A Little Good News on the Ethics Front

The Josephson Institute of Ethics does a survey of American middle school and high school students every two years. They ask questions about ethical behaviors and, for a decade, the results kept getting more and more depressing. From 1992 to 2002, the Ethics of American Youth surveys found high schoolers getting worse about cheating, stealing, and lying. In the 2004 survey, however, there was a marked turnaround. Confirming that the 2004 results were not a fluke, the 2006 survey showed the trend to better behavior continuing. In 2002, 74% of high schoolers admitted cheating on a test within the last year. By 2006, the percentage of cheaters was down to 60%. 38% admitted having shoplifted at least once in the past year in 2002. In 2006, only 28% had shoplifted. 93% had lied to their parents in 2002; in 2006 that number dropped to 81%. 2008 results are not available yet; it will be interesting to see if these positive trends continue.

No one should celebrate that more than 80% of high school kids admit lying to their parents or that 6 out of 10 cheated and almost 3 out of 10 shoplifted. These stats are a case of being better, but not yet good.

Christian teens have to understand that they are called by the Lord to rise above the moral standards of the world around them. It is not enough to behave as well as everybody else. Your job is to let your light shine to the people around you who are living in the world of darkness. Leading others in the right way begins by doing right yourselves.

For more information about the survey, go to http://tinyurl.com/teenethics

Note:
The above article was written for my church bulletin this week. It isn't the article I started out to write, but I like to report stories that offer a glimpse of optimism that things are getting better. I was reading last night in Bill O'Reilly's 2003 book, Who's Looking Out for You? He cited the 2002 Josephson statistics as evidence for the decline in values in American culture. Just before introducing the Josephson statistics, O'Reilly commented, "But America is paying a heavy price for letting the good times roll, a price seen most vividly in the behavior of children and especially public high school students."

Before writing the article I had planned, I thought to check the Josephson Institute's web site to see if updated statistics were available. It was a pleasant surprise to see that 2004 and 2006 results from the biennial surveys showed a definite improvement in several character markers among U. S. high schoolers.

I think Mr. O'Reilly's basic point is still valid. Our culture does continue in moral decline, and that decline is evident in the behavior of high schoolers as well as just about every other element of society. However, it is delightful to find an occasional ray of sunshine amidst all the doom and gloom. Hopefully, the Josephson survey results from 2004 and 2006 are not an aberration, but instead are the beginning of a trend toward better character in America's youth. Historically, things like this tend to run in cycles and it is high time the cycle started turning around toward an increase of morality and virtue in the lives of the American people.

If It Ain't Broke . . . .

I bought some deodorant at Costco a few days ago. At wholesale clubs like Costco and Sam's Club, you don't buy just one of anything. Most things are quality in those stores, but everything is quantity. In the particular package of five Gillette deodorant sticks that I purchased, I got a free Fusion razor. I'd seen advertising for this new razor product, but had not paid much attention. Yesterday morning, I needed the new deodorant so opened the package. I decided to shave with the new razor and was surprised to find it had no fewer than five shaving edges on the razor head. I had heard another company advertise a razor with four blades, but had never tried that either. It really amazed me that somebody thinks a man needs five blades at one time to get his face shaved.

My shaving connection with Gillette goes back a long time. I bought an Atra razor, if I remember correctly, back in the 1970s. It had two blades and a swivel head. In my opinion, it was definitely a change for the better over the single stationary blade common before that time. Then maybe ten or twelve years ago, I changed to a Gillette Sensor razor . . . still two blades, swivel head, but it was an improvement because the shave was smoother and the blades lasted longer.

Two or three years ago, I made a startling discovery. I have a fairly heavy beard and had been troubled by the having beard particles clog the spaces around the blade edges. In time this made me have to throw away the blades before they had become dull. It occurred to me that leaving the razor head soaking in water might dissolve the buildup. Not only did that work, but I discovered that blades kept in water last much longer than otherwise. I'm probably revealing a secret that Gillette doesn't want men to know . . . but it really does work. I've gone as long as three months getting good shaves daily from one Sensor Excel razor head.

I have given all this history to demonstrate that I'm not one of those guys who has his set routines from which he will never vary. Invent a better mousetrap and I'll join the crowd beating a path to your door.

However, in this case, I'm not ready to jump on the Fusion bandwagon, if there is such a thing. The wider five-blade head forces you to shave at a different angle and makes some parts of your face difficult to reach. Plus the overall shave was nowhere near as good as what I was used to getting with the Sensor Excel blades. Gillette, you already have a great product. We don't need five blades to shave our faces. Leave well enough alone. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If you've read this blog before, you know that we are not geared toward reviewing consumer products. Most of the time there is a "lesson" to be learned from the bytes of everyday life experiences that I usually share here. Today's entry is no different:

In Acts 17, the apostle Paul traveled alone to the Greek capital, Athens. After he encountered various people in the city, he concluded that both the Athenians and foreigners who lived there "spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing" (Acts 17:21, KJV). If it was new, they were interested in it.

