The Dinosaur of Moral Virtue

Daily writing promptIf you could bring back one dinosaur, which one would it be?View all responses

As a Boy Scout every week I recited and pledged myself to live out these moral virtues: “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.” The world has changed since then.

The Bible says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Those types of character traits are being swept into extinction by our chaotic contemporary culture. The morality that they proclaim is now seen as a dinosaur from the ancient past. I long for that dinosaur to be returned to the hearts of the people in the various countries around the world.

If you will steer and maneuver your mind toward hope, you can avoid the mud that messes with and muddles your mental health and moral character and fills your heart with guilt. Jesus Christ offers so much more than church attendance: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

If you want hope to soar
Get your mind off the floor.
It’s time to restore
The dinosaur
Of moral virtue
And to close the door
On self-deception
And heart corruption.

After writing this blog post about moral virtue this morning, I saw something from the opening ceremony last night at the 2024 Paris Olympics where drag queens were gathered behind a long table in a scene that looked like a mockery of Leonardo DaVinci’s painting of Christ’s Last Supper. I don’t think my desire for a return to moral virtue is a very popular position. However, without it I believe Western culture is quickly headed toward chaos. (Please don’t post a picture of the scene. That only spreads the decadence.)

The way some Christians are abandoning biblical virtues and embracing the opposite makes me think that if they had been in Sodom and Gomora they would have said to God: “What do You mean that You can’t find ten righteous people. They’re all righteous! Ours is a good city.” What a crazy time we live in. We have election deniers on one side of the political spectrum and gender deniers on the other.

True Christ-followers are called to be “speaking the truth in love” — to talk about the danger of sin with humility, brokenness, and compassion. A person who resorts to belittling other people doesn’t have much confidence in his or her political or moral position.