Doing the next right thing/behavior
In the 12-step recovery program one often hears the reminder, “Just do the next right thing,” This is simple, clear advice is echoed by many religious group. On the surface, it should be easy to follow. Yet, many of us struggle to follow this advice. The reasons include:
Daily, it seems a political, business, religious leader or someone else in the United States or some other country, makes a threat or an assertion to which many of us want to react by correcting the individual, proving them wrong or somehow making them stop saying or doing what they are doing. Perhaps the most common example is wanting to punish someone or some group because they have been hurtful to others. This is how wars start and continue. It does not matter whether the war is between countries, political groups, colleagues or family members. Once one allows themselves to get drawn into a “war” one is likely to engage in behavior which is not consistent with one’s beliefs/moral values, Yet, as humans who really do want to engage in moral/ethical behavior one will find some way of justifying one’s behavior.
Dr. Robert Jay Lifton in his book The Nazi Doctors details how health care professionals under the rule of Hitler ended up behaving in ways which violated many of their professional and personal ethical/moral values. Yet, they then found a way to justify their actions. One of the most egregious examples was when doctors justified signing death certificates in the camps which killed people in the gas chambers. The doctors justified their behavior by saying that killing off certain groups of people was like amputating a diseased limb from an individual. In this way, the doctors could say that they were still behaving in a way which was consistent with the Hippocratic oath.
Many religious people convince themselves that preventing a particular behavior such as abortion, same sex behavior or sharing resources with those who do not do their fair share of work justifies using behavior which would otherwise violates one’s core values.
As soon as one justifies even a seemingly trivial violation of one’s core values it is not difficult to justify another violation of one’s core values.
Certainly, we all need to be open to examining all the so called “truths” we learned beginning at a very early age. At the same time, one may need to carefully consider what the next right thing/behavior is. For example, do we believe that it is important to:
Today I will endeavor to do the next right thing no matter what others are doing or not doing.
Written August 29, 2018
In the 12-step recovery program one often hears the reminder, “Just do the next right thing,” This is simple, clear advice is echoed by many religious group. On the surface, it should be easy to follow. Yet, many of us struggle to follow this advice. The reasons include:
- It seems natural to want to react when someone is stating something that appears to be untrue.
- It is natural to want to stop violence or some other behavior which one experiences as unfair or unjust.
- Immediate gratification can be very tempting.
Daily, it seems a political, business, religious leader or someone else in the United States or some other country, makes a threat or an assertion to which many of us want to react by correcting the individual, proving them wrong or somehow making them stop saying or doing what they are doing. Perhaps the most common example is wanting to punish someone or some group because they have been hurtful to others. This is how wars start and continue. It does not matter whether the war is between countries, political groups, colleagues or family members. Once one allows themselves to get drawn into a “war” one is likely to engage in behavior which is not consistent with one’s beliefs/moral values, Yet, as humans who really do want to engage in moral/ethical behavior one will find some way of justifying one’s behavior.
Dr. Robert Jay Lifton in his book The Nazi Doctors details how health care professionals under the rule of Hitler ended up behaving in ways which violated many of their professional and personal ethical/moral values. Yet, they then found a way to justify their actions. One of the most egregious examples was when doctors justified signing death certificates in the camps which killed people in the gas chambers. The doctors justified their behavior by saying that killing off certain groups of people was like amputating a diseased limb from an individual. In this way, the doctors could say that they were still behaving in a way which was consistent with the Hippocratic oath.
Many religious people convince themselves that preventing a particular behavior such as abortion, same sex behavior or sharing resources with those who do not do their fair share of work justifies using behavior which would otherwise violates one’s core values.
As soon as one justifies even a seemingly trivial violation of one’s core values it is not difficult to justify another violation of one’s core values.
Certainly, we all need to be open to examining all the so called “truths” we learned beginning at a very early age. At the same time, one may need to carefully consider what the next right thing/behavior is. For example, do we believe that it is important to:
- Treat all people with respect no matter how they behave.
- Honor the fact of mental illness and other diseases which affect how the brain processes information and makes decisions.
- Distinguish between punishment and accountability.
- Refrain from name calling or other negative labels of others.
- Pay everyone a living wage – a wage which prevents being food, home, utility or health care challenged.
- Love our enemies as ourselves.
- Treat “the least of these” with love and respect.
- Refrain from torturing others.
- Model non-violence – physical, spiritual, emotional, and financial.
Today I will endeavor to do the next right thing no matter what others are doing or not doing.
Written August 29, 2018
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