National Baptist Convention, USA
takes on questions about Moral Decisions

What are the imperatives that guide all moral decisions? What are the lenses through which we look, the framework around which we build in order to come to ways of thinking and acting that are in conformity with and acceptable to the will of God for us and all of God’s creation?

These are among the questions that will be raised by Dr. William J. Shaw, President of the National Baptist Convention, USA in an address at the 128th Annual Session in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 8-12 at the Duke Energy Center.

“The primary reference to morals is not to the misbehavior of Church persons,” said Shaw, whose address represents the third of four annual themes—Message, Music, Morals and Mission. Shaw points out that much of current religious and popular culture in America defines morality as dealing essentially with issue of abortion, same sex behavior, and babies born outside of marriage. “But are these the only arenas of moral attention,” he asks.

Dr. Shaw suggests otherwise. “The law surely sets standards for conduct—specific prohibitions and sometimes prescriptions for actions. But law is rarely comprehensive enough to cover all areas AND deals really and only with actions, not attitudes.”

In his convention speech Dr. Shaw seeks to answer questions like: “Are the arenas of justice, of economic securities and sufficiency of corporate or individual greed outside the domain of morality? How does the faith of the church speak to theses matters, informing our conscience and guiding our behavior?

Dr. Shaw says the “love ethic” is the basis of moral decision-making. It makes morality become more than a matter of lifeless, limited legality. “It becomes a powerful dynamic that keeps us alert to the connectedness, the relatedness of all of our lives and decisions. Through this connectedness and relatedness we experience true and full life, a growing, expansive life.

Pointing out that the supreme model of God’s love for us is revealed in the crucified Christ, Dr. Shaw says, “I pray that we will be challenged to look at the moral life through the lens of God’s love.”

He concludes that “As Baptists, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God and the Jesus is the Word made flesh. We believe that the Bible is the norm for faith and practice and that Jesus is the full revelation of the heart and mind of God towards and for all.

“Jesus presented the love ethic—love the Lord your God with the totality of yourself and love others as yourselves—as the greatest and summary imperative of all righteousness. The love ethic becomes the lens through which we see more clearly the totality of scripture, of how we relate to God and to one another in a fashion that affirms the primacy of God in our lives and decisions.”

Pointing out that the supreme model of God’s love for us is revealed in the crucified Christ, Dr. Shaw says, “I pray that we will be challenged to look at the moral life through the lens of God’s love.”
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