How To Express Ethical Concerns

Especially in a corporate manner

Authority and Tradition

Who’s minding the store?

The use of authority and tradition

Authority - is that which is accepted as orthodox, correct, the measuring rod, fixed.

Tradition - includes beliefs, leaders, events, structural patterns and other things.

Authority in religion

Religious authority has divine sanction and is in many aspects of the experience of the community.– Historical events, great teachers and leaders,

orthodox beliefs in creeds and confessions, authoritative moral code.

Tradition in religion

Religious tradition is the handing over of doctrines, teachings, behavior patterns, thought patterns, and practices from previous generations. It includes customs, actions and practices. Very often tradition is not cognitive. One retains traditions unconsciously.

Definition of some terms

Love - is to care for another as much as one cares for oneself.

Justice - is a concern in which each individual receives what rightly belongs to him or her.

Theology - is the study of God. Peace - is health and prosperity and the

absence of strife, both internal and external.

Love and Justice

What’s love got to do with it?

Fraught with possibilities

Love versus Justice (opposites)– they are opposed to one another, one is personal and

the other is not; emotions are opposite of facts

Love or Justice (alternatives)– it’s either one or the other, one cannot have both

Love and Justice (complements)– love works with justice; one cannot have one without

the other; justice is love in action on a large scale.

Further consideration - Niebuhr

Love Demands Justice - love desires more inclusive justice

Love Negates Justice - love transcends justice; it is larger than justice; justice is calculating--love is not.

Love Fulfills Justice - love illuminates special needs; love takes into account the personal needs of the other.

One without the other

Justice without love ceases to be justice. It degenerates to something less than justice. Love keeps justice from being mere calculations.

Love without justice ceases to be love. It is reduced to mere sentimentalism and fails to take into account certain realities and historical consequences.