To: Lane3 who wrote (10702 ) 4/7/2001 5:44:46 PM From: Greg or e Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 82486 Then they turn around, and in the next breath, attempt to make themselves somehow exempt from the very same standards, they fully expect, even demand, of others. "Greg, I went back and read it again and I did not see this message anywhere. the message I got was that they don't want a set of rules handed to them by some authority figure but rather to shop for a set of rules that works in real life. That's not the same as expecting a higher standard from others than one does from oneself. " Perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but I think the article rather clearly implies what I said, even if it is not explicitly stated. Here are a few examples. "In their effort to find balance in all things, they forgive to get on with life but do not forget wrongs done to them and do not relativize away acts they consider evil ." Unless, of course they are the ones involved in such acts As were the examples of the homosexual couple, the adulterous husband, and the bored housewife, wanting to spread her wings, by dumping her family. In that case they are likely to engage in "redefining God to suit their own tastes and inclinations" "Without firm moral instruction, Americans approach the virtues gingerly. They recognize their importance but reinvent their meaning to make sense of the situations in which they find themselves." By redefining God, and reinventing the meaning of "Evil" whenever and wherever it happens to be desirable, they are in essence saying, Morality is alright as long as it does not interfere with my personal choices. I thought it was pretty clear. However in doing that they sacrifice the ability to pronounce any acts, committed by others as ever being truly "Evil". The personal freedom they demand for themselves, cannot be denied to others. What is relative sauce for the goose must surly be relative sauce for the gander. There is one word that adequately describes a society that adopts this schizophrenic, view of individualized morality, while naively clinging to the notion that some things truly are absolutely wrong. That word is LOST