Moral Courage

Quality of the month for June

The dictionaries have much to say about courage but little or nothing directly about moral courage. Here is perhaps the most helpful starting point with regard to courage: "mental or moral strength enabling one to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty firmly and resolutely." One dictionary does deal with "the courage of one's convictions," calling it "the courage to do what one thinks is right." Perhaps we should understand moral courage as the strength that arises from one's conviction about what is right and that allows one to withstand fear and difficulty firmly.

The PCC Resources Work Group added this perspective: "The people who show moral courage find inner resources to do the right thing in spite of obstacles." The question, "What does it mean for you to be a morally courageous person?" drew this response from one PCC member:

"Moral courage to me means not letting down when my beliefs and stands on certain issues are challenged or ridiculed."

Said another PCC member:

"For me to be a morally courageous person means that I will speak up when people in the organization where I work do questionable things they think will help the organization for now but I think will harm it eventually."

A Worthington high school senior spoke candidly about the meaning of moral courage for herself:

"The high school years bring new freedoms to students. Along with driver licenses and after-school jobs come negative opportunities as well. The pressures of drugs and alcohol play an integral part in any high schooler's experiences. I am very proud that I stuck with my decisions to avoid these substances throughout high school despite the influences around me. . . . I have tried my best to communicate with my peers and younger students with hopes that they too can find the moral courage inside of them to make the choice to be drug-free."

Other voices from across the years have affirmed the abiding value of moral courage:

	Ralph Waldo Emerson:		"He serves all who dares to be true."
	Harriet Beecher Stowe:		"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
	Thomas Paine:		"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."
	John F. Kennedy:		"For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men...have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality."
	Douglas MacArthur:		"Last, but by no means least, courage – moral courage, the courage of one's convictions, the courage to see things through. The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the age-old struggle – the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other."
	Reinhold Niebuhr:		"O God, give us serenity to accept what cannot be changed, courage to change what should be changed, and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."

What does it mean for you to be a person of moral courage? Your family to be a morally courageous family? Your institution a morally courageous institution? Your community a morally courageous community?