Here's an interesting moral dilemma.

Here's an interesting moral dilemma. Suppose there were these two guys, a
father and his son, that decided to kidnap and rape a little boy, then kill
him. They got caught and are being charged with murder, rape, etc. That's not
the moral dilemma I'm curious about, though. After all, it seems rather
unequivocal that they should be punished as murderers for what they did. The
moral dilemma is that while they were doing this, the mother of the son, who
was the wife of the father, was deliberately watching the whole thing. She
could have talked them out of doing it in the first place, or alerted
authorities to what the two guys were doing, or tried to protect the boy, or
any number of other things that a good person in that situation would do. But
she did not.

Is she guilty of any immorality? If so, why? Can you say that she is a good
person even though she watched the whole thing without doing anything to stop
it? Would you trust her with your kids? If not, why not? What would you think
of someone if they told you that they thought that woman was the best person in
the world, and they would do anything for her? What do you think should be her
punishment, if any?

I'm not asking what the law says, I know what the law says about her conduct.
I'm curious as to what Christians would say about her conduct and her morality.
As you read this post, write the answers to the next two sets of questions down
before you go on to the next sentence or question. I think you'll learn a lot
about yourself in the process.

1) Now, ask yourself, if he was in her situation, "What Would Jesus Do"? Would
he try to stop the rape and murder? Would he tell the authorities what was
going on? Would he guide the little boy away from those two men before they
could see him and grab him? Would he watch but do nothing?

2) Now, ask yourself, if you were in her situation, what should you do? Should
you try to stop the rape and murder? Should you tell the authorities what was
going on? Should you guide the little boy away from those two men before they
could grab him? Should you watch but do nothing?

Before continuing, compare the answers you wrote down for each set of answers.
Are they different? If so, why? Shouldn't your morals be as good as you think
Jesus' would be?

Ok, now let's move on to the next set of questions. The event at the center of
this moral dilemma actually occurred*. The little boy was taken by the
father/son team, raped and then murdered, while the mother watched. Nobody
stopped the rapists while they were raping the little boy, nobody stopped the
murder, nobody alerted the authorities, nobody led the little boy away from the
rapist/murderers before they could grab him and do this. So we actually know
the correct answers to the questions in group #1, as long as we are willing to
assume that Jesus is everywhere, and is more powerful than two human beings:

Answers:
Q: "What Would Jesus Do"? Would he try to stop the rape and murder?
A: Obviously not, since the rape and murder actually occurred.

Q: Would he tell the authorities what was going on?
A: Obviously not, since the authorities did not know of the event until long
after it had occurred.

Q: Would he guide the little boy away from those two men before they could grab
him? A: Obviously not, since the little boy was not successfully led away

Q: Would he watch but do nothing?
A: Apparently so.


Now, when you were answering the questions in group #1, how many did you get
right?

Remember that your answers to group #1 reveal what you think is the morality of
Jesus. Your answers to group #2 reveal what your morality is. The actual
answers shown above reveal Jesus' actual morality, if he exists. If you really
believed in the absolute moral code boasted by Christianity, and Christianity
were true, shouldn't all three sets of answers be the same?

Also, be honest, do the answers you gave in group #2 reflect a higher morality
than what you attributed to the woman in the story? Does it bother you that her
morality leads to the same answers as Jesus' actual morality did? At the
beginning of this post when you were asked to form opinions about her morality
and trustworthiness, based solely on her actions, did you answer with positive
opinions, or did you judge her as being a low, immoral person not worthy of
your praise, because of her apathy and voyeurism?

Now take a good look at the answers you wrote down and be brutally honest with
yourself. Is it possible that the answers to group #2 are different from the
other two sets of answers because you in fact do not derive your sense of
morality from your faith in a Jesus that actually exists here and now, but from
some other source after all?



*See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17739868/