That view has not gone away over the centuries. We still have people who are infatuated with change for change's sake. I visited a church once and got to talking to the minister. He told me that they "made a deliberate effort" to do things completely differently in their worship assembly from one Sunday to the next.

It's a good thing to avoid getting oneself into a rut . . . either in our personal lives or in the life of the church. We need to be open to different ideas and methods as long as those ideas and methods are in harmony with God's will. However, just because something is new and different does not mean it is better.

We don't need to be afraid of change. Neither do we need to be enamored with change. Let everything be scrutinized carefully. If what we are doing now is better, don't change it just to be different. If a new way offers advantages over the old, then by all means, let's be willing to give it a try.

I think that is good strategy . . . whether we're talking about which razor to use . . . or how to carry out the work of the church.

Friday Groaner

I am a lover of puns . . . some of them pretty atrocious.

For example, did you hear about the training being given to physicians so they will be better able to prescribe pain pills for tourists and others en route from one place to another? Yeah, the program is designed to aid transit dental medication.

On that note, happy a good weekend!

First Opinions

Sharing a few opinions on this and that today --

I've talked about comics in this space before. Today I think I'm through with reading Lyn Johnston's For Better or For Worse. It is a dying strip with Johnston running out of steam and she nears her planned retirement. I read comics for the humor, or at least for some kind of thought that brightens my day. Those moments have been rare in FBOFW lately. Today's blatant endorsement of homosexual marriage is a final straw for me. If I want liberal politics in my comics, I'll read Doonesbury. (If the link leads to the a different FBOFW comic, look for the August 6 strip).

Last week, we had out-of-state family visiting. It was their first time in the Northwest and we wanted to show them around the area. One day we drove as far as the highway goes up Mount Baker. We saw fantastic mountain scenery and lots of snow -- even on the first day of August. You can see some of our pictures here.

It was a little past noon as we drove back down the mountain so we began looking for some place to eat lunch. In the small town of Glacier, we found a roadside restaurant which looked promising. The food was acceptable and the prices were not too far from being reasonable. However, the menu made me wonder about the owner's marketing savvy. Like McDonald's or Burger King, it was self-serve as far as water and soft drinks. No problem there, except that apparently large tips were still expected since the menu noted that a 20% gratuity would be added for parties of six or more. Luckily, we had only five in our little group. Then the menu noted that in order to provide speedy delivery of food, no changes in the food order were permitted. Burger King might let you 'have it your way,' but this place wasn't buying into that idea. "You eat it the way we serve it, or you don't eat it at all" was the message I was getting from their menu. Finally, the menu declared that only one check would be presented at each table and the patrons would have to make their own arrangements about sharing costs since the cashier was so busy she could not take time to separate orders at the cash register.

In other words, this particular restaurant seemed to be going out of its way to be customer-unfriendly. Unless the owner is a grump by natural disposition, it makes me wonder. Does this place have so much business that it needed to discourage customers in order to provide good service? There are places where that might be necessary, but it didn't seem to be so in this little rural restaurant. There were several other patrons for lunch that day, but the place was not exceedingly busy. There was no wait for a table and several other tables were available. And this is the height of western Washington's very short summer season. It is doubtful they are much busier at any other time.

After thinking about it for a while, I think I have figured out what was going on. The management of that restaurant apparently is made up of people with the kind of personalities that value following a system more than they do pleasing people. It's efficient to serve the same dishes to all customers regardless of what they want. It's efficient to have customers get their own drinks. It's efficient (for the cashier and server) to make customers split the tab on their own. Clearly this place was run by people who were more concerned about making things easier for themselves than they were about pleasing their patrons.

Now what application does this have to leadership in the church? I think I see some lessons.

1. Unlike this restaurant, some churches are too intent on pleasing the "customer." We might forget that it is Christ's church, not ours. Likewise, it does not belong to those who visit and who might be prospects for membership if we can just do the right things to attract them. Church leaders should want to be sensitive to the needs and desires of both members and visitors, but things need to be kept in perspective. The most important thing is pleasing the Lord. His will is revealed to us in the Bible and our top priority must be to do what He wants us to do.

2. However, while recognizing what I have just said about pleasing God ahead of pleasing people, we need to be careful that we don't fall into the same trap that the management of that little roadside restaurant. If we start valuing our own systems and structures more than we value people, we are in trouble. Responding to what people want may make extra work for us. Changing incidental things to accommodate others requires change, and some people just don't like to change things.

We need to be careful about the unspoken message we send out to those who come our way. That restaurant conveyed a message to me that I was not as important as their system of doing things in the way that pleased them. The result of getting that message is that if I'm ever traveling that way again at mealtime, I'm likely to try the restaurant across the highway instead of stopping there again.

If people visit our church services and go away with the same message -- people here don't really care about me -- they are probably going to look for somewhere else to worship next time.

The old "JOY bus" slogan expresses my point very well. Put Jesus first -- always. But put Others second. Finally, put Yourself last.