{"id":56139,"date":"2019-11-24T18:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T00:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=56139"},"modified":"2022-11-24T18:34:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T00:34:51","slug":"an-example-of-values-clarification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/an-example-of-values-clarification\/","title":{"rendered":"An Example of Values Clarification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\tby Wayne S. Walker\n\nBack in 1985, a Trans-World flight from Athens, Greece, to Beirut, Lebanon was hijacked by a group of radical Muslims occurred. This event remained on the minds of many people for quite some time afterward. The majority of United States citizens, as well as those of all civilized, freedom-loving nations, denounce such an act as cruel, barbaric, inhumane, and unjust. However, are you aware that this despicable and horrendous deed can easily be justified by a process that is currently being taught in most of the public schools of our land? That process is known as “values clarification.”\nThe basic presupposition of this theory is that values are, in and of themselves, neither right nor wrong, that each individual must decide for himself, based only on the criteria of his own needs and wishes, what is best for him under any given circumstances. This underlying concept is called “ethical relativism” [also known as “situation ethics”]. Although it may not be overtly stated, it is nevertheless embedded in the presentation of values clarification, at least as presently practiced. But is it true? The Beirut hijackers felt that their needs in that particular situation dictated the action that they took. Yet, who will come forward to condone these criminals and defend their decision?\nIn order to arrive at his values, the student is taught to follow seven steps. The first is to choose freely [without relying on what parents, religion, or any other outside source says]. The Muslim fanatics evidently did this. They were not forced. Next, one must choose from alternatives. They obviously looked at all the options and concluded that the one they took offered the best hope for gaining their goals. Then, the student is told to consider the consequence of his choice [not necessarily how it affects others but how it affects the student himself]. The consequence of the hijackers’ choice was either to achieve their objective if they succeeded, or go directly and immediately to paradise if they failed and were killed. They had little motivation to exercise inhibition whatever happened.\nThe fourth step is to prize one’s choice, which was most surely done in this case. Step number five is to affirm publicly the choice. This they accomplished quite satisfactorily via television and other media. Sixth, one should act on the choice, and the hijackers certainly did this by stealing the plane and holding the hostages. Finally, the student is to incorporate the choice into a pattern of life by acting repeatedly on it. A casual look at the news will reveal that this is definitely true with Muslim radicals — in Lebanon, Iran, and all over the Middle East. This is what they had chosen. Therefore, it must be all right for them!\nThus, you can see that the steps of values clarification may be used to arrive at justifying almost any type of behavior an individual might choose — cheating, lying, stealing, fornication, adultery, even murder — if the conditions are right. Many teachers of values clarification may deny this conclusion. However, other proponents openly admit it. The original promoters of values clarification had as their avowed intent to turn our society into a godless, amoral, subjectivist culture [under the guise of teaching “critical thinking”], and they appear to be succeeding. They are after our young people. Parents, be aware of what your children are learning in school and oppose “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God<\/i>” (II Corinthians 10:5).\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Wayne S. Walker Back in 1985, a Trans-World flight from Athens, Greece, to Beirut, Lebanon was hijacked by a group of radical Muslims occurred. This event remained on the minds of many people for quite some time afterward. The majority of United States citizens, as well as those of all civilized, freedom-loving nations, denounce…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-56139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-morality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24914,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-there-be-any-virtue\/","url_meta":{"origin":56139,"position":0},"title":"If There Be Any Virtue","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 7:14-25 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the educational fads is \u201cvalues clarification\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Government run schools have a problem. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is good for society to have morally good citizens, but the whole concept of morality assumes a standard of right and wrong that is greater than mankind.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43149,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-appreciate-the-clarification-of-the-purpose-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":56139,"position":1},"title":"I appreciate the clarification of the purpose of the church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I appreciated your clarification of the purpose of the Lord's church on your home page. So many are turned off by the fact that we don't, as a congregation, give handouts to everyone who stops by. They are shocked that we don't have a gym or youth group entertainment.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69140,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/passed-values\/","url_meta":{"origin":56139,"position":2},"title":"Passed Values","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Families with strong value systems tend to pass those values on to succeeding generations. So do families with poor value systems. It's not the only reason, but it's one reason why you see some families stuck in poor cycles (poverty, alcoholism, etc) and others navigating life more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61093,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-it-is-necessary-to-teach-children-godly-values\/","url_meta":{"origin":56139,"position":3},"title":"Why It Is Necessary to Teach Children Godly Values","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Unknown Children, without teaching and training, do not know about true values, especially godly ones. They depend on their parents to teach them what is valuable or not, right and wrong, truth and error, good and bad. Left alone, kids have a slim chance of becoming knowledgeable about such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82982,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/without-walls\/","url_meta":{"origin":56139,"position":4},"title":"Without Walls","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton A city or country without walls is vulnerable to destruction. Jerusalem was an easy target for invaders until the walls were built. Walls protected the city. It was foolish to rebuild the city in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and not have the walls in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43792,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/foundational-terms\/","url_meta":{"origin":56139,"position":5},"title":"Foundational Terms","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"The process of conceptual clarification always begins with ordinary usage of the concept to be clarified, so our conception of the truth ought to sound a lot like what you already believe the truth to be.\" (Dolores G. Morris, Believing Philosophy, p. 50). That quote captures one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/lego-300x196.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}