in a moral free-fall. As a result, 1 in every 18 men in the United States is a convicted criminal. A number that has quadrupled since 1980. (Reported in this NY Times article)

Even the 2008 financial collapse was a collapse of virtue. A federal commission cited the government's “pivotal failure to stem the flow of toxic mortgages, which it could have done by setting prudent mortgage-lending standards.” Prudence is an issue of virtue. Wall Street firms were criticized for not telling investors the true state of their finances—an obvious absence of virtue. And too many Americans abandoned principles of virtue by borrowing excessively to finance houses they knew they couldn’t afford. They wound up owing more on their homes than they were worth. An absence of virtue resulted in an absence of restraint in spending. (Cited in this article from the NY Times.)

The bottom line is that too many people failed to do the right thing because virtue was missing. And we are all paying the price.

Virtue cannot exist in a vacuum of Truth. 

America is a vacuum of virtue because our educational system, political system, family systems, and now many churches have embraced a philosophy of moral relativism. When this happens virtue becomes a matter of opinion.
 
A nation that loses virtue creates angry people. There has never been more polarization in our politics. There has never been more protest against business practices. There has never been more distrust of Christians. There has never been less interest in marriage.

People are looking for a political solution but it will not come because it is not a political problem. People are looking to Wall-street and banks for a financial solution but it will not come because it is not a financial problem. It is a spiritual problem.

Why are people so angry? Deep down they know things are not the way they are supposed to be. We know there is something missing in our government, families, and churches. What is missing is virtue.

Virtue is simply the way things ought to be. But that definition assumes that there is an absolute standard by which we should govern ourselves. It assumes that truth is defined by someone or something outside of popular opinion. It assumes truth and virtue are transcendent--that it exists outside of the human experience. It assumes there is a God of all virtue that we should seek to imitate. It assumes that God and His virtues are knowable. It assumes that God has taken the initiative to reveal his virtue to us. It assumes that we will be accountable for living virtuously. But most Americans refuse to allow God to govern them.


Freedom cannot exist in a vacuum of virtue. 

When people will not allow God to govern them through virtue, then Government has to expand its power. It should come as no surprise that we have recently seen the greatest expansion of government in generations as a result of our vacuum of virtue. Freedoms are taken away. When we cannot govern ourselves others step in to regulate behavior by force.

What America needs is a resurgence of virtue. But who will supply it? There are two remaining incubators of virtue in our culture. First, is the Church.  We are the only ones who have access to God's virtue. Christians aren’t manufacturers of virtue. They are just distributors.
 
The second incubator of virtue is marriage and family. Virtue fuels the honor and nobility of keeping ou promise as higher than pursuing our freedom and escape my pain when relationships are hard. Virtue informs our sexuality. Virtue calls us to see our bodies as God’s temple. Virtue causes us to see sex as a gift from God as an instrument for exclusive love between one man and one woman.  Virtue says, “In faithfulness and trustworthiness I will protect my marriage and children from the destructive forces of sexuality that undermine trust and commitment in my family.”  But without virtue our sexual appetites cannibalize marriages and families and nations.

The more rare a jewel, the higher its value. Who can find a virtuous people? for their value is far above rubies. We live in a vacuum of virtue. If you have it, your value is priceless.