that he could boast but rather: tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom, that ye “I may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow men, ye are only in the service of your God.” King Benjamin recognizes the tension between the need to be humble about one’s own contributions to society while at the same time acknowledging society’s need for positive role models. In several years of chairing the annual Pittsburgh Business Ethics Awards program, a program to provide recognition to Pittsburgh area companies who showed a high level of ethics, I often approached excellent companies who would not allow themselves to be nominated because they wanted no recognition for their efforts. While this desire for anonymity is absolutely understandable and virtuous, sometimes I could convince them that the need for positive role models was also absolutely crucial to the education of my students, and also virtuous. We also find a similar tension in Christ’s admonition to someone to strike one’s left cheek after they have stricken your right cheek, but then we see Christ throw the money-changers out of the temple. Sometimes it is critical to be meek and lowly, and at other times to be assertive. Just as ethicists acknowledge the various bases upon which to make ethical decisions, we find the same bases contained within the scriptures. The ethical framework of deontology (that some acts are inherently wrong) is easily illustrated with the Ten Commandments and their prohibition against killing. But then we read in the Book of Nephi when Nephi is commanded to kill Laban that is better that one man should “it perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief” which is a very
that he could boast but rather: “I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow men, ye are only in the service of your God.” King Benjamin recognizes the tension between the need to be humble about one’s own contributions to society while at the same time acknowledging society’s need for positive role models. In several years of chairing the annual Pittsburgh Business Ethics Awards program, a program to provide recognition to Pittsburgh area companies who showed a high level of ethics, I often approached excellent companies who would not allow themselves to be nominated because they wanted no recognition for their efforts. While this desire for anonymity is absolutely understandable and virtuous, sometimes I could convince them that the need for positive role models was also absolutely crucial to the education of my students, and also virtuous. We also find a similar tension in Christ’s admonition to someone to strike one’s left cheek after they have stricken your right cheek, but then we see Christ throw the money-changers out of the temple. Sometimes it is critical to be meek and lowly, and at other times to be assertive. Just as ethicists acknowledge the various bases upon which to make ethical decisions, we find the same bases contained within the scriptures. The ethical framework of deontology (that some acts are inherently wrong) is easily illustrated with the Ten Commandments and their prohibition against killing. But then we read in the Book of Nephi when Nephi is commanded to kill Laban that “it is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief” which is a very
mortal_ministry.docx